If you are an established brand, you probably are well aware of the impact your brand positioning has on your business. This blog might interest you if you are an early-stage start-up or a large organisation launching a new product. Brand positioning is the cornerstone upon which an organisation’s reputation is built and greatly influences customers' perception of the organisation. We often hear about different approaches start-ups use to find the right product-market fit and the ideal positioning statement for their products. In this guide, we will dive into the details of brand positioning and the processes involved in creating a positioning statement that customers can relate to. Taking inspiration from some real-world examples and drawing actionable insights, this blog aims to enhance your knowledge about brand positioning and the strategies needed to thrive in a software-centric world.
Chapter 1 - Understanding Brand Positioning
Chapter 2 - Key Components of Brand Positioning
Chapter 3 - Crafting Your Positioning Statement
Chapter 4 - Real World Examples of Brand Positioning Excellence
Chapter 5 - Best Practices for Software Brand Positioning
Chapter 6 - Strategies for Effective Software Brand Positioning
Chapter 1: Understanding Brand Positioning
1.1 The Essence of Brand Positioning
Simply put, brand positioning is about defining what sets you apart from your competitors and communicating this message clearly and effectively to your target audience. When people talk about Apple products, they describe the design as a standout factor. Similarly, the automobile brand Toyota is famous for the durability of its engines that outlive generations or Amazon for its customer service.Brand Positioning is about creating a compelling narrative that resonates with customers and their pain points and forms an emotional connection. It is important to put yourself into the customers’ shoes while trying to discover the positioning statement of your brand.
1.2 Why Brand Positioning Matters in Software
The software industry is extremely competitive. New products are launched every day, and customer expectations are always high. Brand positioning, especially for new and early start-ups, is crucial in this domain to overcome the risk of drowning out in the crowd. Research has shown that companies with strong brand positioning enjoy higher customer retention rates, increased profitability, and a greater market share. Here’s a cool experiment, there are over 50+ CRM tools available in the market today. How many can you name beyond Salesforce, Hubspot, and Zoho?
1.3 The Evolution of Brand Positioning
The internet has certainly transformed how customers interact with brands as well as how brands engage with prospects and customers. Customers today are more informed and empowered than ever before, which makes brand positioning all the more important. In the internet era, brand positioning goes beyond traditional advertising; it is about engaging with customers on a deeper level and building meaningful relationships.
Chapter 2: Key Components of Brand Positioning
2.1 Identifying Your Target Audience
If you don’t know who to sell to, how will you understand what to say? Understanding your target audience is the foundation of a sound brand positioning plan. For software companies, extensive market research is a must to identify ideal customer profiles, including their pain points and demographics, in order to create a compelling positioning statement. Research reports, analyst calls, product review sites, websites like Reddit, Quora and LinkedIn are great places to find some validation with respect to the target market and audience.
2.2 Creating Your Value Proposition
What are the unique benefits or advantages that your brand or product offers? Anything from better performance, simplicity, and greater reliability, to some really important feature could be relevant as long as it resonates with a pain point your target audience has today. This is your value proposition - what appeals to buyers. Think about the simple yet powerful value propositions of the brands below:
Tesla: "Accelerating the World's Transition to Sustainable Energy" - focused on sustainability, innovation and environmental responsibility. By positioning itself as a leader in renewable energy solutions, Tesla attracts customers who are passionate about the environment.
Let’s take a few examples from the software domain.
Slack: "Where work happens" - Slack's value proposition is focused around simplifying communication and collaboration in the workplace. Slack attacts customers that want to avoid email overload and better collaboration among teams to improve productivity.
Adobe Creative Cloud: "Make anything you can imagine" - Adobe Creative Cloud's value proposition centres around creativity and innovation. By offering limitless design capabilities with creative tools and services such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro, Creative Cloud attracts artists, designers, and filmmakers as customers.
2.3 Brand or Product Differentiation
Differentiation is key to standing out from the competition. You need to have a competitive advantage through capability, pricing or some other important aspect. Competitive research is essential to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of your organization or product relative to other players in the market. By understanding what sets them apart and leveraging their unique strengths, you can position yourself more effectively and attract customers who are looking for exactly what they have to offer. Think about AirBnB as a great example. Homestays have been around for a long time. AirBnB transformed the discovery and booking process for homestays and made it so easy that it is today a world renowned brand.
2.4 Defining Your Brand Personality and Values
Quick exercise:What adjectives would you use to describe the following brands?
Apple
Slack
SpaceX
IBM
Microsoft
The adjectives you used in the above exercise closely represent the personality of these brands. For example, I picked ‘sophisticated’ and ‘elite’ for Apple and ‘revolutionary’ for SpaceX. Your brand personality and values are crucial in shaping consumer perceptions and preferences. Are you a fun and playful brand (Slack), or are you more serious and professional (Microsoft)? Are you innovative and cutting-edge (SpaceX), or are you reliable and trustworthy(IBM)? Defining your brand personality and values can help create a cohesive plan for a lasting brand identity.
Chapter 3: Crafting Your Positioning Statement
3.1 What is a Positioning Statement
A positioning statement is a short and precise summary of your brand’s position strategy. Simply put, it indicates where your product or brand fits in the market with respect to competition. A positioning statement aims to communicate who your target audience is clearly, what sets your brand or product apart from others, why customers should choose you, and what promises you will deliver. A well-crafted positioning statement serves as the north star for all internal teams, from sales to product to support and acts as the foundation for all marketing and communication efforts.
