What is Brand Positioning and Why is it Essential?
When asked who their target consumer is, most early-stage CPG founders will answer “everyone.” Of course, in an ideal world that would be great! They are making a delicious and/or innovative product that they hope everyone will enjoy.
In reality, in order to break through and convert shoppers, these brands need to target a segment of consumers with specific needs, desires, and pain points that align with the brand offering. They must know who those consumers are, what they truly care about, and how the brand can bring value to their lives, in order to connect with them in an authentic way. This is brand positioning.
We work with founders who have competing priorities, like getting their brand financed, produced, and on shelf, and unfortunately developing clear positioning often falls by the wayside. But it’s very important to develop a strong positioning strategy from the start if you want to create a winning business, and here’s why:
Creative and communications are the manifestations of a brand positioning. When you launch a brand, you start having to make decisions about how it will appear to consumers. What will you name it? What will your packaging design and any creative look like? When you start creating messaging and communications, how do you compare it to existing products, and which key benefits will actually be remembered and resonate? These questions are hard to answer without a known positioning, and your brand may appear scattered, inconsistent and undifferentiated.
Efficient and effective marketing spend requires focus. As we like to say, growth at all costs is costly, and with less access to capital and heightened scrutiny on margins, efficient use of capital is more important than ever. So, you will need to decide, should you be attending local farmers markets or big music festivals? Is your customer shopping at Whole Foods or Walmart? Should you be on Pinterest, Tik Tok, or Twitch? You will do a much better job at prioritizing your time and resources by having a clear understanding of who your ideal consumers are, and how to reach them.
The first step to developing answers to these questions is to create a formal positioning statement for your brand.
What is a Brand Positioning Statement?
A brand positioning statement is a sentence that formally summarizes your brand strategy for internal use, and articulates your Target Consumer, Frame of Reference, Point of Difference, and Reasons to Believe.
Target Consumer: Who is the primary end user of your product and what do they care about?
Category / Frame of Reference: What should that consumer compare your product to? What category do you operate in? What job needs to be done?
Point of Difference / Key Benefit(s): What key benefit(s) are you offering that meets your target consumer’s core need that is different/better than other available options?
Reason(s) to Believe: Why should the consumer trust that you will deliver on this key benefit?
Sample Positioning Statement:
For (target consumer), (brand) is a (category / frame of reference) that offers (point of difference / key benefits), because (reason(s) to believe).
To bring this to life, here are examples of how I’d summarize positioning of some of the best known brands today:
A positioning statement might sound very straightforward to create, but to do it well actually requires a fair amount of planning and forethought. Before creating one, founders must understand their category and where their brand might fit relative to the competition. They should also build a deep familiarity with their target consumer (e.g. via interviews/surveys, market research) to learn about their motivations, needs, and behaviors, and identify which key benefits and reasons to believe will resonate most with them.
The beauty of a positioning statement is that it forces you to get laser focused, and prioritize your strategy in a single sentence. This summarized strategy can then cascade into your brand’s creative/design, personality/tone of voice, key messages, and marketing spend priorities. It also serves as the foundation for your “elevator pitch” to retailers, employees, investors, and other key stakeholders.
Which emerging brands are winning with strong positioning?
To see the power of strong positioning, you need only look at some of the fastest growing emerging brands today. Here’s how some of our favorites are winning with strong positioning:
Hu Kitchen entered a crowded chocolate category offering products that aren’t markedly different from other competitors (i.e. bars in conventional flavors, baking chocolate, etc.). However, by targeting health conscious consumers looking for a clean taste and simple ingredient panel, they’ve been able to stand out and create a cult following. With their naming, tagline of “get back to Human,” and listing of the “weird ingredients” you’ll never find in their chocolate, the brand reinforces their point of difference well across major communication touchpoints. Through Hu’s content showcasing the outdoors and active lifestyles, and even their recent partnership with Sweetgreen, the brand has continued to focus on their core consumer and meet them where they are.
Athletic Brewing Co has upended the non alcoholic beer category by offering an option that is “craft-brewed” and actually tastes great. Before Athletic launched, top selling non alcoholic beers such as Anheuser-Busch’s O’Doul’s left much to be desired. By reinforcing taste in all their key messaging, and capitalizing on the sober curious movement, Athletic was able to grow market share quickly. They have cleverly targeted not just those who don’t drink at all, but those that don’t want to drink at a given time, and reframed beer as a delicious beverage to enjoy on any occasion rather than a vehicle to get buzzed. Athletic’s positive and upbeat naming, and use of bright and bold colors, immediately demonstrate that this newcomer is totally different from existing options, and helps make consumers feel proud and confident to choose a non-alcoholic option.
Jolie is another one of our recent favorites, and has gone viral on Tik Tok with their introduction of a filtered showerhead line. The brand calls itself a “skin company” and has smartly reframed their filtered shower head not as a piece of bathroom hardware but instead as a self-care and beauty device. The brand has capitalized on the explosion of the wellness space and focused on educating their target consumer on the negative impacts of showering in unfiltered water. Jolie’s key messages have been simple and consistent: we’ll help you remove chlorine, heavy metal, and contaminants from your water so you can enjoy healthy skin and hair. With the brand’s beautiful product design and aspirational content, they have effectively targeted the beauty focused consumer and become a mainstay in their routine.
Compelling Brand Positioning Delivers Exponential Results
With a better understanding of why brand positioning is important, and how to create a positioning strategy for your brand, we hope you’ll be inspired to make this investment in your business. With some upfront effort to create a strategy, you will ultimately save time and resources with better focus and more effective marketing. . Meeting a real consumer need and reinforcing an impactful narrative clearly and consistently across touchpoints will help your brand break through the noise and cultivate an authentic consumer fan base.
And remember to continually review and refine your positioning. Brand positioning is not set in stone and will inevitably evolve as your brand grows. You might discover you have the wrong consumer target and need to focus on another group. You might have already converted an audience of early adopters, and now need to appeal to a new segment of consumers. Regardless, it’s only by starting with a defined strategy that you can measure impact and ROI and continue growing your brand effectively. Good luck!
