6 Steps to create Global Brand Positioning Strategy
Clarke Ricks School of Business,
Liberty University
BUSI 690: Policy and Strategy in Global Competition
Dr. Hicks
April 28, 2022
6 Steps to create Global Brand Positioning Strategy
1. Identify the current standing
If the brand is new to the market, then this first step doesn’t apply to the new entrants to
the market but if the brand is already an established player in the market and wishes to
resurrect its Brand Positioning and the overall brand architecture, then it is vital for the
management of the company and the branding department to carefully understand and
identify the current positioning of the brand and have an analysis how is it working in the
favour of the brand and its attainment of the overall business aims and objectives.
If the answer is no, then the management of the company needs to figure out the
loopholes in the current Brand Positioning and check if there is a need for the repositioning of
the brand.
2. Identify the direct competition
The next step in the line of creating the Brand Positioning is identifying the brands in the
marketplace that pose a direct threat to the brand. The brand needs to analyze and understand
the core value, brand strengths, nature of products and services offered, ethos, and
fundamentals of the competitive brands plus spot their unique selling propositions and the
factors that make them different and unique in the market and in the minds of the customers.
3. Understand the standing of the competitor brands
The further step involves understanding the positioning of the competitor brands, basically
figuring out their vision statement, mission statement, core values, brand fundamentals, and
the entire brand architecture. It is very important to intricately study the positioning and brand
strategies of the competitor brands in order to come up with the positioning that is unique and
distinctive giving a competitive edge in the market.
4. Identify the uniqueness of the company
This step involves the in-depth introspection of the brand within and identify the core
values, fundamentals on which the brand is formulated, strengths, value propositions, long-
term vision, and the features and attributes that make the brand unique and different from the
rest of the brands in the market offering the similar lines of products and services.
5. Develop the unique selling propositions
In continuation to the previous step, the next stage to the Brand Positioning encompasses
developing the unique selling propositions depending on the features, objectives, attributes,
core values, and strengths of the brand that will give the brand a unique and distinctive Brand
identity in the market and in the customer’s minds.
6. Formulate the messaging statements
Next on the line is working on the messaging statements such as mission statement, vision
statement, and the tagline or the brand slogan that is attached with the official logo of the
brand. All the messaging statements should be clear, crisp, and unique in line with the
attributes and inherent nature of the brand.
Importance of Brand Positioning and strategy
1. Market differentiation
The unique and creative Brand Positioning not only clears the clutter from the market but
also gives the factor of differentiation to the brand as compared to its direct and indirect
competitors. It makes the brand stand out in the market as well as in the customer’s mind with
the unique selling proposition and the strong attributes of the brand getting ingrained in their
minds working as a recall factor.
2. Justifies the pricing strategy
Yet another benefit of the Brand Positioning is that it helps the management of the
company to justify the pricing strategy. If the pricing of the products offered by the brand is
high owing to the feature of quality and class, and the Brand Positioning is formulated in such a
way that showcases the factors of quality and class, the pricing part gets automatically justified
in the minds of the customers. The same is applicable for the products that are reasonable and
affordable in nature and the positioning strategy is planned and executed accordingly.
3. Competitive advantage
A strong Brand Positioning that tactfully and strategically highlights the core values,
strengths, attributes, and the unique selling propositions of the brand enjoys the facet of
competitive advantage that results in accomplishing the objectives of higher sales, increased
market share, customer loyalty, attracting the new set of customers, and elevated profits.
4. Makes the brand more creative
There are quite many brands in the market offering the similar lines of products and
services to the same target market and audience but it is the Brand Positioning that makes one
brand different and unique from the other. And if the brand is able to come up with the
innovative and novel positioning strategy and execution, the brand is adorned with the tag of
the creative brand.
A good Brand positioning helps customers to resonate with the values and concepts of
brand and helps them to associate with it on a deeper level which is beyond buyer and seller
relationship. A positive positioning helps the brand to stand out amongst competitors and gain
competitive advantage along with the added market share.
What is a Brand Positioning Statement?
If you want to implement a Brand positioning, then you need a tool like a positioning
statement which helps you get more clarity on your objectives.
A Brand Positioning Statement is a positioning tool which helps the brand visualize its
products in the right target market with the right brand perception.
A brand might have multiple products in the market and it would want to know what is the
ideal brand perception to be achieved for each product. For example – a multi product, multi
category company like Unilever wants Dove to have a position of beauty and smooth skin in the
mind of customers. Whereas it wants its other product Lifebuoy to have a perception of a soap
meant for strength and safety from germs.
Thus, Unilever can use a perceptual map and decide on charting the brand positioning
statement for each of the brands that it operates in.
To make a brand positioning statement, a company can consider the 3 C’s of Marketing.
Customers – Be clear on your target market and be relevant to your customers to
occupy top of the mind awareness.
Company – Know thyself before planning your positioning statement. Do not set
unrealistic goals for your company which you cannot achieve.
Competitors – Clearly define who your competitors are for each brand that you are
trying to position. Wrong competitor mapping will result in wrong brand positioning for your
company.
Here is a Sample Brand Positioning Statement of Nike which also discusses the purpose of
Nike and the position they want to occupy in the customers mind.
