Have you ever ever questioned how traditional manufacturers like Coca-Cola and Walt Disney remained profitable all these years? The reply lies of their model positioning assertion. These manufacturers knew what they stood for and will talk it clearly to their workers, suppliers, and prospects.
What’s a positioning assertion, and how are you going to successfully craft one? Let’s dive into the main points.
What’s a Positioning Assertion?
A positioning assertion describes your services or products and explains how they meet the wants of your goal market. It ought to state your distinctive worth and model id, in addition to the way you need your model to be perceived by your prospects and opponents.
It’s usually an inside personal doc not meant for public information as a result of it highlights your key differentiators and aggressive benefits. The positioning assertion can be designed to assist your advertising and marketing staff align their campaigns with the corporate’s model and worth proposition.
Why a Positioning Assertion Issues
With so many choices on the market, consumers need to know what they’re getting earlier than absolutely committing to a purchase order. When you have got a transparent positioning assertion, prospects will perceive your enterprise at first look.
A positioning assertion additionally makes it simpler for advertising and marketing groups to create impactful campaigns that obtain their targets. You may cut back the dangers of failed campaigns as a result of your staff may have a transparent imaginative and prescient of your model and may precisely convey it.
Each time the advertising and marketing staff launches any on-brand expertise, it can resonate with the supposed market main to raised gross sales and decrease prices. Your services or products will stand out from a sea of opponents as a result of it’s clear what makes you completely different and why they need to select your model.
Key Parts of a Positioning Assertion
When crafting a positioning assertion, it’s important to perceive the important thing components it ought to cowl. Defining every factor will show you how to create a transparent assertion that gained’t depart any doubt as to its interpretation.
Listed below are the essential components of a positioning assertion:
Goal Market: Who you serve
Understanding your target market will show you how to create purchaser personas that outline their motivations for buying your services or products. Determine their demographic, psychographic, or behavioral traits and uncover their ache factors and challenges.
Understanding what motivates them to make use of your answer will show you how to outline the end result or expertise they count on. Having a deep information of your target market will guarantee an in depth and clear positioning assertion, that doesn’t have imprecise particulars that are open to interpretations.
Our product is tailor-made for tech-savvy millennials who search comfort and sustainability of their every day lives.
The instance above clearly states that the goal prospects are millennials who know how one can use know-how and worth comfort. From the assertion, it’s already clear who the product serves and the appropriate strategy to achieve them.
Model Promise: What worth you provide
When you already know your prospects, you’ll be able to clearly articulate the issue you’re fixing for them. This will even show you how to exhibit how your services or products solves this drawback.
Reply the query: What drawback does your product resolve, or what want does it fulfill for patrons? The reply is the first profit or worth proposition of your answer.
We provide an eco-friendly meal supply service that gives nutritious, chef-prepared meals delivered proper to the doorstep, saving you time and decreasing your carbon footprint.
Within the above instance, it’s clear that you just provide a meal supply service that’s eco-friendly, nutritious, and ready by cooks. It targets prospects who’re eco-conscious and closely favor sustainable efforts.
USP: The way you place your provide
Your positioning assertion ought to clearly outline your distinctive promoting proposition (USP). Lead with the advantages of your services or products moderately than the options. Patrons resonate with the end result of a suggestion (advantages) moderately than the way it achieves them (options).
Reply the query: How would you like your target market to understand your product or model?
We place ourselves because the premium alternative for health-conscious people who prioritize each high quality and sustainability of their meals decisions.
Just like earlier examples, the assertion above emphasizes high quality and sustainability because the USP of the meal supply answer. When aligned along with your advertising and marketing efforts, potential prospects are instantly conscious of the advantages of your services or products.
Model Goal: Why you are in enterprise
It’s additionally necessary to speak the underlying mission or objective behind the model. Staff and prospects alike rally behind a model whose objective is one thing they assist and imagine in.
Your worth proposition ought to reply the query: What drives your organization past monetary acquire? The next assertion exhibits that the model is working in direction of a much bigger purpose of a more healthy planet. It’s the driving pressure for creating handy and environmentally accountable alternate options.
We’re dedicated to revolutionizing the meals business by providing a handy and environmentally accountable different to conventional meal preparation, finally contributing to a more healthy planet.
Differentiator: What makes you completely different from the competitors
Researching your opponents will show you how to establish how one can place your model available in the market. Don’t cease at opponents providing the identical items and companies. As a substitute, analysis firms that supply different options to the identical target market.
