Author: Sudeshna Ghosh
With innovation pervading today’s hypercompetitive markets, the need to rethink or build a robust competitive positioning strategy could hardly be more urgent. Hence, leading players are now analyzing their current position with an intent to match or exceed that of their peers.
Businesses that have redefined their strategy must stay prepared to tackle future challenges to avoid repeating the past. On the contrary, those who haven’t done much in this regard must analyze their vulnerability and understand what it takes to build a robust competitive positioning strategy.
What is Competitive Positioning?
Competitive positioning is a strategic approach that focuses on defining and establishing a unique place for a brand or product in the marketplace, differentiating it from competitors. This process involves identifying a company’s unique value proposition and effectively communicating it to target customers, thereby creating a favorable perception that attracts and retains consumers. By understanding market dynamics and customer preferences, businesses can leverage competitive positioning to gain a significant advantage and drive sales growth.
What is the Goal of Competitive Positioning?
The goal of competitive positioning is to increase sales by enhancing the perceived value of a company’s offerings in comparison to its competitors. This strategy involves identifying and communicating unique characteristics that differentiate the brand, ultimately guiding the overall business model and marketing efforts to attract and retain customers effectively.
Why is a Robust Competitive Positioning Strategy Important?
Creating a competitive positioning strategy can help businesses tackle many business issues. Since this process is complex, leadership teams must adopt new methodologies, streamline processes, and systematically analyze their competitive positions. A competitive positioning strategy helps businesses differentiate their offerings and build value over time by analyzing the competitive landscape and focusing their resources to deliver on that strategy. The essence of a competitive positioning strategy revolves around coping with intense competitive pressures from across industry segments.
Knowledge of these underlying sources of competitive pressures often provides the groundwork for a robust competitive positioning strategy. However, coming to grips with either understanding competitive pressures or creating value isn’t easy. Analyzing these factors requires in-depth research and competitive intelligence since it isn’t easy for any business to fully understand its market position and capitalize on new opportunities without reliable market data and in-depth insights.
Elements of a Competitive Positioning Strategy
| Element | Description |
| Market Category | Identifies the specific market segment in which the brand operates, clarifying its competitive landscape. |
| Target Audience | Defines the specific group of consumers the brand aims to reach, ensuring tailored marketing efforts. |
| Unique Selling Proposition (USP) | Highlights the distinct benefits or features that set the brand apart from competitors. |
| Brand Differentiation | Focuses on the unique characteristics that distinguish the brand from others in the market. |
| Brand Personality | Establishes the human traits associated with the brand, influencing consumer perception and emotional connection. |
| Brand Identity | Encompasses the visual and verbal elements that represent the brand, creating a cohesive image. |
| Pricing Strategy | Determines how the brand’s pricing aligns with its positioning, reflecting its value proposition. |
Benefits of Competitive Positioning
Competitive positioning is essential for businesses seeking to establish a strong presence in the marketplace. By defining a unique value proposition, companies can effectively differentiate themselves from competitors and enhance their overall success. Here are the key benefits of competitive positioning:
Strong Brand Identity
Builds a distinct brand identity that resonates with customers and fosters recognition.
Increased Sales and Profitability
Attracts customers, leading to higher sales and the ability to command premium prices.
Customer Loyalty
Enhances customer loyalty by aligning the brand with consumer values and needs.
Market Differentiation
Reduces the risk of commoditization by highlighting unique features and benefits.
Targeted Marketing Efforts
Allows for tailored marketing strategies that maximize resource allocation.
Adaptability to Market Changes
Ensures long-term sustainability by enabling responsiveness to evolving market dynamics.
In conclusion, competitive positioning is a vital strategy that not only differentiates a brand but also drives customer loyalty and profitability, ultimately contributing to a company’s long-term success.
Five Keys to Developing a Robust Competitive Positioning Strategy
Our competitive intelligence experts shed light on five focus areas to help small and medium-sized businesses conduct in-depth market research as they shape their competitive positioning strategy.
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Evaluate Market DynamicsAssess trends and shifts in consumer behavior. -
Analyze Market PsychographicsStudy consumer attitudes, values, and lifestyles.
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Examine Competitive LandscapeReview competitors' strengths and weaknesses.
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Identify Key DifferentiatorFind a unique feature that sets the brand apart.
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Define Positioning StrategyCreate a clear strategy that communicates value.
Evaluate and understand market dynamics
The key is to focus on market evaluation in the initial stages of market research. This can help businesses better understand the market in terms of its size and new opportunities. Global market insights, industry reports, external data, and competitive insights will help you analyze the growth trajectory in niche markets and identify the total potential sales in each segment.
The next step in understanding your market is determining whether your market is growing, stable, or shrinking and what external forces shape your market. An in-depth analysis of the market lifecycle stage will further enhance the process and help devise the best competitive positioning strategy.
Deep dive into market psychographics
While developing a competitive positioning strategy, it’s equally important to understand your prospects’ pain points, behavior, and decision-making processes apart from the market dynamics. Understanding each of these factors will aid the development of a robust strategy and help fulfill customer needs.
