Marketing tips what is positioning for success?

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, July, 2003 by Terra Wellington

You may have heard of the term "positioning." It sounds and is, strategic. But positioning is a necessary part of building your business so that you are recognizable and dramatically different from your competition.

Here's another term: "mind share." When you have positioned yourself successfully and consistently, you have a greater ability to achieve what is called a coveted mind share over the competition.

Now, let's break down these terms so you can understand how to make them work for you.

Positioning

Positioning is an ongoing, strategic process. It is compared to carefully constructing a building for all to see, hear, touch, and experience.

Continuing with the analogy, the architecture of this building must be carefully drawn up on computer renderings beforehand, not only taking care to be aesthetically appealing but also taking into account every construction detail, the foundation, the infrastructure, the elements... and, not to forget, its purpose and usage. Usually teams are formed to put this building together -- from concept, to financing, to property location, to management. Each member of the team has specific expertise to offer in this construction.

As the process moves forward, the materials are selected and ordered and the construction begins. Once the building is formed, after many months of details, meetings, and hard work, it is furnished and put to use.

As the building is used, it becomes apparent that there are some needed added features or changes that could not be foreseen in the construction process. The changes are made. And, perhaps over time the building adds additional amenities, furnishings, or decor. Finally, as the years pass, the usage or tenants may change.

Likening the building to a real life example, let's think about constructing your position of a service. There would be a concept of the service and what you want to achieve with it. Your board of advisors would meet with you to look over your research and make recommendations. You would consider your audience, how you are currently perceived, how you want people to see you, and every detail required (on a timeline) to move your service in a direction whereby it would be perceived and acted upon by a specific audience in a pre-defined way.

If you already provide a service, you may determine that it needs to be reviewed. Are you positioning yourself to be the higher price? the best quality? the most unique? the one with the dramatic difference that no competitor offers? the one with the best solutions? to convey a feeling which promotes a specific action? to be a leader? to reach a highly specific audience? There are usually many facets of your positioning strategy, which through a discovery process and some dedicated planning can be molded to fit your needs and. goals.

Just like the building, however, positioning your service is a process with many aspects over a period of time. The prime goal should be to create a dramatic difference with your service that would immediately highlight the service as the best and the first choice. It takes time, experience, and continual improvement to achieve a dramatic difference level with any service.

Companies position company names, products, services, brands, or campaigns with specific and strategic messages, symbols, alliances, and exposure. In the case of individuals, such as health practitioners, authors, experts, or celebrities, the positioning process also extends to a personal name. With perception being reality, the more you can know about the needs and interests of your audience the more you will be able to position with precision.

When positioning with messages, you want to use carefully constructed language in all your marketing communications pieces that would reflect a consistency in how you are defining your service. If the language doesn't speak to the audience in words they relate to, it will likely not be heard or acted upon.

The logos, colors, and backgrounds you "paint" that are to be associated with your message and service become the symbols your audience will retain far longer than the words. What alliances are you making that convey and add value to your message, as well as provide extra credibility?

What exposure methods are you using, both of an ongoing and short-term nature, to get out your message? Public relations, advertising, and grass roots efforts are some of the effective ways to get out your message.

Mind Share

Remember the other term we introduced in this article? Mind share. The better you position yourself consistently over time, the more of a mind share you will have the opportunity to gain.

Mind share can best be explained in this way: let's say you have your service and its identified target audience (in this case, people who are identified as potential patrons of your service). Most likely, your service will be in competition with other services (similar or not) for the time and dollars of this target audience. So, in the patrons' mind, they have many choices. What you want is to gain a greater share of the mind of those patrons by being the first option/service that comes to their minds when they have a particular need. A greater mind share means that you have increased the chances that your service will be chosen first over the competition to satisfy that need. This is why an ever-increasing mind share is desired.