Your positioning assertion ought to have the ability to reply the query: What makes your product or model stand out available in the market? Within the instance under, the service is differentiated by regionally grown, natural substances packed in biodegradable supplies.
In contrast to different meal supply companies, we supply regionally grown, natural substances and bundle our meals in biodegradable supplies, making certain each freshness and sustainability.
When defining the worth of your provide, provide you with 3-5 core differentiators that set you aside from the competitors. The mixture of those key differentiators will show you how to present a novel answer that different manufacturers can’t simply copy.
Positioning Assertion vs. Mission Assertion
It’s typical to confuse a positioning assertion with a mission assertion. In any case, they seem to offer the identical issues once you first learn them. Nonetheless, a mission assertion is a small part of a positioning assertion. The mission assertion solutions the “why” of a enterprise, whereas a positioning assertion contains the “what, why, and the way.”
Mission statements are additionally public-facing. Most manufacturers publish them on their web sites, brochures, and different advertising and marketing supplies. They’re crafted so prospects can know why the enterprise operates.
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Solutions the “what, why, and the way” of the enterprise |
Solutions the “why” of the enterprise |
Worth Proposition vs. Positioning Assertion
The worth proposition is one other time period usually confused with a positioning assertion. A positioning assertion has a broader scope than a price proposition, and it’s often crafted after you’ve outlined your model’s worth proposition.
The worth proposition defines how your services or products is completely different from different options. It identifies your main buyer and offers an outline of the advantages your model delivers. In the meantime, the positioning assertion incorporates the worth proposition with the mission assertion. The worth proposition is the “what and the way,” whereas the mission assertion is the “why.” When mixed, they type the positioning assertion.
Crafting a Positioning Assertion
Now that you already know what a positioning assertion is and the way it differs from a mission and a price proposition, it’s time to craft one. When writing your positioning assertion, outline the weather described above. You should utilize the next information questions that can assist you.
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Utilizing the questions above as your place to begin, you’ll be able to comply with these steps to write down your positioning assertion:
1. Brainstorm concepts.
Put aside a devoted and centered time to brainstorm solutions to the questions above and let the concepts movement naturally with none filters. As your staff comes up with solutions, pay attention to the ideas that excite you.
Brainstorming is a artistic course of that can show you how to provide you with the uncooked supplies to construct your positioning assertion. Because the staff shares concepts, you’ll establish a sample that your viewers will even resonate with.
In case you want additional inspiration, you’ll be able to create a imaginative and prescient board that incorporates pictures that characterize your prospects and the setting the place they’re utilizing your services or products. You may examine these footage to know your prospects’ feelings, traits, and actions.
You too can draw inspiration from related manufacturers, together with your opponents. Don’t copy their statements, however observe how they crafted their messages.
2. Create detailed buyer personas.
Positioning statements might not be public-facing, however they’re customer-focused. Your prospects have to be on the coronary heart of your assertion, and as your model evolves, it should at all times stay devoted to serving their wants and needs.
Be as detailed as potential in figuring out your viewers’s ache factors, attributes, motivations, and preferences. You may create buyer segments that can show you how to additional refine your messaging.
3. Reduce out pointless phrases and be concise.
Positioning statements aren’t long-winded paperwork that span a number of pages. They’re clear and concise statements that assist readers rapidly grasp the essence of your model. Ideally, it needs to be 3 to five sentences most.
Take away any repetitive phrases and deal with translating advanced concepts into easier phrases. Focus on just a few rigorously chosen however impactful phrases that ship a robust assertion. Evaluation your assertion from the eyes of a first-time reader and guarantee it captures their consideration.
4. Combine your distinctive enterprise qualities.
Spotlight the qualities that make your model stand out to your prospects. Replicate on your enterprise values and convictions that humanize your model, and ensure these qualities are prominently featured in your assertion.
Be cautious of utilizing the identical phrases and traits as different model manufacturers. The market is usually saturated, and also you need one thing distinctive and memorable. Because the market evolves, always revisit these qualities and enhance on them so your positioning adapts to altering buyer calls for.
5. Try for transparency and authenticity.
At the moment’s shoppers demand manufacturers to be genuine and clear. Typically, your quirks and imperfections set you aside from others and make your model extra relatable, so don’t be afraid to be weak and sincere about your model’s areas for enchancment.
