Last time we connected, I talked about the importance of branding and presented a few different strategies for positioning your brand within the marketplace – and in your consumers’ minds.
I also gave you six routes to take for handling your company’s brand positioning. Choose the right one, and your brand is on the fast track to success. Choose the wrong one, and you could very well be doomed – doomed to blend into the busy marketplace and let your competitors take the spotlight.
So how do you choose the right one and make sure you don’t fall into the former camp? That’s simple: Just know your audience.
This is the key to any sort of branding success, because before you can connect with your audience in a way that resonates with them and stands out to them, you first have to get into their heads. You have to learn their fears, their wants, their needs and connect with them in a deep and meaningful way.
Not sure how to get to know your audience and determine the best positioning method for your brand? Here are a few strategies you can try:
- Surveys and interviews with past and current clients – Find out what they know about your brand, why they’ve come to you, what their needs are and what challenges they’re facing.
- A/B testing – Try your next marketing campaign by coming at it from two different positions. Monitor the reactions on both sides of the coin, and see which positioning fares better. If neither does great, keep tweaking your positioning until you get it right.
- Focus groups – Get to know the general marketplace you’re entering into. What do consumers associate with products and services in your space? What do they like and dislike about them? What are the problems they see? How do they choose which products to use and what makes them prefer one brand above another?
- Innovation and concept testing – If you’ve got some extra resources, find some highly creative members of your target audience and get them involved in the positioning of your brand. Tap them for ideas, use them to generate ideas and strategies, and then use other members of the audience to test those ideas and flesh them out. Who better to tell you how to reach an audience than a member of it?
Once you’ve taken these steps and really gotten to know your audience, you can then choose the proper type of positioning and begin connecting with that audience in a real and memorable way.
Let’s look at an example in the aerospace and aviation world. Say you run a flight support services company. Rather than throwing your marketing messages out into the abyss and hoping you hit the right mark, you could target a higher-end audience and position your brand as a luxury – an add-on that can make high-end clients’ travels easier, more convenient and more attractive.
By positioning your brand in such a way, you can start to connect with your target audience and pivot all your marketing messages so they meet their discerning needs – the need for a five-star flight experience and the need for top-shelf convenience and comfort that only money can buy.
Do you know your target audience? Want help getting to know them or choosing the right position for your brand? Our aviation branding experts are here to help. Just shoot me an email, and we can get started on your strategy right away.
