Strategic Positioning: how to do it and examples of success

The concept of strategic positioning is critically important, to say the least, for companies in all industries and of all sizes.

On this field choice, every business strategy depends. In fact, it is the key decision through which a brand differentiates itself from competitors.

A positioned brand targets only a narrow but specific niche audience: one that has the characteristics of the potential customer and therefore may be genuinely interested in buying.

But positioned what does that mean? A brand is positioned relative to the competition, but also relative to the target audience. This means that it focuses on a few people and offers targeted products or services.

Assuming that we cannot please everyone, it is better to focus energies and investments toward those who can appreciate our offerings.

It allows us to increase sales and avoid wasting time and money to people who are not on target.

Strategic positioning definition

Strategic positioning is a fundamental concept in marketing and business strategy that indicates the unique and distinctive position that a company, product, or service occupies in the minds of consumers relative to competitors.

In essence, it is the answer to the question, “Why should a customer choose my product/service over another’s?”

Key elements of strategic positioning:

Uniqueness: The offering must clearly and convincingly stand out from the competition.
Relevance: The benefits offered must be perceived as important and attractive by the target audience.
Consistency: All elements of the marketing mix (product, price, distribution, communication) must support and reinforce the chosen position.
Sustainability: Positioning must be defensible over time and resistant to the actions of competitors.

Why is strategic corporate positioning important?

Positioning in the market allows us to identify an unsaturated space where our business can thrive and become a point of reference for the public.

When I talk about strategic positioning I often give this example.

If there are 10 wedding dress stores in an area and they all sell the same dresses (competing products), the only parameter to compete is price.

But if you open a store that sells exclusively red wedding dresses, you will have in your clientele all the brides in the area who want a red wedding dress, and also those from outside the area, or perhaps from all over Italy.

Yours will be a specialty store with great appeal to all potential target customers, who will know that they are sure to find their red wedding dress from you.

So it is important for a company to find its position and specialize to compete, even if it means excluding a large segment of people.

Differentiating on price in the long run leads to a race to the bottom, forcing cuts in quality.

The right positioning, on the other hand, is one that allows us to offer products and services specifically targeted to a market segment, perfectly in line with our business model.

If we target a smaller but interested audience, we can also deploy more focused marketing and communication strategies, with less expense and a greater return on investment.

Therefore, with a good positioning strategy, we have less unqualified audience, but more target audience and can increase sales.

How to define your company’s strategic positioning

Usually defining a positioning strategy for one’s business involves several activities and figures within the company:

Market and Competitor Analysis: Study competitors, consumer needs and market trends.
Defining the target audience (Buyer Persona): Identify the market segment you are targeting.
Defining the value proposition and choosing distinctive attributes: Select the elements that make the offer unique and relevant.
Effective communication: Clearly and consistently convey corporate positioning through all communication channels.
Monitoring and Adaptation: Constantly check the effectiveness of the positioning and make any changes based on the results obtained and the evolution of the market.

To define strategic positioning therefore we must first examine the market and analyze competitors, perhaps even resorting to positioning maps.

This benchmarking activity allows us to understand what product or service they offer their customers, what their niche is, how they are positioned, etc.

Most importantly, it allows us to identify the free space we can occupy, turning it into our competitive position.

Of course, we should not choose corporate positioning by exclusion, in the market interstices vacated by competitors.

A SWOT analysis can also help us understand what our strengths are and how to exploit them.

Another important element is to know potential customers. From this point of view, the tool of the Buyer Personas.

We imagine fictitious potential customers and attribute to them all the demographic, cultural, emotional, technological, etc. characteristics that our ideal customer would have.

By knowing the people we are targeting well, we can understand their needs and offer services and products that they really need and that, perhaps, are not yet available from competitors.

Therefore, in order to be able to penetrate the target market and achieve good positioning, it is important to offer something that the competition is currently unable to offer.

This can refer to several factors such as quality, innovation, customer service, price, and so on. The differentiator is what will help the company stand out.

At this point in strategic planning, it is critical to clarify the value the company offers its customers and the tangible and intangible benefits that will result.

From the positioning strategy, then, must descend all marketing strategies.

Knowing who we are targeting, what our unique value is, and why people should choose us specifically is what we need to build an effective marketing strategy and increase sales.

Strategic positioning example

To best understand how to set up this strategy, let’s look together at some examples of strategic positioning.

Rummo pasta has emerged as the most popular premium pasta in Italy. To celebrate the success, the company launched a communication campaign with very simple copy: the premium pasta most loved by Italians.

The copy has been criticized for being unoriginal. Yet it communicates the company’s positioning well and makes the match with the payoff of the pasta packages “Slow processing,” which is precisely one of the features most valued by consumers.

The pasta maker knows that it is only and exclusively targeting potential customers willing to spend more, for a pasta made by a traditional method and for a high-end product.

A second famous example is Red Bull.

