As a small business owner in Minneapolis, staying on top of all the various branding strategies, recommendations, and “must-do” aspects of marketing can seem like a never-ending challenge. While there are some marketing and branding tasks that can be bypassed for small businesses, brand positioning is one that is critical to your short and long term business success.
Brand positioning is all about creating a distinctive message about your brand that is going to hold a position in the mind of your target audience. This means that when your customer thinks of a particular product or service, your brand immediately pops into their mind. Brand positioning is not the same as brand loyalty, but the two are related when managed correctly.
Not Promoting the Product or Service
The critical mistake for many small businesses is to assume that brand positioning, which is also known as a positioning strategy or sometimes as a brand strategy, is the same as promoting their product or service. In fact, brand positioning is internal, and the customer is not likely to ever see or know the stated strategy. What they may see is your product or service tagline.
Separates Your Company from Others
There are hundreds of different businesses selling similar products. By developing a positioning statement, you focus on what makes your company different and better for your customers to do business with. This is a difference, and it is one that makes your company stand out in the crowd.
Taps into Positive Emotions
No matter what people purchase, from basic household goods to luxury vehicles, home, and high-end electronics, the purchases are made with an emotional component. By developing a position strategy in the mind of your customers, you are a known, trusted, and familiar business.
For a small Minneapolis business, that sense of connecting with the values of customers allows for competition with big companies that are often seen as cold, difficult, and uncaring about the needs of their consumers.
