The First Step in a Psychology-Proof Positioning Technique

Highly effective manufacturers have one commonality: super-sharp model positioning. 

Your model positioning is just the place your model occupies within the client’s mind.

After all, as a model, you need nothing greater than to occupy a outstanding and distinctive place within the mind that matches the shopper’s wants. With a stable positioning technique, you can also make that occur. However how do you begin such a positioning technique? And what ought to you consider whereas making a positioning technique? That’s precisely what we’ll focus on on this weblog. 

Model Positioning within the Mind

Merely put, model positioning is the place your model occupies within the mind of the goal buyer. In different phrases, what associations clients have along with your model. 

Model positioning is the try and affect this psychological place of the product, model or firm within the buyer’s mind.

You are able to do this by purposefully linking associations to your model within the client’s mind, thereby giving your model a singular place within the mind.

Step one for any robust positioning technique is to find out for which mixture of distinctive attributes you need to be identified relative to rivals.

In doing so, it’s important that the chosen associations additionally match the wants of the shopper; in any other case, your model positioning would get you nowhere as a model.

Take a beer model for example. You possibly can place a beer model as wholesome beer, filled with botanicals and antioxidants. And when you can truly seize these associations as a model, this could be wasted effort just because the shopper won’t be ready for a wholesome beer in any respect.

Why is a positioning technique essential?

First, robust positioning ensures that extra individuals are extra doubtless to consider your model in shopping for conditions. Consequently, you’ll promote extra, and you’ll develop as a model, in response to Byron Sharp’s analysis which he describes in his e-book How Manufacturers Develop.

A profitable positioning technique succeeds in capturing that coveted spot within the client’s mind by rising the variety of constructive and distinctive associations along with your model.

We are able to additionally flip it round. If you do not have a robust positioning technique, for instance since you select the mistaken associations or since you fail to tie the chosen associations strongly to the model, you’ll lose out to the manufacturers that did conquer a bigger psychological availability with distinctive associations within the shopper’s mind.

And naturally, you’d moderately keep away from that.

Nonetheless, there’s an additional benefit for you as a marketer. In any case, a transparent model positioning additionally makes your job as a marketer lots simpler.

You possibly can consider a model positioning as a strategic lighthouse. As soon as you recognize what your model is about and what associations you need to affiliate along with your model, it turns into a lot simpler to handle the model as a marketer.

Or in different phrases, if you do not know the place of your model, each single advertising combine choice is tough. There’ll at all times be professionals and cons, there’ll at all times be the explanation why one choice is best than the others, and there’ll at all times be uncertainty round selections.

When you’ve got a transparent positioning, that may inform choice making, permitting many choices to be made for you. You merely observe the positioning.

Subsequently, a advertising supervisor with profitable positioning expertise has a neater and extra profitable life.

The First Step to a Profitable Positioning Technique

So a profitable positioning technique ensures market success and model progress. However how do you outline such a method? The place do you begin?

The primary and most essential step in making a profitable positioning technique is the baseline measurement. In different phrases: taking a look at the place you at the moment are as a model, in addition to the place your rivals at the moment are.

Positioning analysis provides you perception into the place your model occupies within the client’s thoughts in comparison with different manufacturers.

With that, positioning analysis provides you solutions to essential questions resembling;

• What’s our model’s place available in the market?
• How can our model stand out from the competitors?

Positioning analysis: Commonest strategies

Figuring out the positioning of your model in relation to different manufacturers is finished by means of positioning analysis.

The 2 commonest strategies for positioning analysis are conventional on-line questionnaires and neuromarketing strategies.

Conventional questionnaires usually use open-ended questions to seek out out what associations clients or potential clients have with a selected model.

Typically the questionnaire consists of gadgets resembling “What do you assume are constructive factors of brand name X?” or “What do you consider once you consider model X?”. Closed-ended questions resembling “To what extent do you affiliate model X with attribute 1?” are additionally widespread.

Whereas a majority of these questions offer you fairly a little bit of perception into your model’s model positioning, there’s a disadvantage to conventional strategies.

