Brand Positioning: Crafting a Unique Identity in a Crowded Market 

Humor us for a moment here, and pick any industry and any product. 

Chances are, the product/industry you chose has tens (if not hundreds) of competitors offering the same product for almost the exact same price point. 

So, how does every brand find its footing and get its own leads and sales?

The answer lies in effective brand positioning and how they leverage it to stand apart from the crowd. 

Brand positioning is the process of crafting a brand’s unique identity to make its mark and distinguish itself from its competitors. 

In this piece, we’ll learn about all the different ways you can position your brand and how to create a brand positioning strategy. We’ll also look at some examples of brands that have crafted their unique identities in crowded markets. 

So, let’s get started, shall we? 

What are the different types of brand positioning?  

You can position your brand to appeal to your target market in many ways (e.g., some brands use their product features to stand out, whereas others rely on their exceptional customer service). Having said that, here are the most successful brand positioning types: 

• Price-Based Positioning Strategy: With this strategy, brands stand out by offering the most affordable pricing. For example, while many grocery chains operate at similar price points, Aldi and Lidl are known for offering the most affordable options. 
• Value-Based Positioning Strategy: This strategy helps brands stand out by being the most perceived “value for money” option. For example, the Toyota Prius is well-known as a “value for money” car. 
• Emotion-Based Positioning Strategy: A brand stands out by having the same core values as its target market and can appeal to their emotions. For example, Ben & Jerry’s is known for its positive ideas and community advocacy.

• Benefit-Based Positioning Strategy: Through this, brands market themselves through the benefits they can provide if they adopt their product. For example, Head & Shoulders is known for its primary benefit, dandruff protection. 
• Quality-Based Positioning Strategy: This is when a brand positions itself as a market leader by offering the highest quality ingredients or processes. For example, luxury brands often differentiate themselves by focusing on quality craftsmanship and materials.
• Problem & Solution-Based Positioning Strategy: With this strategy, the brand tells its target customers, “Hey, we know you have this problem; here’s the solution.” For example, WeWork was one of the first co-working spaces for startups and businesses that wanted affordable office spaces and a community-based environment. 

How to create a brand positioning strategy? 

Step 1: Identify your current brand positioning and perception 

If you’ve been in the industry for some time, chances are, you already have a brand perception amongst your customer base, even if you haven’t tried to achieve it with a proper positioning statement. 

At this stage, experts recommend identifying your ideal customers and target demographic. Then, conduct research and surveys with them and discover their perceptions and associations of your brand. 

To be more strategic and accurate with your approach, you can also consider creating: 

• Buyer personas (to identify the attributes of your ideal customers); and
• Brand essence wheel or pyramid (like the image below). 

Step 2: Find your direct competitors and analyze your competitive differentiators

Next, find how your competitors market themselves and how customers perceive them. 

So, for that, you’ll need to first identify your direct competitors (these would be the brands offering the same or similar products/services as you in physical or online stores). 

To do competitor research, here are a few tips and tricks you can consider: 

• Being active in communities/events where your customers are present and finding out their perceptions
• Leveraging social media listening tools to see which brands your customers talk about and how they communicate with them
• Conducting research and surveys to find how your competitors fare against your brand
• Talking to customer-facing teams to identify how your current and potential customers talk about your competitors
• Doing competitor SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. 
• Using competitive intelligence tools like Unkover to find out their secrets. 

Step 3: Determine the key benefits that will improve customer experience 

At this stage, you’ll need to identify the key differentiators that set you apart from the competition and can become your true positioning benefits. 

For example, while factors like sustainability, exceptional customer support, and delivery speed may not be directly related to the way your product was built or can be operated, they can still become differentiating elements for your brand. 

Think of the end goal: What do I do that improves customer experience? 

It doesn’t matter whether your key differentiators are tangible or intangible, directly or indirectly associated with your product—as long as they improve customer experience, make it your USP (or a part of it). 

