The position of your product in the market is determined by how well you recognize the consumer’s needs and how to help them solve an existing problem.

If you’re an entrepreneur and have been unsuccessful so far, you might have asked yourself this very question several times. But what is it that leads to being successful? I would love to tell you that it’s easy and two things matter – the product itself and how well it performs for the target customer. But no, it’s not that simple.

To compete successfully with other merchants on the market, you must first understand what your rivals are doing and, if they have one, their marketing plan. In other words, you need to see through their marketing strategy, which requires detailed knowledge about them as entrepreneurs, business owners, or even consumers.

What is Product Positioning?

Product positioning is how your product fits into the marketplace. Product positioning can be done through competitive analysis, brand positioning, target audience, price point, etc. There are many ways to approach this, but we’ll start with defining product positioning.

 – Competitive Analysis: What products do your customers buy? How does yours compare to them? Are they better than yours? Worse? Can you boost your performance upon what you’re already doing? These questions help define the position of your product in the market.

 – Brand Positioning: People who hear your name know what you sell. You have built a strong brand identity, so make sure that’s reflected in everything you do, from packaging to advertising. A strong brand is developed over time, and consistent messaging across channels builds consumer trust.

 – Target Audience – Who needs your product? Who is buying your product? Where are they located? Do they have money? If not, who do they want to spend their money on? Understanding these factors helps build a targeted marketing strategy.

 – Price Point: Low-cost items like food, clothing, and personal care are usually priced at a loss to create volume. High-end things like high fashion clothes, premium wines, and luxury cars often have a higher profit margin. Finding the right balance between low-cost and high-profit margins is key to building a successful business.

 – Distribution Channel: Where do your customers purchase your product? Online vs. retail stores vs. wholesale distributors? Each channel has its strengths and weaknesses. Knowing where your customers are coming from and targeting each is critical to success.

product positioning statement

A positioning statement outlines how your product meets a market demand while also defining your target market.

Example of Product positioning statement

 In order for your company to successfully execute its positioning strategy, it needs to have a clear direction and vision that guides the way forward. When developing your positioning statement, think about who you want to target and why. What benefits will you offer them? How can you differentiate yourself from competitors? What makes you different than anyone else out there? Once you know these answers, you can begin crafting your positioning statement.

 Here are some examples of successful positioning statements:

 – “Our products are 100% natural and organic. We believe in doing things naturally and organically to create better-tasting food. Our goal is to bring back the pure taste of nature.”

 – “We are a global leader in the field of social media marketing. We focus on helping companies build strong relationships with their consumers through our unique approach to social media management.”

 – “We are the best at what we do. We specialize in providing high-quality customer service to businesses nationwide.”

Why is product positioning important, and how does it affect your business?

In the past, consumers had to make a conscious decision to purchase a product. They then had to go product and find the right product, go through the process of buying it, taking delivery, and returning it if they were unhappy with it.

Product positioning is one of the marketing tactics concerned with identifying a target audience and then designing both a message and a product to appeal to them. Product positioning is also referred to as product differentiation. A good brand gets easier to recall and identify because of its products or services compared to its competitors.

Product positioning is a concept where your brand stands out from competitors by creating a unique position and identity. A good example is the Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola) – they have made their unique niche within the beverage market. Their product positioning allows them to stand out from other beverages and has created a loyal following. This loyalty has helped them gain market share and become a household name.

The position of your product in the market is determined by how well you understand the consumer’s needs and how you can cater to them. Knowing how a buyer would likely react when buying your product; then, you can use this information to position it at the forefront of their minds as they shop around or look for new items to purchase.

Types of Product Positioning

Product positioning is a fundamental principle that can make or break a company’s success. If your business strategy is based on the wrong positioning, you are doomed from the start. Let us now look at the common types of product positioning strategies and how they work in practice.

 – First off, we have the “product-centric positioning.” This type of positioning is based on what a customer needs. The idea is that the product should meet customers’ needs without compromising. In other words, the product should provide the best value proposition to its users.

 – Another approach is known as “brand positioning.” Here, the focus lies on branding. Because of the brand’s reputation, people tend to assume that the product is better than competing products. Therefore, the aim is to position the brand as the best choice among the competitors.

– The company’s product positioning strategy involves identifying the features of its products and then using that knowledge to set itself apart from the competition.

 – A service positioning strategy is where the consumer defines the type of services they need, and then companies offer them. An example would be McDonald’s Corp. – They sell burgers, fries, shakes, etc.

 – A corporate positioning strategy is where companies use their brands to promote themselves and increase their image. Nike Inc. is an excellent example of this.

 – Finally, we have the ‘value positioning”. Value positioning is similar to brand positioning, but instead of focusing on the brand, it focuses on the consumer’s benefits from using the product. Of course, the primary objective of value positioning is to increase sales.

How to find out where your product fits into the market

It’s not enough to know how to make a product. You also have to understand how to position it in the market.

That’s because every market has two sides: supply and demand. If you don’t understand your customer’s needs, you won’t be able to figure out what they want. And if you can’t figure out what they want, you’ll never be able to sell them anything.