This understanding will also help you define personas and deep dive into distinct market segments, enabling you to target each segment more effectively.
Analyze the competitive landscape
Competitive analysis that focuses on analyzing competitive dynamics will help businesses gauge their strengths and weaknesses and determine the challenges they must overcome to gain an edge in the market. Performing an in-depth analysis will also help you determine your direct, indirect, and potential competitors. These insights, along with the insights obtained from detailed quantitative and qualitative market research, will act as a starting point for an in-depth SWOT analysis, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and new market opportunities.
A detailed competitive analysis might also shed light on your competitor’s strategies and offer a holistic view of your current market position and a projection of your future position.
Identify a key differentiator
Value proposition plays a crucial role in the success of your competitive positioning strategy. Hence determining how you will deliver value to your market will help accelerate success.
The impact of the value being delivered will reverberate throughout, affecting not just your competitive positioning strategy but also pricing and messaging strategies. This means aligning each of these factors and identifying how your competitors deliver value will help improve the outcome of your competitive positioning strategy.
Define a unique, robust competitive positioning strategy
Developing a competitive positioning strategy is a complex process. It involves performing detailed analysis and evaluating factors that impact business growth. But all of this ultimately boils down to either one goal you wish to achieve or a unique selling point you want to be remembered for among the masses. To hone in on that, one must streamline the elements that influence the competitive positioning strategy, identify the mindshare you’d like to own, and determine your strategy to get there.
The key to rapid business growth, sometimes even survival, is to stake out a position that is less vulnerable to attack from top players and competitors, both established and new. Establishing a competitive position may require solidifying customer relationships, identifying market differentiators, and achieving technological leadership. Competitive positioning is all about winning mindshare in the marketplace by defining how you’ll differentiate your offerings.
At the core, your competitive positioning strategy must define what you want to be known for and how you plan to achieve it in the long run. Hence, while creating your competitive positioning strategy, it’s a good idea to evaluate different aspects of your market, including market size, potential, demographics, and psychographics, to understand how you stack up against the competition.
Here is how we partnered with a leading metal manufacturing company to enhance their competitive positioning strategy and drive growth in the Australian market:
| Enhancing Competitive Positioning Strategy for a Metal Manufacturing Client |
| Background: A leading metal manufacturing company aimed to strengthen its market presence and differentiate its products in the competitive Australian market. The client sought to improve brand awareness and effectively communicate its value proposition to drive growth and enhance brand equity. |
| Solution: Infiniti Research conducted a comprehensive brand strategy study that included an in-depth analysis of market dynamics and psychographics. They identified key competitors and evaluated their strengths and weaknesses, enabling the client to pinpoint a unique differentiator. Based on these insights, Infiniti developed a robust competitive positioning strategy tailored to the client’s goals, which included recommendations for targeted marketing campaigns and brand messaging. |
| Results: The implementation of Infiniti’s solutions resulted in improved brand recognition and credibility for the client. The company successfully refined its positioning strategy, leading to increased advertising effectiveness and a clearer understanding of its competitive landscape. As a result, the client experienced significant growth in brand equity and market share, reinforcing its position as a leader in the metal manufacturing industry. |
Real-World Examples of Competitive Positioning Strategies
Competitive positioning strategies are essential for brands to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Here are some real-world examples of competitive positioning strategies categorized into different approaches:
| Brand | Positioning Strategy | Description |
| Dollar Shave Club | Against Brand Positioning | Positioned itself against Gillette by highlighting the high costs of traditional razors, offering a more affordable subscription model. |
| JetBlue | Experience Positioning | Focused on enhancing the overall customer experience in air travel, including better service and more legroom, disrupting the airline industry. |
| Jiffy Lube | Variety-Based Positioning | Specializes solely in automotive lubricants, leading to faster service and lower costs by focusing on a narrow product range. |
| Bessemer Trust | Needs-Based Positioning | Targets high-net-worth clients, providing tailored wealth management services to fulfill all their financial needs. |
| Carmike Cinemas | Access-Based Positioning | Focused on small-town cinema-goers, offering a personalized experience that caters to local communities. |
| Apple | Quality-Based Positioning | Emphasizes superior quality and design in its products, justifying premium pricing through innovation and brand loyalty. |
| HelloFresh | Unique Selling Proposition | Offers meal kits with fresh ingredients and easy recipes, catering to busy families looking for convenience in home cooking. |
These examples illustrate how different brands utilize various competitive positioning strategies to carve out a unique space in their respective markets, appealing to specific customer needs and preferences.
Conclusion
Creating a Competitive Positioning Strategy requires a nuanced approach that integrates Competitive intelligence and Operational excellence to stay ahead in the market. Building strong Customer relationships is essential, especially when launching a new product or promoting an innovative service. A robust Marketing strategy that includes Positioning in marketing and Competitive pricing ensures the brand’s appeal and relevance. Moreover, the commitment to creating sustainable products aligns with modern consumer values. By focusing on these five key areas, businesses can secure a competitive edge and achieve long-term success.