Step 4: Create a brand positioning statement 

Now that you know what your customer thinks of you and your competitors, along with what key differentiators set you apart, it’s time to create a strong brand positioning statement. 

Imagine your brand positioning statement is the “Objective and Mission” section from your resume, so it should ideally cover things like: 

• What are your brand’s core values, missions, and belief systems? 
• Which category and niche do you operate in? 
• Who are your current and future customers, and how do you plan to help them? 
• Which benefits and USPs can you offer, and how does it make you different? 
• How do you support or validate the points you’re making? 

For example, Spotify’s brand positioning statement could read something like this:

“For music lovers and audio content consumers, Spotify is the music streaming platform that offers unlimited access to millions of songs and podcasts because of its personalized recommendations and easy-to-use interface. We believe in making audio accessible to everyone, empowering users to discover, share, and enjoy content on their terms.”

To make things simpler, here’s a brand positioning statement template you can refer to: 

Step 5: Put to the test, get customer feedback, and analyze results 

If your positioning statement is ready, experts recommend using focus groups to get customer feedback on it before you unveil it to the general public and adopt it in your processes. 

Analyze audience reactions, identify if they think the statement matches brand perceptions (or could match it later down the line), and find out if it’s eliciting the desired reaction. 

If not, it’s perhaps time to tweak your brand positioning statement with the help of the customer feedback you’ve received. 

Step 6: Develop consistent messaging across various channels 

Suppose all goes well and your brand positioning statement is ready for the world—you’d have to adopt it systemically in your processes and develop consistent messaging about it throughout your sales and marketing channels. 

As a reference, you can educate your customer-facing teams (like sales and support) on how to interact with your customers, keeping the new brand positioning in mind. 

For example, if you’re leading with the quality-based positioning strategy, you can educate your teams about the way your products are developed with quality craftsmanship from start to begin, so they can further inform your customers about it. 
Some companies also lead with the competitor-based positioning approach, so they often have dedicated pages on their website to showcase how they stand out from the competition. For example, consider the comparison pages software companies often host.

Step 7: Monitor, evaluate, and refresh your positioning strategy 

Last but not least, we all know market trends, marketing strategies, and marketing messages change at the drop of a hat—that’s just the way the marketing realm works. 

Since your brand positioning statement also befalls under the “marketing” domain, it’s important to revisit it to see if it’s still resonating with your customers (if not, then the best course of action would be to refresh it!). 

Examples of brands with excellent brand positioning 

1. Dollar Shave Club

The Dollar Shave Club uses the problem and solution-based positioning strategy and caters to the demand for subscription-based razors directly to consumers at affordable prices. What truly makes them stand out is their humorous messaging, convenience, and value-for-money approach. 

2. Unkover 

Unkover relies on a benefit-based positioning strategy, where it tells customers from the get-go what it can do for them: Help uncover their competitors’ secrets (be it marketing, sales, product, or anything else.)

3. Duolingo 

Like the Dollar Shave Club, Duolingo also relies on a humorous approach to keeping its audience engaged (they also gamify their services, which increases their engagement levels to the next degree). Over the years, Duolingo has developed a devoted fan club and customer loyalty through universally accessible education. 

4. Zapier

Zapier again relies on the problem and solution-based positioning strategy and has developed a world-class product that automates the most repetitive tasks and encourages productivity. Zapier’s also well-known for its SEO strategy and human-first approach to communication. 

5. Cloudbeds

Cloudbeds sets itself apart from the competition by offering an all-in-one CRM for hotels and relying on storytelling to evoke emotions and generate loyalty (they often produce skits showcasing the challenges hoteliers face on a daily basis). 

Next steps 

While you get started with creating a brand positioning strategy, one of the very steps in your strategy would be to identify your key competitors and do competitor research—and that’s one area where Unkover can help you out. 

Through our competitive intelligence tool, you can uncover your competitors’ product, marketing, and sales secrets and get insights into how they manage to gain a competitive edge. 

If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, why not opt for a free 14-day trial?