Transparency creates buyer loyalty by constructing belief and enhancing your model’s fame. Keep away from making guarantees you’ll be able to’t maintain in your assertion as a result of this may frustrate your staff and mislead your prospects.
Positioning Assertion Template
Right here’s a simple positioning assertion template that works for any enterprise:
For [customer], [brand name] is the [brand category] that [unique value proposition], not like [competition]. We [brand promise] as a result of we imagine [brand purpose]. Our [points of differentiation] units us aside from [competition].
Placing the assertion into observe, right here’s an instance for a clothes model.
“For [environmentally-conscious consumers], [EcoChic Fashion] is the [sustainable clothing brand that offers stylish and eco-friendly apparel], not like [fast fashion retailers]. We [prioritize transparency and ethical practices] as a result of we [believe in creating a more sustainable fashion industry]. Our [use of organic materials, fair labor practices, and transparent supply chains] units us aside from [other clothing brands].”
Manufacturers are distinctive and you could want a unique format to convey your positioning, relying in your targets. Nonetheless, the format above is a generic template that captures all of the important components of a positioning assertion.
You too can use a persona-based strategy on your positioning doc, which defines a number of buyer personas and addresses their particular wants and preferences.
16 Positioning Assertion Examples
To raised perceive how a positioning assertion works and to present you inspiration on how one can draft yours, listed here are 16 examples of positioning statements from among the greatest world manufacturers. We’ve dissected their statements that can assist you outline your individual messaging components.
Since positioning statements are inside paperwork, these statements had been curated from the manufacturers’ web sites and public statements.
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Nike is well-known for offering sturdy, fashionable, and revolutionary athletic put on. They had been one of many first manufacturers to launch an NFT and embrace rising channels just like the metaverse.
Why it really works:
Nike’s positioning assertion is complete but concise and immediately identifies the goal buyer. It’s a textbook instance of a positioning assertion answering who (athletes), what (Nike), why (top-performing), and the way (high-quality supplies). It communicates a simple and centered model promise that additionally units it aside from the competitors.
All through its historical past, Apple has proven that it understands its prospects carefully and is aware of the values they cherish. That features the most recent cutting-edge merchandise with a constructive carbon footprint.
Why it really works:
Apple defines what it affords to prospects (one of the best computing machine) and emphasizes its model promise (dedication to utilizing the most recent tech analysis to create essentially the most revolutionary merchandise). We’ve seen this within the lovely and cutting-edge merchandise that Apple affords—from the iPhone and MacBook to Apple Watches and now the Imaginative and prescient Professional.
Have you ever ever questioned how the 137-year-old model Coca-Cola nonetheless thrives regardless of quite a few controversies involving sodas? Coca-Cola enjoys a constructive model fame as a result of the corporate is evident on its model positioning.
Why it really works:
Coca-Cola focuses on making a constructive buyer expertise that they carefully affiliate with consuming one in every of their refreshing drinks. You may see this throughout their advertising and marketing communications, which emphasize happiness, making a constructive distinction, sustainability, and constructing sturdy relationships.
Let’s have a look at one other in style drink model that has taken the world by storm. With over 38,000 Starbucks shops globally, you’ll be able to argue that this firm, recognized for its specialty espresso and tea drinks is a worldwide phenomenon penetrating each tradition.
Starbucks’ mission assertion has developed all through its 20-year historical past, and the most recent reads:
Why it really works:
Whereas technically a mission assertion, the sentence additionally encapsulates Starbucks’ model positioning. The corporate is evident on what it affords prospects—a cup of espresso or tea and a nice dialog. The purpose can be clear: to create a human connection. We are able to see this in how Starbucks baristas (referred to as companions) deal with their prospects and within the firm’s dedication to top-notch product high quality.
Tesla is thought for its dedication to sustainability and is credited for introducing premium electrical autos available in the market. They aim center to upper-class shoppers who’re environmentally conscious and on the lookout for a strategy to cut back their environmental influence.
Why it really works:
The assertion is evident on Tesla’s model promise—construct a sustainable planet. They point out how they’ll fulfill this promise through the use of solar-powered batteries utilized in electrical autos and different power era and storage merchandise. Whereas the goal market isn’t explicitly talked about, it’s clear that the model targets shoppers who’re taken with sustainable practices for a greater world.
The Walt Disney Firm is a multinational conglomerate that operates a variety of companies from theme parks to film manufacturing. It has a single purpose: to make folks blissful.