3.2 How to Craft Your Positioning Statement
While it sounds like an easy job on the surface, it requires careful thought and consideration.
Document the following:
Define your target audience
What are their pain points and needs
How are you solving them
Finally, make sure your positioning statement is authentic and believable and that it accurately reflects your brand's values and personality.
Chapter 4: Real-World Examples of Brand Positioning Excellence
4.1 Salesforce: Empowering Customer Success
Salesforce has positioned itself as a leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software by focusing on customer success and innovation. With a positioning statement that emphasizes its commitment to empowering businesses to achieve more, Salesforce has built a strong brand that resonates with its target audience.
4.2 Slack: Streamlining Collaboration
Slack is an essential tool for modern businesses seeking to streamline workflows and enhance productivity. Through a positioning statement highlighting its ability to bring teams together and simplify work, Slack has built a brand synonymous with efficiency and innovation.
4.3 Zoom: Connecting the World Virtually
Zoom positions itself as a trusted solution for businesses and individuals seeking virtual communication and collaboration. Their positioning statement emphasizes its ability to connect people virtually, which is exactly what is does. Today, Zoom is perhaps the first name you’d think of if we were talking of platforms for virtual meetings and events.
Chapter 5: Best Practices for Software Brand Positioning
5.1 Start Early
In the initial phases, finding the right positioning for your brand is a journey of continuous discovery. It is important to talk to beta users in the early days to collect feedback. Ask them questions like how would you describe our brand/product, what search terms would you use if you are looking for such a tool, etc. In fact, one great positioning advice I’d received from a senior colleague was - collect a list of all the terms your prospects and customers use to describe your company/product. That is a great place to start your positioning exercise. Engage with analysts and see what are the latest reports saying about your space. Read through reviews of your competitors to find common terms used to describe them. There’s a lot of information and research available online for you to analyse and eventually nail your brand positioning.
5.2 Optimize User Experience
Your brand should leave a lasting impression if it has to build recall. This means, positioning is not an occasional marketing activity. It has to reflect through every facet of the user journey. From product design to functionality to website to sales to support, your positioning is enhanced by the experience your user has at every touchpoint. Focus on ‘providing information’ and ‘helping’ instead of blatant ‘selling’.
5.3 Adapt Continuously
Technology is constantly changing and there are new competitors and products emerging every day. Until a few years ago, Blockchain was a really popular technology. In the recent years, we have been hearing a lot about AI and machine learning and large language models (LLMs). It is important for brands to keep up with relevant evolving technologies and modify their positioning accordingly to avoid the risk of becoming irrelevant.
5.4 Be Authentic
A colleague once joked at work, “Marketing is about lying about things but making sure those lies are believable.’’ While marketing is about ‘exaggerating the truth’, lying about things is simply bad marketing and certainly a bad positioning strategy that will cause deep damage in the long term. Being real and transparent with your users is a sign of trust and credibility. From acknowledging mistakes, sharing success stories to regular feedback conversations, authenticity is the hallmark of a customer-loved brand.
Chapter 6: Strategies for Effective Software Brand Positioning
6.1 Thought Leadership and Content Marketing
Since my initial days in product marketing I’ve been told that ‘Content is King.’ After over 8 years and several amazing experiences with content marketing, I totally second that opinion. Content marketing is definitely a winning strategy for any brand provided it is accompanied with consistent, high-quality, well-researched, SEO focused content pieces. When you know your domain quite well, thought leadership content can help position your brand as industry experts. People consult experts when it comes to making strategic business decisions and thought leadership content pieces serve as great sources of reference in such discussions. When people regard your brand’s thoughts as expert opinion, they are more likely to buy from you.
6.2 Third Party Platforms and Influencer Collaborations
Collaborating with third party platforms and industry influencers is another great way of establishing your brand and positioning among relevant audiences. However, it is important to audit the platforms you engage with in order to get maximum results. For example, if your brand or product caters to small and medium business, it might not be ideal to collaborate with an influencer or platform that covers enterprise software. This could be counter-productive. Similarly, an influencer who works with every vendor is not someone whose opinion people might take seriously. Partner with reputable organizations and influential individuals, that actually provide useful information.
6.3 Community Engagement
Nothing is more convincing than the opinion or review of another customer about a brand that helped them solve a problem you can completely relate to. That is the power of communities. People united by tools, culture or a shared interest for certain topics. The power of community in building your brand positioning and reputation cannot be overstated. Users love to hear from other users and they love to engage with the brands directly. Focusing on building a strong and active community by fostering meaningful relationships can help not only help in information exchange but also result in user-generated content, testimonials, referrals, reviews, and other positive outcomes.
6.4 Consistent Messaging and Communication
Find the right positioning statement that is relatable to customers and is true to brand values is a tedious task. Once this is accomplished, the message has to be used repeatedly and consistently across all channels and avenues internal as well as external. Every member of the team should be aware of the same messaging statements and value proposition. Consistent brand messaging in all forms of communication and published content ensures better brand recall over a period of time.
Brand positioning is a strategic imperative for brands that want to distinguish themselves in the market and better resonate with the target audience. I hope this blog explained the key principles, components, and best practices of brand positioning effectively. From target profile identification and a compelling value proposition to defining brand personality, every aspect of a brand positioning strategy plays a critical role in shaping consumer perceptions, driving customer engagement, and ultimately, driving business growth.