The New Business Owner's Guide to Brand Positioning
Starting a business is one of the biggest life decisions you can make. The fact you decided to take the leap says a lot about your tenacity, resourcefulness, and desire to have an impact. You’ve chosen to forgo consistency and stability for a chance at something greater. That takes true grit and gusto!
But as commendable as the decision is, it’s also a leap in the dark, since, as we all know, becoming an entrepreneur means putting everything on the line.
And if that weren’t intimidating enough, there’s a big ol’ terrifying cherry on top— the fact that the very beginning stages of launching a brand are the most crucial.
If you introduce your product or service before you’ve established a compelling and memorable brand identity, building a community of loyal customers becomes extremely difficult.
But if you launch with an identity that doesn’t effectively differentiate you from your competitors, you risk having to back-track and potentially re-brand (which comes at a hefty price).
It really is a high-stakes situation.
And for that reason, you should always make instituting a top-notch brand positioning strategy one of the first steps you take as a new business owner.
But what if you’re completely new to the concept of brand positioning? How do you gather the research required to make informed decisions? And how do you know you’re making the right decisions?
That’s what this blog is all about. I’m going to be sharing my all-inclusive, step-by-step process for positioning a new brand.
But first, let’s cover some basics. Because before you learn how to position a new brand, you need to know exactly what the practice is and what it entails.
What’s Brand Positioning?
Brand positioning is the act of taking a distinct, desirable, and strategic stance within your target market. It involves identifying where your competitors stand, what gaps have yet to be filled within the marketplace, and how you can maneuver within the playing field to achieve your desired outcome.
Why Is Positioning Important When Branding a New Business?
1. Differentiation
How you position your brand in the marketplace will determine how potential customers think of your business versus how they think about your competitors. Your brand position tells your audience why your products or services are superior or more valuable than other alternatives available to them.
2. Customer Connection
By understanding the needs, desires, and pain points of your ideal customers, you can tailor your messaging and positioning to resonate with their aspirations and values. This emotional connection helps build trust, loyalty, and advocacy, driving long-term relationships and increasing customer lifetime value.
3. Clarity and Focus
When you establish a clear direction and purpose, it’s easier to streamline decision-making and strategic planning. You understand precisely who your brand is for and what it represents, so you can confidently create messaging, offerings, and customer experiences that align with that identity.
The New Business Owner’s Guide to Brand Positioning
There are many facets to new business brand positioning and, at first, it’ll have your head spinning. But trust me, the effort you put in now will pay off in the long run.
Here’s a complete step-by-step breakdown to help guide you through the process:
Market Research
Market research provides insight into the competitive landscape you’ll be facing. It allows you to identify direct and indirect competitors, analyze their positioning strategies, strengths, weaknesses, market share, and more.
Without market research, your entire brand identity will be a shot in the dark— and is that really what you want to hinge your success on?
Here are my top tips for conducting market research:
ANALYZE SEO TRENDS
You can use tools like SEMRush to analyze the organic search traffic of your brand and competitors. Look for patterns and spikes in traffic that may indicate emerging trends or popular topics. Pay attention to the content types (e.g., blog posts, videos) that generate the most organic traffic.
This information will make it easier to pinpoint what matters to your target audience and what products or services they’re looking for that don’t currently exist in the marketplace (or if they do exist, aren’t accessible to them).
ONLINE SURVEYS
The best information always comes straight from your potential clients themselves, so don’t forget to gather their feedback with online surveys. The process is actually really simple!
To start, define your research objectives and the specific information you’re seeking. Next, use an online survey platform like SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, or Typeform to create a customized questionnaire. These platforms offer various question types like multiple-choice, rating scales, and open-ended questions, making it easy to gather a range of input. Once the survey is designed, it can be distributed through almost any channel, including email, social media, or your company's website.
SOCIAL LISTENING
No branding guide for new business owners would be complete without this technique for conducting market research. Simply put, social listening is the process of monitoring and analyzing online conversations using social media platforms, forums, blogs, and review sites.
To begin social listening, simply track relevant keywords, hashtags, and mentions related to your industry, products, or services. Pay attention to trending terms or topics, and take note of any negative sentiments.
There are quite a few tools you can use to make social listening even more effective, but my personal favorite is Agorapulse. It’s affordable and offers all the essential features you’ll need to gather relevant, useful information about your marketplace or competitors.
The data you gather while social listening will help you make data-driven decisions about your brand positioning strategy.
2. Documented Strategy
Your brand positioning strategy serves as a single reference point for your internal teams, external consultants, and partners, ensuring everyone is on the same page regarding your brand's identity and unique value proposition.
