Question

Brand positioning is very important for companies. Positioning can be done at various levels. Assuming you work for BMW, can you propose ways to increase the value of BMW’s brand through various levels of positioning?

Answer 1

Brand positioning of BMW

Brand positioning is the process of positioning your brand in the mind of your customers. More than a tagline or a fancy logo, brand positioning is the strategy used to set your business apart from the rest.

A clear Brand Position enables you to efficiently and effectively communicate and reach your target audience. Every day, we’re bombarded with marketing and sales messages at every corner. Everyone is vying for your time and attention. In the midst of all this noise, your Brand Positioning breaks through the clutter by speaking directly to the people you intend to attract. Rather than shouting to an empty room or to a crowd who doesn't care about you, your brand is seen and heard clearly.

Sometimes, even when your value is known, your brand still needs price justification. Brand Positioning is where you've identified and compared your brand to the competition and their specific offering, which informs whether your price point is strategic and justified.

All in all, Brand Positioning is the singular most important part of building a brand by enabling you to identify where you fit in the sea of competition.

6 Steps to Create Your Own Brand Positioning Strategy:

Step 1: Determine your current brand positioning

Start by considering your target customer and defining who they are. Next, identify your mission, values, and what makes you different from the rest of the market. Finally, take stock of your value proposition and your current brand persona and brand voice.

Step 2: Determine your competition

After analysing yourself, it’s important to analyse your competition by performing competitor analysis. You’ll need to see who you’re up against to conduct competitor research. That research will help you decide what you can do better in your strategy to gain an edge.

There are different methods for determining your competition, including:

· Conducting market research: Ask your sales team what competitors come up during the sales process, or do a quick search using a market keyword and see which companies are listed.

· Use customer feedback: Ask your customers which businesses or products they were considering before choosing yours.

· Use social media: Several social media offers platform where consumers can ask questions about products and services. Search these forums to discover competitors in your niche.

Step 3: Conduct competitor research

Once you’ve determined who your competitors are, it’s time to conduct in-depth competitor research. You’ll need to analyse how your competition is positioning their brand in order to compete. At its simplest, your research should include:

· What products or services your competitor offer?

· What their strengths and weaknesses are?

· What marketing strategies they're using successfully?

· What their position is in the current market?

Step 4: Identify what makes your brand unique

Building a unique brand is all about identifying what makes you different and what works best for your business. "Start by defining what ‘effective’ really means for your brand and then build its image based on that."

Chances are, after you conduct competitor research, you’ll begin to see patterns. You’ll start to see some businesses that have the same strengths and weaknesses. As you compare your product or service to theirs, you might find one of their weaknesses is your strength.

This is what makes your brand unique; and it's the perfect starting point for positioning your brand in the market. Take note of your unique offerings as you compare, and dive deep to identify what you do better than anyone else.

Step 5: Create your positioning statement

It’s time to take what you’ve learned and create a brand positioning statement. According to The Cult Branding Company, “A positioning statement is a one- or two-sentence declaration that communicates your brand’s unique value to your customers in relation to your main competitors.”

There are four questions to answer before creating your positioning statement:

· Who is your target customer?

· What’s your product or service category?

· What’s the greatest benefit of your product or service?

· What’s the proof of that benefit?

From there, you can craft a simple but compelling positioning statement.

Step 6: Does your positioning statement work?

Taking the time to position your brand to appeal to a certain customer is just the beginning. Once your positioning statement is created, it’s time to test, experiment, and gather feedback from your customers on whether or not your positioning achieves its goal.

Marketers can position brands clearly in customers' mind at any of these three levels:

1. Product attributes (least effective)

2. Product benefits

3. Beliefs and values (taps into emotions)

At the lowest level, they can position the brand on product attributes. This is the least effective way as competitors can easily copy attributes and moreover, customers are not much interested in attributes, but rather on what those attributes would do for them.A brand can be better positioned by associating it's name with a desirable benefit.

The strongest brands are the ones which are positioned on strong beliefs and values.

Ways to increase the value of BMW’s brand through various levels of positioning:

1. Determine company uniqueness by comparing to competitors:

Compare and contrast differences between your company and competitors to identify opportunities. Focus on your strengths and how they can exploit these opportunities.

2. Identify current market position:

Identify your existing market position and how the new positioning will be beneficial in setting you apart from competitors.

3. Competitor positioning analysis:

Identify the conditions of the marketplace and the amount of influence each competitor can place on each other.

4. Develop a positioning strategy:

Through the preceding steps, you should achieve an understanding of what your company is, how your company is different from competitors, the conditions of the marketplace, opportunities in the marketplace, and how your company can position itself.

Conclusion :

Brand positioning is not only about making employees be aware for what exactly their products are, but also about how meaningful the brands are to consumers.

One way to measure or look at the brand positioning is through the emotional reflects of consumers when they see or hear the brands’ tagline. For example, the tagline for BMW is “The ultimate driving machine”. When customers see this, they feel powerful and trustworthy. Therefore, whenever consumers see BMW cars, they always get a sense of safety. BMW positions an effective brand in the market since the brand is well recognised by consumers and well defined by consumers. However, if BMW’s tagline is really plain and does not highlight its unique characteristic well, then it’s hard for consumers to have a deep and impressive impression after they see the cars or logos.

Brand positioning is important to analyse the factors like the brand name, the brand information, etc. Analysing the brand tagline is a hint as well.