Positioning plan; elaboration in 10 steps
How to develop a distinctive positioning? We realized that we had never answered this in a single article, even though we receive questions about it weekly; everyone wants a step-by-step plan for positioning. That had to change, and the result is now before you: 10 steps for a distinctive positioning.
The breadth or depth of each step naturally varies per market, product, or company, but this article will certainly provide enough direction and enable you to make a choice yourself.
Positioning approach plan
In addition to the strictly necessary steps, we also pay attention to the reason for and what you should do with the results of the positioning process. This will probably give you even more insight into the key elements of positioning, and we can confidently state that all steps are essential.
A positioning process that pays no attention to the reason, long-term goals, or the culture and identity of the organization almost always leads to a suboptimal result with limited impact. While positioning is one of the most important tools for achieving distinctiveness.
1. Burning Platform: why position
What is the necessity for (re)positioning? What happens if we do nothing? Sometimes it seems obvious, but opinions on this often differ. If you don’t pay attention to this, it might be difficult to agree on a direction at the end of the day.
Specifically: Create a short briefing, memo, presentation, or video in which you outline both the challenge and the intended solution. Discuss or share this with all stakeholders.
Read more: 7 reasons why your positioning is more important than ever
2. (Market) research
You need more information. First of all, this information is essential to arrive at a distinctive positioning; it’s hard to differentiate from competitors if you don’t know how they position themselves. Secondly, this research provides fascinating insight into the market and the direction it is developing. It will probably make the burning platform even clearer.
Specifically: Make an overview of the knowledge you need for a well-considered positioning and gather the required information.
- Customers
Ideally, conduct qualitative interviews with your customers. This provides valuable insights into the perception of your brand; the results almost always surprise. If this is not possible, a questionnaire or something similar could be an alternative. - Competitors
The existing image of competitors is often ‘colored,’ to put it mildly. It’s instructive to look at the market and competition with fresh eyes around the question: “How would a new customer see the market?” It may be that competitors ‘lie’ about being innovative, but the potential customer does not have this insight. - Target audience
Target audience segmentation could easily fill a book; we recommend focusing on two essential questions: 1. Which target group(s) do I want to address? 2. What does the customer journey (purchase process) of these target group(s) look like? - (Future) Market situation
An environment and trend analysis should not be missing. That seems very broad, but one question provides a practical framework: What will your market look like in 10 years, and what will be valuable/important then? This way, you discuss the (future) reality of your brand.
Read more: Positioning research, mapping the competition in 5 steps
3. Strategic framework positioning
A major pitfall in positioning, especially when companies position themselves without an outside fresh perspective, is existing prejudices. Something like: “Yes, that competitor claims to be innovative, but they are not.” No matter how true that may be, it has no value in the positioning process. The goal is to choose as objectively as possible the best possible positioning for your brand. That’s why you create a strategic framework.
Use models and exercises to map the playing field, for example, the competition matrix. Once you have filled in the model, discuss what determines the clusters (of competitors) and where there is room for distinctiveness. What would it mean (behavior) if your brand focused on that?
Specifically: Discuss where there is room and what the pros and cons of positioning in that space would be. But make sure you first agree on how the market is structured!
4. Ambitions and (brand) values
The foundation of successful positioning is always your own identity. If a brand positions itself as hip and transparent but is actually as conservative and closed as a bank, your customer quickly becomes confused: “Am I in the right place?” That doubt is fatal, which is why it is so important that you determine who you are and what drives you before choosing your position.
Specifically: Answer the crucial questions; why do you exist, what is your higher purpose or ambition, what do you find important.
Be careful not to get bogged down in listing buzzwords (often called core values) like honesty, entrepreneurship, and results-oriented at this stage. It’s about nuance; at a much later stage, you can attempt to distill this into core values.
If this blog doesn’t answer your question, ask me by email and we will add it!
5. Distinctive capability
There are obviously multiple roads to Rome; which will you choose?
I would be surprised if the previous steps did not produce a long list of (potential) distinctive factors. Now it’s time to make a shortlist or wish list. Yes, that means there are also aspects you leave aside, for example, because the competition has already claimed them or simply because they don’t fit factors you consider essential.
Specifically: Agree on the factors on which your brand wants to distinguish itself from the competition.
6. Positioning pitches
Write several elevator pitches based on the elements for distinctiveness from step five. These must be short and powerful so that each idea can be told (and remembered) in a few minutes. In this phase, concept and distinctiveness come together; our own penguin story is a good example:
“Penguins are special animals, but they have one annoying trait: they look so much alike. They walk one after another, enter the water simultaneously, and incubate their eggs on the same rock. Penguins are therefore not very distinctive. Companies are like penguins. They imitate each other and use the same ‘core values,’ so the customer can only choose based on price. Merkelijkheid works for companies that don’t want to be penguins.”