The quintessential energy drink, it conspicuously targets people who have active lives, espouses crazy endeavors, and promises to put aaals on those who drink a can.

The copy is one of the most famous and enduring in history. The packaging is colorful and energetic, and Red Bull is now the sponsor par excellence of incredible, somewhat crazy sporting events. Not surprisingly, it even supported Felix Baumgartner’s famous jump from the Stratosphere: a 39,000-meter flight to break the speed of sound.

In conclusion, excellent strategic positioning can greatly affect the success of a product, service or company, so every entrepreneur should know its techniques and secrets to achieve his or her business goals.

Russell Crowe explains, in his own way, the strategic positioning

Have you seen the movie “A Beautiful Mind” with Russell Crowe?

In a famous scene in the movie, he and his friends want to try to pick up five beautiful girls.

Basically it says that if everyone hits on the blonde, no one brings home the result (I should have been told this rule when I was young … capers 😅) but if everyone focuses on one woman …….

I don’t want to spoil the surprise… If you haven’t seen the movie or don’t remember the scene watch it now…

It is based on J. Nash’s “Dominant Dynamics Theory and Equilibrium.”

I hope you are not thinking…

Now Cremonesi, but what does this have to do with business? you are wasting my time….

Just give me one more minute and let’s see together, why strategic positioning marketing allows you to win in the market.

Imagine that five companies offer their products to the entire market. Indistinctly.

P.s. the sad news is that there are not only five companies but dozens and dozens of them. It is enough to go to a supermarket, look at a shelf of any product to see how many brands exist.

We said, five companies, exactly as the five friends in the bar are about to do.

As you saw in the movie, everyone wants to go for the blonde, she is the prettiest in the group.

In doing so she will find herself five opportunities. She will probably decide on one of these opportunities, or, as is often the case in business, she will choose none of them.

Why? Because they all, most likely, present themselves in the same way. They make the same jokes. Basically, it is difficult to perceive the differences.

Strategic Positioning: Let’s adopt John Nash’s strategy and bring it to the business.

Instead, let us adopt John Nash’s strategy and bring it to business.

We go to the market, not trying to tap the whole market, but focusing only on a small part of it.

If I want to talk to a particular person, our target audience, I have to know everything about them.

I need to know what tastes, habits and preference he has.

So I have to inform myself. I have to ask questions. I have to find out that the little blonde girl in the movie, she likes mature, distinctly dressed, nice, well-educated men.

In parallel, in business, I have to figure out what is the emotional lever that convinces my target audience to buy my product.

A sale is primarily based on emotion, not logic.

if implementing a positioning marketing strategy, remember that sales are generated mainly by emotions

Otherwise, it would not explain why, so many women, are willing to set aside months part of their salary, in order to buy themselves a Louis Vuitton.
They do it because of what Louis Vuitton represents.
Simple, not because of how it is made or the type of skin.
Simply because of the emotion that is triggered by wearing a Louis Vuitton.

The goal of this article is not to explain in detail how to set up your strategy, but why it is essential to do so.

I have devoted so many articles to this topic and an entire section of the website.

I consider this strategy fundamental and successful. Differentiating from competitors means, winning over competitors.

Strategic Positioning: how to implement your Strategy

It is not who is better that wins, but who is different!

I report step by step, what the basic elements are:

(a) Define which market niche to be in.

It means first of all looking into one’s own company. What are the products that:

Do they work better?
Do we sell more?
Do they have the best margins?
Can we increase production without impacting the organization?

When you’ve selected these products, you have to give up the others.
You have to take them out of the catalog, the website, and communication in general.
“The other products” only burn marginality.
If you’re thinking that every now and then you sell some, here…. let it go.
The other products simply de-focus you.

(b) Define target and market

By market I mean where you want to operate territorially.
One of the many advantages of the focus strategy is that you talk to a small number of people.
So you can focus in a small market and conquer it.
Then move to the neighboring market and conquer that as well.

By Target I mean which people you want to target.
Obviously it depends on the kind of product you want to sell.

Ideally, we should first define the target audience and then make the product that meets the needs of that target audience.

We know that by now you have those products and need to sell them, so let’s identify your ideal target audience.

(c) Implement the right market positioning strategy.

Do you remember what we said before?

The blonde girl in the film likes mature, distinctly dressed, nice men with good culture.

So we have to become exactly that.

From a business perspective, once we have identified our potential target audience, all communication must speak its language.

We must respond to every question and need in a professional and competent manner.

Why?

Because we are the specialists in that product and industry.

This is the simple magic that makes you win in the market.

Strategic Positioning: Become a specialist in a niche and immediately become its leader.

What Factory Communication does

Factory Communication doesn’t make you jump from the stratosphere, but it can help your business identify strategic business positioning to differentiate itself from the competition and win in the marketplace.

It accompanies you through the whole process of strategic positioning analysis

, costruzione delle buyer persona, posizionamento strategico e nella costruzione di una campagna di marketing e comunicazione efficace e mirata.

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