As a Sales and Marketing Consultant, I usually have conversations with other professionals to discuss how to advance knowledge in marketing concepts and strategies. Marketing is an interesting discipline and profession because it is the heart of business success.
Emeka Onodugo who’s article I have shared herein, is a member of our faculty at The Selling Champion Consulting Ltd. He is a practicing marketing expert. Read the article and let’s hear your contributions on our Whatsapp communities.
Onodugo writes:
“In our consulting work, we found that most clients strongly believe one thing: “that a good product sells itself.” As a result of this ironclad belief, they insist on bringing their product to market and allowing consumers to determine its position.
So they fall victim to the basic law of marketing – the concept of positioning. They say, “Let the consumer define the brand’s position, then we can support it, and that’s the best route to go to market.”
This is not the best way to go. In fact, the perfect route to market is first to establish who you are for. What you’re offering the market, and why consumers should pay attention.
For years, the magic word on many successful products has been “positioning.” Food, wine, cosmetics, drugs, clothing, automobiles, appliances, and many other items have benefited from good brand positioning.
In reality, positioning is the strategic decision about where you compete in the market. It defines who you are for, the specific problem you solve, and the alternatives customers compare you against.
Get it wrong, and everything downstream becomes exponentially harder. Marketing has to explain things that should be obvious, sales teams repeat the same explanations endlessly, and the brand looks professional but converts nobody.
Perfect positioning indeed increases the value of your brand. Since value lies in the consumer’s mind, the perception of where the brand came from can add or subtract value.
For example, does anyone doubt the value of watches from Switzerland, wine from France, automobiles from Germany, and electronic products from Japan? Obviously not.
When a brand is in sync with its country’s perceptions, it has the potential to become a powerful brand.
Brand positioning is a game of perceptions, and the manipulation of what is already in the mind, rather than changing it. A brand cannot get into the mind unless it stands for something. Once a brand occupies a position in the mind, the owners must do everything possible to support it and ensure consistency.
Positioning is not real until it is implemented everywhere in the organisation. That means leadership talks about it consistently. Sales uses it to frame every conversation. Marketing creates content exclusively for the positioned audience. Operational delivery aligns with customer expectations. The business actively says no to opportunities that do not fit.
When positioning is clear and properly embedded, everything gets easier. Messaging writes itself, marketing becomes more efficient, and sales conversations flow because prospects immediately understand where you fit. Positioning is so central and critical that it should be considered the foundation of the entire _(marketing)_ program.
Bad positioning is the silent killer of a business because it turns marketing into a waste of money and forces sales teams to fight losing battles. When your market position is unclear or incorrect, your product or service becomes practically invisible to the right customers. No amount of beautiful logos, flashy websites, or aggressive advertising campaigns can rescue a business that has claimed the wrong territory in the mind of the consumer.
Position may change, but brands should remain the same. Brands may be bent slightly or given a slant, but their essential characteristics _(once these characteristics are firmly planted in the mind)_ should never be changed.
For example, when kids grow up, they inevitably want to make a statement about their newfound maturity by changing brands – for _illustration,_ from Chocolate to Coffee. If the Chocolate brand decided to try to retain these customers by _“moving with the customers,”_ it would then logically introduce a product called _“Choco-Café.”_
As ridiculous as _“Choco-Café”_ might seem to you, conceptually it’s no different from the New 3-in-1 Sachets in town. These products confuse positioning with branding, or messaging, or both. Position may change, but the brand should not. That is the law. The law of consistency.
Now you know why The Selling Champion Consult includes “positioning” in all its training programs, always.
*Onodugo_* is a Principal partner in Emeka, Onodugo & Associates, a consultancy firm specializing in brand building and relationship marketing.”
Let’s hear your take on the article.
George O. Emetuche,CES
The Selling Champion.