Why it really works:
Disney continues to seize markets of all ages worldwide as a result of they meet a common want: being blissful. That is on the core of every little thing that they do, and by being absolutely dedicated to delivering this model promise, they discover all avenues, together with the most recent technological improvements.
Airbnb revolutionized the hospitality business when it launched its reserving platform, which empowers people to develop into hosts and lease their properties to vacationers. Since its inception, the corporate has remained revolutionary with its revolutionary options like Experiences, Metropolis Portal, Emergency Stays, and AirCover.
Why it really works:
Airbnb stays true to its product—a reserving web site with expanded options to meet the promise of giving vacationers distinctive experiences worldwide. Their differentiator can be clear: They provide the most important number of various, top-rated, and personalised locations to remain. You may expertise this once you go to their web site and see how one can ebook every little thing from a fortress in Germany to a treehouse in Bali, Indonesia.
You may’t point out on-line purchasing right now with out eager about Amazon. The corporate has established itself as the first vacation spot for every little thing you want, together with quirky gadgets you didn’t know you wanted.
Why it really works:
Amazon units itself aside by promising customers a variety of merchandise delivered rapidly. By having a whole bunch of product classes and introducing Amazon Prime (with 2-day delivery), the model fulfills its promise. Amazon can be clear on what differentiates it from the competitors—a ardour for innovation and dedication to operations excellence. You may see this with Alexa and Echo, two gadgets that give customers a extra personalised expertise.
McDonald’s is one other revolutionary model that has stood the check of time. It modified the meals business when it was established within the Forties because of its quick and reasonably priced means of serving high quality meals.
Why it really works:
The positioning assertion emphasizes McDonald’s key differentiators of providing a fast, pleasant, and constant service. No matter which McDonald’s outlet you go to, you’ll discover nearly the identical menu and retailer aesthetics.
In a world that has come to embrace distant and hybrid work, Slack has develop into an important device for enterprise communication. It’s an environment friendly answer to unravel the shortcomings of ineffective e mail communications.
Why it really works:
Slack’s positioning assertion emphasizes its function as a productiveness platform meant to assist customers successfully join with one another. It describes the way it achieves this promise utilizing no-code automation, fast search and information sharing, and fixed staff connection. Its web site provides an extended model that comes with Slack’s mission to “make folks’s working lives easier.”
Spotify modified the music business when it launched its music streaming app in 2008. The innovation gave tens of millions of individuals entry to a freemium service the place they’ll take heed to various music and the place artists can publish their music.
Why it really works:
Spotify’s model assertion discloses its mission of unlocking human creativity after which proceeds to explain the way it will obtain it. It additionally mentions the 2 goal audiences (artists and followers) and what they’ll get from the platform (publish and take heed to music).
Everybody acknowledges Volvo for creating secure vehicles. The model produced among the most iconic automotive fashions since 1927 and is credited for introducing the three-point security belt, an invention that saves tens of millions of lives.
Why it really works:
Volvo is pleased with its security heritage, and this exhibits in its positioning assertion the place they promise to be a model for individuals who care about others and the planet. This additionally displays of their transfer to create absolutely electrical and hybrid vehicles, with a dedication to rethink sustainability of their operations.
Streaming motion pictures and TV exhibits had been nearly remarkable earlier than Netflix made it in style within the late 2000s. Netflix has developed from a model renting DVDs to a manufacturing home creating unique motion pictures and exhibits. It leads the pack in streaming companies, streaming in over 30 languages to 190 international locations.
Why it really works:
Netflix’s model promise is evident—it needs to entertain the world. The positioning assertion declares how they are going to accomplish this by giving customers entry to one of the best TV collection, documentaries, movies, and video games. From DVDs to on-demand streaming, Netflix fulfills this promise. And whereas there are various on-demand streaming companies right now, Netflix differentiates itself from opponents by giving members management of what they watch with a easy subscription.
Similar to Spotify and Netflix, Uber modified a whole business when it first launched. Born on a snowy night when the founders couldn’t get a taxi, Uber began as a experience hailing app that has since grown to delivering meals, connecting freight shippers, and offering non-emergency medical transportation.
Why it really works:
Uber is evident that they’re a tech firm whose mission is to attach the bodily and digital worlds to deal with motion challenges. They accomplish this with an app that makes transportation choices accessible for everybody. This readability and focus assist them establish wants within the transportation sector and supply digital options like Uber Eats and Uber Well being to deal with them.
