What’s your favorite position?

When it comes to marketing your product or service positioning is key to outsmarting the competition!

Few entrepreneurs think about positioning in when they hang up their shingle. Positioning is a vague and mysterious concept to many. Simply put — positioning is finding a hole or need in the market and filling it.

What a customer or prospect does is they will attribute a key word or phrase in their mind about your business and store it away. Then when they need those attributes — bingo — your product comes to mind and you have made a sale, makes sense?

What if you are in a “me too” business, like a dry cleaner, hair salon, restaurant — then what? You need to position yourself so you stand out from the competition. If you are not positioned differently in the mind of the customer you better buckle your seat belt because it is going to be a bumpy ride!

Here are a few suggestions you can follow to help you position yourself in the mind of the consumer. Remember this can apply to a new business as well as an existing business so if you have already opened your doors it ain’t to late to position yourself.

  1. List the brand you compete with on a very broad level. For example, if you’re a hair salon, include barber shops and nail salons too.
  2. Next to each competing brand on your list write down their position — who are they designed to serve and how do they differ from their competitors.
  3. You can plot this on a chart, for example, one axis can be for price and the other for quality — note these variables can vary. However – most importantly is to know who is out there and what position do they occupy in the mind of the customer.
  4. Review what niches are being filled and which ones are not and fill it! If you cannot find a niche then look at other variables and try again. If you cannot – you will have to go head-to-head with someone and that is a recipe for disaster.
  5. Describe your niche – in one phrase or less here are a few examples:
  • The most exclusive hair salon in town
  • The best customer service of any grocery store in the city
  • The lowest-priced shoe store
  • The restaurant with the best looking waitress

Do you see what I mean? You need to find a niche and own it! It doesn’t have to be anything scientific but it has to be something. Think about that phrase and practice until you know it and believe it. Share it with your team and get them to believe it and you have just accomplished the first hurdle in making your business stand out.