8 Types of brand positioning strategies
1) Value-based Brand positioning
Value-based positioning has two approaches and both are based are very much dependent
on the quality of the product. They use a psychological approach which exploits the belief that
more expensive something is, the better it is. This increases the value in the minds of the
customer and the product is positioned as expensive and useful and good.
Alternatively, you can also position your brand as providing high quality and high value-
priced products or services. It is essential in value positioning that the company should first
establish the values of the product in the market for themselves to sell.
An excellent example of a strategy would be Southwest airlines which are offering
affordable flights to people along with free check-in luggage. Thereby Southwest airlines
establish its value in the minds of the customer.
2) Quality based Brand positioning
Positioning with the help of an important parameter like quality can be a very challenging
positioning strategy. Although it can be combined with other strategies and positioned easily.
Every business in the market nowadays is trying to establish quality and its commitment to
maintain it.
One unique way to distinguish your products amongst the competitors would be to narrow
the focus to a particular area of expertise and use that as branding strategy in terms of quality
positioning. For example, when it comes to audio everybody knows that Bose audio is the best,
they have positioned themselves in that way. There worked only on one parameter significantly
rather than working on all parameters simultaneously.
This makes them specialized in one feature thereby ensuring proper focus on the quality of
that particular feature. Another example would be BlackBerry mobile phones which used by
selective few in the market but seen as one of the best phones when it comes to security.
3) Competitor based positioning
Since the competition has increased companies are taking this strategy to demonstrate the
superiority amongst all other available competitors in the market. Right from insurance
companies to mobile phones every company establishes its supremacy by comparing their
products or services to other companies or direct competitors.
The messages are usually straight, clear and address the competition directly although
some may use an indirect reference to their competitors. An example would be, in 2017 iPhone
X was launched with the notch in the mobile for the first time in the industry. Samsung mocked
Apple by creating an ad in which a person if the notch stands in the line to buy new Apple
iPhone while a person who just switched from Apple to Samsung is depicted to be happier. This
was an indirect reference to Apple and its new phone while mocking its shortcomings.
In 2018, Google launched Pixel 3 with a premium feature called Night Sight. To promote
that feature during the launch event of the phone the company experts compared of pictures
clicked by phone then directly and side by side with a picture clicked by Google pixel 3 with
night sight. This would be an example of direct competitor-based positioning.
4) Benefit positioning
Working with the benefits of attributes and communicating those benefits to the customer
has been an old strategy followed by many brands. The strategy highlights the benefits of the
product or service to the customers and ensures that no competitors can copy them since they
unique to that particular brand. Sensodyne is an example which uses benefit positioning and
today is a premium toothpaste in the market of oral dentistry and oral hygiene. It has
positioned itself as an oral medical solution provider which customer can use on a day-to-day
basis to get rid of oral problems.
While other kinds of toothpaste focus on whitening and reducing the bad breath
Sensodyne has focused on medical aspects of oral hygiene which is a unique benefit in the
market and that has helped them to stand out.
5) Problem and solution positioning
Many brands present themselves as a solution provider to the problems of the customers.
The ideology behind such positioning is to demonstrate that this particular brand can help you
solve your problems instantly and efficiently. Banks, Insurances, and loans have started
themselves to a position as a solution provider.
Often advertised as ‘Need a loan? Contact us and we will get the loan Approved within
Minutes or Seconds with minimum documentation’ is the claim which is followed by many
banks thereby acting as a solution provider to the financial problems of the customer.
6) Price Positioning
As much as quality plays an important role in the product success price is an equally
important factor which determines the enormity of success of a particular brand. Why is there
are expensive brand positioning themselves as unique and niche, the appeal to a very limited
segment of customers who can afford to purchase them? There still remains a major bulk order
chunk of customers who are not able to purchase those nice products or services. It is to appeal
to these customers that price positioning is done by many Brands. One such example of price
positioning is Air Asia, which is the South Asian airline service, whose operations are based in
Malaysia.
The airline has successfully positioned itself as an economic service appealing to the middle
class and lower middle class and making foreign tours possible for them. While they may
compromise on the quality sometimes, the fact still remains that they are seen as the first
choice by every first-time flight travelers who cannot afford to travel by a luxury brand like
American airlines.
7) Celebrity-driven positioning:
Using celebrities as a spokesperson to endorse a particular category of product or services
has been a popular way for a long time. The aim of celebrity-driven positioning is to get the
attention of people and increase brand awareness and recognition by associating the product
or a brand with the glamorous personality of the particular celebrity. This is often an expensive
affair for the companies but they knowingly choose this method of splurging because of the fact
of familiarity and popularity of the celebrity.
This association of celebrity with the brand inspires many buyers who follow the celebrity
to buy the same brand and make them feel psychologically associated with the celebrity.
8) Leader-based positioning
Very few companies have opted for this route since to declare a market leader you would
require your brand to be the best and unique in the market. Many companies start with this
positioning but as competition increases, they fall out and the strategy needs to be revamped.
The best examples of long-term leadership-based positioning are done by Facebook. In the
segment of social media, Facebook is unique in terms of the services it provides and has the
greatest number of users associated with it.
Why there are other players like Instagram which is owned by Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat,
none of the services overlaps in the category of services provided by Facebook wild Facebook,
on the other hand, provides part of services that all of these provisions. With recent acquiring
of Instagram and WhatsApp Facebook has become the unrivalled leader in the industry of social
media.