Specifically: Draft several positioning pitches in which you use an appealing ‘story’ to clearly explain why a customer should choose your brand.
Present each pitch and as a team or organization choose the pitch that best fits your ambition and worldview.
7. Positioning elaboration: positioning story
A pitch often only focuses on that one crucial aspect around which the positioning should revolve. That’s fine, but we only speak of positioning when the story actually offers an action perspective. That means employees or customers must be able to think about what behavior fits the positioning. Unfortunately, this rarely succeeds in a single pitch or slogan; CoolBlue’s ‘Everything for a smile’ is a nice exception.
Specifically: Elaborate the chosen positioning pitch into a full positioning of 300 – 400 words that offers an action perspective.
Try to apply the storyline central to the pitch to the most important aspects of your business. Think of personnel, sales, customer service, production, sustainability/CSR, and so on.
8. Extract proposition and core values from positioning
Proposition and positioning are often confused. The proposition is the sales-oriented pitch that must immediately persuade the customer to buy, think ‘buy two, pay for one.’ Often people think this doesn’t apply in B2B or more complex markets, but even there it pays to formulate a proposition. The proposition is then often the core of the complete sales argument, which goes deeper into benefits and features. But the basis remains the same: the proposition.
Specifically: Distill from your positioning (pitch) the proposition that immediately persuades your customer to buy and the core values that ensure your people remember the essence of your positioning.
Core values are the celebrated tool of both large corporates and small SMEs. Often three words that should apply to the entire organization but are so general or basic that you might as well leave them out. What does a service desk employee gain from the core value results-oriented?
We prefer to see core values as a tool that brings important aspects of the positioning back to the forefront of people’s minds, a kind of mnemonic. Use words or concepts from the positioning; they may not mean much on their own, but if your people recall the essence of the positioning through them, your goal is achieved.
Optionally, you could even consider different core values per department or let each department determine its own core values (in line with the positioning). This makes the core values much more practically applicable.
9. Compile positioning document
Positioning is a living document in many companies, for example, reviewed annually. What is fresh in your mind now you might have forgotten in a year. This causes confusion: “Why did we decide this again?” Prevent this confusion and summarize the positioning process and outcomes in one document.
Specifically: Summarize the research, outcomes, key considerations, choices made, and positioning in one document. The purpose of the document is future evaluation or adjustment.
With this document, it’s child’s play in the future to;
- determine the result of the (re)positioning
- make adjustments
This document is indispensable especially for adjustments; it prevents double work and a lot of time loss. By briefly reflecting on each step and reviewing the outcomes and conclusions in light of the new situation, you can often quickly pinpoint where adjustment is necessary. Or decide that the core of the positioning remains intact, of course.
10. Positioning implementation
The last step is actually more a starting point: implementation. Positioning must become central to everything the brand does, from production to customer service. This is often a years-long process, as in practice, the chosen positioning is almost always quite different from the current positioning. There is therefore quite a bit of work to ensure you really start doing things differently (in line with the positioning).
Getting the brand (and thus the organization) moving is a skill in itself, but our first step is to establish short- and long-term goals per department and then determine concrete actions. By first reflecting on the desired goal, you increase the chance of successful implementation.
Specifically: Establish short- and long-term goals per department and determine which concrete actions will ensure the positioning is applied.
Place positioning in marketing plan
What role does positioning have in the marketing plan? Do you position first and then do marketing, or is it the other way around? Is positioning then the same as strategy?
Such questions are actually purely semantic in practice. The place positioning occupies often says more about the type of organization. Financially driven organizations usually have strategy and goals established and then look for positioning that enables this. Customer-oriented organizations often work the other way around and discover their business model and financial goals along the way while the positioning is fixed.
Why a positioning step-by-step plan
So there is no unambiguous answer. There is, however, a clear process: the positioning step-by-step plan. By going through the above steps, you arrive at a distinctive positioning that fits your identity and goals. A story that goes beyond financial goals or hollow core values but enables people to determine themselves what behavior belongs to a brand and whether they feel at home there as a customer or employee.
In short, a unique positioning is the foundation for distinctiveness and sustainable success.
Want to know more about positioning and how to get started yourself? Read our page about positioning and find there, besides in-depth articles, dozens of examples and models for every possible positioning challenge.
