How To Position Your Product (And Own A Place In The Consumers Mind)

Depending on who you talk to, positioning is a marketing phrase that has many different meanings to many different marketers. I define positioning as how the customer maps your product in their minds versus comparable products that are available to them.

Let me explain this further.

In the car market (now bear in mind I m in Australia so some of these brands may or may not be familiar to you but I ll do my best to be universal), let s map out in our minds how the positioning might look.

Status symbol/luxury: Mercedes Benz/Lexus Serious Driver: BMW Serious sport: Porsche Safety: Volvo Family: Holden or Ford (6 cylinder) Affordable: Toyota Affordable European: Volkswagen Cheap: Hyundai Hoon: Anything with holes cut in its bonnet, big mag wheels and noisy mufflers. (Suburu's seem popular amongst this group.)

You start to get the idea?

Of course, it s not quite as simplistic as this map. We can add other variables to create a position for ourselves. Those variables might include gender, age, location, personal aspirations, budget and so on.

For example, in Australia women like to drive a hatchback (like a VW Golf), since it s easy to load shopping in the boot (or trunk if you re in America).

So the Volkwagen Golf's positioning could potentially be:

Affordable European for women that shop

Let's also look at how easy it is to damage your positioning and to illustrate, I'm going to use one of my favourite current examples, McDonalds.

What is McDonalds to the average person? Well it used to be a hamburger place; and that's how we all saw it in our minds. This was very powerful for McDonalds because hamburgers were a popular takeout food and McDonalds was the first large scale hamburger joint and "owned" the position in our minds. When you thought hamburgers - you thought McDonalds.

The marketing department of McDonalds reinforced this perception to us too - through television and other media. We got it - and we attributed McDonalds with the ownership of "hamburgers".

It was powerful because consumers don't like to think too much about anything - and when you are powerful like McDonalds and "own" the spot in the consumers mind, you make it easy for the consumer. They just know what you do and you become the place to go.

Here in Australia, McDonalds is changing itself - one would think in response to the growing negative perceptions of the quality of the food and general community concerns about obesity.

So it has recently released "deli rolls". But hey, says the consumer, isn't that Subway? And it has chicken nuggets on the menu. Hey, isn't that KFC? And some of their outlets have a McCafe selling coffees and muffins. Hey, isn't that Starbucks?

So once, where McDonalds held a very clear position in the mind of the consumer it is trying to be all things to all people and the first rule when it comes to branding is that you cannot be all things to all people - you will fail.

To ask the consumer to think about your brand and to ask them to make quantum leap shifts in their perceptions of your brand (so carefully nurtured by you over all those years) is a huge ask. From the hamburger place to the everything place; from a kids place to a place for grownups; from a "junk" food perception to telling us they are healthy? McDonalds is in serious trouble. Its consumers aren't going to get this.

The three steps to create and communicate a position.

1. First think about your product attributes. When you are creating positioning for your product, you need to start by think through the attributes of the product (car attributes include safety, durability, speed, comfort and so on).

The best way to identify what is the most important attribute is to ask questions of potential buyers. What do customers think of your product? What is the most important attribute to them? What would compel or persuade them to buy your product over an alternative?

(If you are looking to advertise or promote your product, you might also ask them where they look for information about those products, and what language do they use when talking about them.)

2. Choose the attribute that s best for your product. The rules are that if you are the first product to market in your category, you can have a choice of owning any attribute which you can position your product against, and you would want to choose the most important attribute relating to that product.

But, if you are not the first product in the category, different rules apply.

The rule of the follower is to do the opposite of the leader in order to provide the consumer with a genuine alternative. (Think black MP3 versus White i-Pod).

It s a very rare opportunity that you can copy your competitors and win.

3. Now tell the world Finally, having a position is half the battle. The other half is how to communicate that position with consumers.

All brands/products must have a personality. The elements of a personality include its name, packaging, price, its advertising and what it does and where it is bought. Its personality ultimately becomes its image.

Once chosen, every element of your brand needs to be consistent with your chosen image. Don t have an old fashioned logo on a modern product; don t use boring packaging on an exciting product and so on.

Everything must be consistent (and stay that way) so avoid the temptation of changing your brand image regularly you ll only confuse your customers.

As you roll out any promotional activities, every piece of promotion should reinforce this brand image. If it doesn t, it shouldn t be released or approved by you.

If you are the first in the product category, your positioning should include a leadership statement. "The world's first (whatever) for (whoever)" "Fastest Growing (whatever)" "The biggest supplier of (whatever)" "America's No. 1 choice for (whoever)".

Stay tuned for more business articles or check out my bio at www.fionamackenzie.com.au

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