So let’s talk about what consumers want: convenience. They want easy things to use and give them the results they need without thinking too hard about it.

But most products on the market today fail at this essential task—they’re too complicated, take too long, or don’t have the features that make them useful for people like me (read: not very many parts). As a result, we’ve been forced into a situation where we have no choice but to spend our time learning how to do tasks ourselves—but it still doesn’t work. And why? Because we still aren’t getting what we need!

To determine where your product belongs in the market, you must first discover who your customers are and their requirements and desires. You’ll then need to determine if your product addresses these needs and wants. Once you have those facts, you can decide whether this is something you want to sell or not.

 Once you’ve decided on a product positioning strategy, you should begin researching different markets to identify the ones that best fit your product. You may already have some ideas about where you think your products might work. If not, the following descriptions will help you understand what your product does and how it can fit into your customers’ lives. They should not be taken as gospel truth; they are intended to give you some ideas about where your product works in the market.

What problem does this solution address?
This question is meant to get at the heart of what problem your product solves. If you have a product that helps people do something better, then you’re probably on the right track.

 How does your product make things easier?
If your product is intuitive, easy to use, makes life simpler, or saves time, then you’ve got a winner! You’ll want to take advantage of these attributes if possible.

What are Your Customers’ Needs?
Understanding your target audience is the first step toward creating a successful marketing campaign. What does your ideal customer look like? How much money do they make? Where do they live permanently? These questions will help you determine your perfect customer and how they respond to different messaging strategies.

Steps to position your product

Step 1

The first step in product positioning is defining your product or service attributes. These features make your products or services stand out from others like yours. Characteristics include price, benefits, ease of use, quality, performance, design, etc. If you have been doing market research, these attributes should already be defined.

The first step involves understanding what makes your product unique. What are the benefits that make your product stand out from the crowd? If you can answer this question then you have taken the first step towards success.

Step 2

Once you know what makes your products or services unique, you need to figure out who your target market is and where they fit into your customer’s life cycle. Who is buying your product? Why do they buy it? How much money do they spend on their products each year? These questions should help you identify who your target market is and how you can best reach them.

There are three stages of the customer life cycle: awareness, consideration, and purchase.

Understanding is when a consumer becomes aware of your product or service.

Review is when the customer decides whether or not to buy your product or service. Purchase is when the customer buys your product or service.

 After determining the stage of the customer lifecycle, it’s time to think about how you want your product or service to position itself against your competition. When developing a strategy for setting your product, you need to consider four central questions:

 1. What do I want my customer to notice?

 2. How does this attribute help me win over my competitor?

3. What problem does this solution address?

3. How does your product benefit people?

Step 3

Research your competition

List the businesses that compete with yours in the same industry. You should be aware that there are three primary categories of competitors before listing them:

Your direct competitors: those who sell the same goods and services and also target the same audience.

Your indirect competitors: they sell the same goods and services provided, however, their goal is focused on increasing revenue using a different approach.

Replacement Competitor offers the same products and services that customers could use instead of choosing your products or services.

Strategies to position your product

There are two approaches to position your product.

First, you can position yourself based on what problem you solve. This is called the problem-solving strategy.

The problem-solving approach is the old way of doing things. You might have heard about this from marketing teachers, who seem to like it. They say that people buy products based on problems they face. They want to solve those problems. People indeed buy products to solve their problems. But if we look at the facts, it doesn’t explain everything.

 In reality, the problem-solving model only explains 20% of what happens in the sales funnel. That’s right – 20%. Let’s take a closer look at the other 80%, the solution-focused approach, which is much more potent than the problem-solving model.

Second, you can set your product based on how you solve that problem. This is called the solution-focused approach.

 The solution-focused approach is what separates great marketers from good marketers. Great marketers understand that people don’t just buy solutions; they acknowledge solutions to problems. And this is where positioning comes into play.

 Positioning helps you define your value proposition. Value is defined as “the benefit perceived by the consumer.” Value is not price. Value is unique to each customer. How can you provide value?

 Value can be provided through features, benefits, or services. You create value if you help customers achieve something (i.e., make them happy). If you solve a problem, you provide value. If you remove pain points, you provide value.

Conclusion

So, to summarize no need to reinvent the wheel. Understand what the market needs and ensure you have a solid grasp of what your competitors are doing. Then align your product as closely as possible with these needs and what you perceive your target market wants. The rest will take care of itself.

While competition is fierce, the position of your product in the market is determined by how well you understand the consumer’s needs and what they are looking for. Just as a businessperson needs to know the cost of making a product or what it’s worth, so does an entrepreneur need to understand how to position the product.

If you want to win over customers, your product needs a position. Otherwise, you’re just another face in the crowd. And no matter what you sell, you are against tons of competition vying for your customer’s attention. So, is it any wonder that there are more than a few companies whose names we can barely remember? They’ve won our business once or twice, but product positioning will determine how often we keep coming back.

Every company needs to understand where its product fits in the market. This is true for any business at any level. Your product might be a garden spade; it could be gardening services. It may be a bouquet or even a birthday card; we need to know how well you assess your position in the market and how effectively you communicate this positioning to others around you.

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