If you consciously ask the respondent on this method, they begin considering unrealistically deeply about how they see your model. The result’s a rational response.

That is good in some instances, however in lots of instances it nonetheless provides a distorted image of how the (potential) buyer truly thinks about your model. Certainly, it seems that individuals don’t assume rationally and consciously more often than not, however usually make selections – resembling buying selections – on autopilot.

Let’s begin with the fundamentals, by taking a look at how manufacturers are saved in our reminiscence.

Our Reminiscence: An Associative Community

To know how manufacturers are saved in our mind, we should first have a transparent understanding of how our reminiscence works.

It is because our reminiscence consists of 1 gigantic community of ideas related to one another, additionally referred to as an associative community. Manufacturers are due to this fact nothing however an affiliation community within the client’s mind.

If one piece of knowledge within the community is triggered, then different ideas within the community routinely grow to be lively as nicely. The nearer the associations are, the extra doubtless they’re to grow to be lively.

This strategy of triggering and activating ideas is essentially unconscious. As people, we even have little or no affect over it. However what data is triggered and activated does have an effect on our decisions.

As a result of customers themselves don’t have any affect on the formation and activation of associations, there’s usually a discrepancy between individuals’s conduct and what they consciously assume or need.

Conventional questionnaires seize solely the aware a part of our mind, however ignore the unconscious half. On this method, you usually don’t get hold of a whole image about model positioning with conventional analysis.

Exactly for that reason, neuromarketing analysis has garnered a lot recognition in recent times.

Positioning analysis with neuromarketing: How does it work?

At Unravel, we use neuromarketing strategies to analysis model picture and positioning. 

Neuromarketing strategies to model imaging and positioning have in widespread that respondents classify mixtures of manufacturers and attributes beneath time strain.

These strategies are based mostly on the truth that individuals make selections by means of two totally different thought techniques: system 1 and system 2. System 1 is quick, intuitive and emotional, whereas system 2 is slower, extra rationalistic and extra logical.

As a result of response time strategies drive the respondent to select rapidly, that unconscious a part of the selection course of is measured. Not solely does the time strain end in a extra intuitive response from the respondent, however response time in itself incorporates beneficial data.

Certainly, response time seems to be significant in relation to the power of an affiliation: the stronger we affiliate one thing with one another (e.g., McDonalds and Scrumptious), the quicker we will course of these ideas concurrently.

Response time strategies such because the Implicit Affiliation Take a look at (IAT) and Intuitive Response Take a look at (IRT) measure this response velocity.

Wish to learn extra about Positioning Analysis? Check out Unravel’s Model Picture and Positioning Analysis.

Positioning Analysis with Neuromarketing: Functions

You may apply positioning analysis in a number of methods. Let’s focus on the commonest functions first. 

Uncovering buyer wants. 

First, you should utilize neuro positioning analysis to map out which associations are related inside a sure product class, with a view to uncover what you possibly can greatest place your self on as a model.

By additionally measuring how rivals rating on these associations, you actually uncover on which dimensions there’s nonetheless “fallow floor” on which to stake a model.

Evaluating meant with precise positioning

Second, you should utilize neuro positioning analysis to map out whether or not your model positioning is consistent with how your meant model positioning is.

You may as well map the identical traits to your rivals. That method, you acquire perception into the distinctiveness of your model.

You are able to do this as soon as or repeatedly, testing the success of your positioning technique by testing whether or not your technique triggers the meant associations.

Determine the drivers from non-customer to buyer

You may as well use positioning analysis to seek out out what the important thing drivers are for changing potential clients into clients.

To analyze that, you measure not solely the associations current clients have, but in addition these non-customers have. That method, you get perception into a very powerful associations to transform somebody from non-customer to buyer.

As well as, you possibly can unravel how totally different attributes are associated to key advertising KPIs.

Neuromarketing positioning analysis thus provides course to your positioning technique by offering perception into which traits and associations have probably the most potential to positively affect focused KPIs resembling buy intention, NPS or willingness to pay.