The Dove model is likely one of the most traditional advertising and marketing examples of how positioning can alter the market’s notion of a product. Initially, Dove’s positioning was created to distinguish itself from the competitors. As a bar of cleaning soap, it wanted a strategy to stand out, so it focused ladies and positioned itself as a moisturizing cleaning soap. A long time later, Dove nonetheless targets ladies (and women) however now focuses on a unique positioning—the idea of actual magnificence.
Why it really works:
Dove affords not solely bar soaps however a complete vary of important magnificence and cleaning merchandise. It additionally realizes that the wants of its main goal market (ladies) have modified. From having a product-centric positioning, it moved to a customer-centric positioning, as mirrored in its positioning assertion.
This new positioning continues to achieve success with Dove’s Actual Magnificence advertising and marketing marketing campaign, which has garnered shopper consciousness and loyalty for over a decade. They’ve additionally created the Vanity Venture to assist teenage women address the true idea of magnificence.
Our final instance on this listing is a small-to-medium enterprise with a stable model that is aware of its positioning available in the market. Thrive Market is an e-commerce platform that brings collectively completely different natural manufacturers and makes use of sustainable practices to ship orders to prospects. Their model positioning assertion is brief, clear, and full.
Why it really works:
Thrive Market is aware of what it affords (membership-based purchasing) and what makes it completely different (highest-quality, wholesome, and sustainable merchandise). The assertion highlights the model’s values of affordability, way of life, and accessibility.
Ultimate Ideas
Writing a model positioning assertion is only one piece of the puzzle for constructing a robust model. When you’ve nailed down your assertion, you must also spend money on creating compelling visible branding that captures the essence of your model. Artistic advertising and marketing businesses will show you how to rework your statements into impactful visible guides.
Do not forget that instances change, and a positioning assertion isn’t set in stone. Revisit it now and again and consider if it nonetheless displays your enterprise’ provide and worth, in addition to your prospects’ wants and needs. By always refining your assertion, you’ll have a tried-and-tested information to creating fascinating shopper experiences.
Incessantly Requested Questions
What is an efficient model positioning assertion?
A superb model positioning assertion successfully communicates the services or products’s distinctive worth proposition, target market, and differentiation. It’s a transparent and concise assertion that’s memorable and captures the essence of the enterprise.
What are the 5 positioning statements?
There are 5 sorts of positioning statements which can be generally utilized by companies:
- Profit-based Positioning: That is the commonest sort because it focuses on the first profit or worth proposition to the principle target market. Slack’s positioning assertion clearly outlines the advantages of utilizing its product.
- Value-driven Positioning: Value is a main motivator for many consumers. In case your model’s foremost differentiator is price (both affordability or being a luxurious merchandise), then clearly embody that in your positioning assertion. One instance of this sort is Netflix’s positioning assertion, which emphasizes that customers can take pleasure in the advantages with a easy subscription.
- Drawback-based Positioning: Addresses a selected ache level or buyer problem and describes how the model gives an answer. In its model positioning assertion, Amazon identifies the wants of its goal prospects and describes the way it solves this problem.
- Competitor-based Positioning: Highlights how the model differs from competitors by outlining its core differentiators. Airbnb’s positioning assertion clearly describes what makes it completely different from different reserving websites.
- Utilization-based Positioning: Describes how the model’s product or companies can be consumed by the target market. For instance, Spotify’s model assertion describes how artists and followers will profit from the platform.
What is an efficient instance of positioning?
Dove’s advertising and marketing journey is a good instance of positioning because the model was capable of stand out from different bar soaps whose main perform was cleaning. It was capable of carve a spot for its product available in the market, which has since been dubbed the Dove impact. By realizing the actual wants of its goal market (ladies of all ages), Dove was capable of transfer from a product-centric to a customer-centric positioning that continues to stay related and purposeful.
What’s the format for a positioning assertion?
Ideally, a positioning assertion ought to have the next components:
- Audience
- Distinctive promoting proposition (USP)
- Model objective
- Model promise
- Differentiating issue
Concerning the Creator
Author
Geri Mileva, an skilled IP community engineer and distinguished author at Influencer Advertising and marketing Hub, specializes within the realms of the Creator Financial system, AI, blockchain, and the Metaverse. Her articles, featured in The Huffington Submit, Ravishly, and varied different revered newspapers and magazines, provide in-depth evaluation and insights into these cutting-edge know-how domains. Geri’s technological background enriches her writing, offering a novel perspective that bridges advanced technical ideas with accessible, partaking content material for various audiences.
