by John Jerome
So, what do you want to be when you grow up? Some us made that decision and some of us just accepted what came along. In life, those that make a conscious decision to do something find success much more often than those that wait for success to happen to them. Businesses are the same, if you decide what you want your business to be, then your likelihood of becoming that goes up dramatically. This is positioning. How you decide to position your company will affect every aspect of the business. It will affect what type of employees you attract and keep, what type of clients will buy your product, how much you can charge for your product, what channels will carry your product…it affects everything.
So how do you position a company?
- Decide how YOU want it to be perceived. Sounds simple right? It all starts here. Think about what type of company you want to have. What do you want your employees to tell their friends about where they work? How will your customers describe your company? What type of corporate culture do you want to have?
- Now look at your industry. Do the research, don’t rely on what you think you know. Look for trends and voids in your industry. Get as specific as you can until you know what your niche or industry segment is and how your positioning will play.
- Look at your target audience. Who are you selling to? Certain audiences are predisposed to only buy the best, while others are more concerned with costs. Understand the demographics and psychographics of your audience.
- Consider your channel. If you are reselling through a distributor or going direct, it’ll make a difference in how you want to be perceived.
- Very important to look at your competition. Consider how your competitors are doing all of these things. What is their tag line, mission statement, channel, client list, etc. How will you differentiate your company and its position from the competition?
- Now develop a phrase that describes what it is. This needs to be clear and understandable. It should be no more than two or three sentences. Unlike a tag line that is a customer promise, your positioning statement describes what it is your company uniquely does and for whom.
- Be the best. Now that you understand what you want to be, what the industry is looking for, and what your competition claims to be, think about a superlative. You want to be the best, the fastest growing, the largest, the most innovative, etc. This is where you lay claim in your position to the market that will move you through at least the next 5 years.
- Defend that position. Now you need to establish that position to the rest of the world (target audience and competitors). That means exposure, pounding the stake in the ground and saying this piece of land is mine! Once you establish your position and build the awareness then anyone who wants to take it from you has to prove themselves against you.
- Use it everyplace. To establish a position, it needs exposure so put it everywhere: at the end of every press release, on social media, in ads and company videos, in interoffice memos, and employment ads. Everywhere and every time you talk about the company state your position.
You’ll discover you’ll be able to create your own reality. Need help visualizing and defining your company position? Let us help. We’ve done it for our own companies as well as hundreds of others.