Positioning strategy: a brief and clear explanation.

The various strategies

A company often has multiple strategies, such as a corporate strategy or marketing strategy. So, where does the positioning strategy fit in? The corporate strategy deals with an organization’s long-term goals and how it intends to achieve them (resources and activities). The marketing strategy does the same within its own domain and follows the corporate strategy. Positioning is likely an integral part of the marketing strategy, and the specific positioning strategy discusses how the desired positioning will be adopted.

So, for those who found the previous sentences a bit overwhelming, here’s a TL;DR:

The positioning strategy discusses the positioning a brand will adopt and the resources and activities that will be used for that purpose.

And that’s it! In the rest of the article, we explain the role of positioning and the positioning strategy in the marketing (strategy) process.

If we didn’t answer your question with this blog, feel free to ask us by email, and we’ll add it!

What is positioning?

In our article, “Positioning in the Market: How Does It Work?” we write that opinions on ‘what is positioning’ often differ. Therefore, we explain the origin of positioning and its use in daily practice using an example and discuss some tools. This is probably a good article to read before you continue.

What comes first, positioning or positioning strategy?

In marketing, it’s customary to first determine the marketing strategy and then design a campaign. With the positioning strategy, it’s the other way around. A brand must first determine the desired positioning and then think about how to claim/occupy it. Why? Because ‘how’ has a significant influence on the perception of your brand by the target audience. For example, a brand that wants to target teenagers communicates differently than a business bank.

So, your positioning already says a lot about the resources, activities, message, channels, etc., that you can use to occupy it.

Is the positioning clear? Then we can move on to the positioning strategy.

Positioning Strategy

In defining the positioning, you’ve already considered the most important factors for positioning in your market. These factors include:

Channel Message Style Frequency Tone Transparency Quality Price

This has led to an intended positioning, the place you want to occupy in the minds of your consumers. The positioning strategy is then used to make clear and concrete what your interpretation of these factors is, what influence it will have (objective/expectation) on the positioning, and how you will evaluate success. For example:

A teen brand sponsors popular Instagrammers with free products so that the target audience sees the brand as ‘hip’ and ‘young.’ They assess success based on website visits, new followers on their own channel, the use of hashtags, and actual purchases.

Marketing Strategy

The overlap between the positioning strategy and the marketing strategy is likely evident. Almost every message affects positioning, and every message aimed at influencing positioning probably also has a place in the marketing strategy.

So, make the positioning strategy an integral part of your marketing plan. Some considerations are important for that:

• Ensure that the positioning is crystal clear. Set clear positioning goals (How will you claim the desired positioning?)
• Spend time on the most important factors that determine a brand’s positioning in your market and how they best align with the positioning. Once you’re at the level of actions, resources, or channels, also think about the influence they have on positioning.
• Use this as a sort of yardstick to check if this is really the right activity for your brand.

If you want to learn more about positioning and how to work on it yourself, check out our Positioning page, where you’ll find in-depth articles as well as dozens of examples and models for every possible positioning challenge.