It’s a document that provides clear guidelines and instruction on how your brand should be represented across all your marketing efforts.
The following elements should be included in every brand positioning strategy:
Target audience
Competitor analysis
Key messages
Brand voice guidelines
Points of differentiation
Unique value proposition
Product (or service) features and benefits
Additionally, I recommend using clear and concise language when documenting your strategy.
The more you break down complex marketing tactics into simple points, the less explaining you’ll have to do. You want your team members to be able to grasp these concepts quickly and translate your strategy into practical outcomes.
3. Implementation Framework
A brand implementation framework is a structured process that outlines how you’ll translate your brand positioning into a tangible, cohesive customer experience across various touchpoints and channels.
Let’s say you own a vegan cookie company and you’ve decided to position it as a gourmet brand that uses only the purest and most wholesome ingredients. Your implementation framework might detail things like:
A process for reaching out to well-known food influencers in your area
Goals, budgets, and timelines for your official launch party or event
An outreach strategy to connect with vegan chefs in your city
Deadlines for the set-up and optimization of various marketing channels (e-newsletters, social media pages, website, etc)
Goals and key messages for promotional campaigns
Lists of required resources or materials for specific campaigns
A production plan for a 5-part YouTube video series about how you locally source your all-natural ingredients
Customer service scripts for your employees
Remember, this phase is all about action and execution. You want to focus on documenting (in as much detail as possible) the specific steps, timelines, and responsibilities required to position your brand successfully.
4. Public Launch
When launching a brand to the public, incorporating brand positioning is essential to make a strong and memorable impact. You need to make sure each major touchpoint your new customers will come in contact with reinforces your brand’s unique selling proposition.
This starts with your website. Your key differentiator should be highly visible on your homepage and communicated in a way that’s easy for your new audience to understand. It’s also a good idea to use video content to provide deeper insight into what makes your brand unique.
You’ll also want to ensure you’ve explained your mission, vision, values, and brand personality to your team members, from customer service agents to social media managers and delivery drivers. Each individual should have a clear understanding of how to best represent your brand and communicate your unique value proposition to potential customers, since they’re the people who will be directly interacting with the general public.
Remember, by successfully differentiating your brand during the launch phase of your new business, you establish a solid foundation for growth, customer loyalty, and market recognition. When you go public, you have a limited window of opportunity to capture the attention and interest of your target audience. You never want to get lost in the noise or struggle to gain traction.
“Brand positioning isn’t just a strategic exercise. It’s how you carve out a place in the market for your business. Just like where you plant a seed determines how well it will grow, where you position your brand determines whether or not your business will endure what comes next.”
5. Analyze and Adapt
Consumer preferences, market trends, and competitive forces are constantly evolving. A brand positioning strategy that works for your business initially may not continue to resonate with your target audience over time. That’s why it’s so important to measure the results and impact your strategy is having.
To do this, start by setting your key performance indicators (KPIs).
Examples of brand positioning KPIs include:
Website traffic
Social media engagement
Customer satisfaction
Sales revenue
Brand recall
After identifying the metrics you’ll use to gauge your success, establish your baseline performance (the bare minimum amount of success you’d be happy to achieve). You’ll need to do this for each KPI you set. Your baseline provides a starting point for comparison and allows you to track progress over time.
And finally, you’ll need to track the data regularly to look for trends, patterns, or significant changes. This is how you’ll gain insight into how your brand positioning is influencing customer behavior, market perception, and business outcomes.
If you notice any results you aren’t satisfied with, it likely means you’re either not doing enough to communicate your brand positioning strategy effectively, or there’s an external reason why your strategy isn’t generating the results you thought it would. Either way, you’ll need to identify ways to adjust your approach and continue to measure the success of your efforts over time.
And there you have it! By following the strategies outlined in this guide to brand positioning, you can establish a strong and differentiated identity that resonates with your target audience.
Position Your Brand for Brilliance: Partner With a Marketing Professional
Branding a new business is an enormous undertaking. As a business owner myself, I know how daunting it is to start from scratch, especially when there’s so much at stake.
That’s why I’m here to offer you a lifeline.
I provide my clients with a clear roadmap tailored to their business, saving them precious time, energy, and resources.
How do I do it?
I work exclusively with a small handful of clients, fully immersing myself in their brand, bringing a laser focus and unwavering commitment to each project I accept.
By limiting my client base, I’m able to give my undivided attention to you, presenting personalized strategies that address the unique challenges you face as an emerging entrepreneur.
So, if you’re ready to partner with a marketing consultant who’s as committed to your success as you are, don’t wait. Let’s put a brand positioning strategy in place that secures your place in the spotlight!