Effective Competitive Positioning Strategies for Success

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EAGER BEAVER PROJECT TEAM GROUP 5 PRESENTATION WORK REPORT BY: SYLVIA ONGAKI- 21S01ABT005 MARYANNE GATUMBI-21J01ABA087 HARDLEY SHIWANI-20S01AIBM014 ANGWANGO VALENTINE-19S01APS016 QUINTER ODHIAMBO-19J01APS043 PAMELA MUTHENGI-20S01ABA057 EMMACULATE SILANTOI-19M01APS056 JONNES MAKEMWA-20S01ABA059 ONESMAS KIBITOK-20S01ABA059 STELLA NDEGWA-20S01APS022 MAGDALENE KOKI-20S01AIBM009 SHARON NJUGUNA-20S01ABA068 NOAH WANJOYA-21S01ABA005 IGNATIUS ONDIEKI-18M01ABED019 COMPETITIVE POSITIONS QUESTIONS ARGUE FOR THE VALUABLE COMPETITIVE POSITION FOR A FIRM DISCUSS THE GENERIC COMPETITIVE POSITIONS THAT A FIRM MAY ADAPT AND SUGGEST THE BEST POSITIONS VALUABLE COMPETITIVE POSITION FOR A FIRM This term is brought about by increasing the value of your company by finding a niche for your company’s product to appeal to the specific needs of its customers. This is done by the use of various elements namely: Market Category Target Audience

Unique selling proposition Brand Differentiation Brand Personality Brand Identity Pricing Strategy ELEMENTS OF POSITIONING STRATEGY. Positioning is simply the place that you want your brand or business to be within your targeted market. There are seven elements of positioning namely: 1) Market Category Deciding which market category, subcategory or creating a new category to position a brand under is an important decision. Market categories are not created equal, and allocating resources to a strategic market category can be the difference between success and failure. So before you start developing your brand positioning strategy, think about what type of market category you want to compete in. Ask yourself questions like: • Who is my target audience? • What do I have that no one else does? • Who are my competitors? And what makes me different from them? In some cases, where the market is highly crowded or considered a red ocean market (lots of businesses fighting each other) it can be worth positioning your brand in a sub- category or creating an entirely new category (blue ocean) for your positioning strategy. this can reduce the number of competitors you have to compete against or remove any competition altogether. This is a great way to build a unique brand with a focused target audience and unique value proposition but it does come with a trade off, brands that create new categories or enter into lesser-known sub-categories will also have to market and promote the category as well as the brand. For example the first-ever energy drink had to first market what energy drinks were and the benefits to the target audience alongside attaching their brand to that category. Positioning Strategy Categories 2) Target Audience A brand positioning strategy is what defines your brand and sets you apart from the competition. If done right, it will help grow your audience and make them more likely to buy your product or service. To do this, you’ll need to know who your target audience is. Knowing the personality traits of your target audience will allow you to tailor messaging to their specific needs and concerns. For example, if you’re selling athletic shoes, marketing to people who have an active lifestyle will be different than targeting someone who doesn’t exercise at all.

Understanding your target audience and the pain points, aspirations, fears and objections they have will help you to craft a focused and targeted brand positioning and value proposition to resonate with this audience. A key part of effective brand positioning is relevancy to your target audience if they are confused by or don’t understand your category or the role you play in their life they will likely never buy from you and struggle to remember you. Effective positioning and brand memorability go hand in hand the better more on point your positioning strategy is the more chance of audience recognition and buy-in you’ll have. Beyond demographics, your audience’s psychographics are important to understand how they think, feel, act and their consumer habits, it is in these triggers, values and beliefs that can help you to craft a positioning ing strategy that is relevant and tailored to their specific needs, challenges and desires. Brand Positioning Strategy Target Audience 3) Identify your unique selling proposition What makes your business different from others? This is the first question you need to answer when developing your brand positioning strategy. Your USP, or Unique Selling Proposition defines what sets your business apart from competitors and how you add value to the target audience. USPs usually take shape in one of two ways: 1) through a product or service benefit, such as guaranteed satisfaction; 2) through how the product is positioned in the marketplace, such as The World’s Best Apples. To begin to uncover your USP you can go through a process of listing everything that makes you different and whittling this down to 2 or 3 top options that the competition can’t claim (so do your research first). Then think about how you would market each of these USP’s the one that is easier to build upon, generate creative ideas for and come up with marketing campaigns for is normally the one to focus on. Your unique selling proposition also wants to be simple and concise so you don’t confuse your audience or hinder memorability. Avoid generic USP’s, for example, ‘customer service’ this is something your customers will expect and the majority of businesses talk about and unless you are going to go the lengths of Zappos and be the world’s best at customer service avoid these easily replicated propositions. Branding is about deliberate differentiation first and foremost and also building a defensible position for your business if you follow everyone else you break both of these rules. 4) Brand Differentiation Differentiation is an important part of any positioning strategy and can take many forms. Whether you want to differentiate your brand on the basis of price, quality, brand experience, product design, visual identity, personality or something else entirely, differentiation is key to ensuring that your brand stands out from the competition. In order to develop a successful marketing strategy, it’s important to understand what sets you apart from other brands in the same space and to continually double down on this in your campaigns, organic marketing and through your team. As said above branding is about deliberate differentiation and you can do this across every area in your business

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from the business model as Dollar Shave Club did in the razor market with a subscription model or through simplifying an industry through innovative product design like Apple did. The more ways you can differentiate the better and especially want to utilise your own brand personality and visual identity. A lot of businesses copy the competition in the way they market, how they market and how they present themselves and in some cases you have whole industries whereby you can’t tell the difference between the companies in them, these stagnant markets are ready for disruption and change. Brand Differentiation Strategy 5) Brand Personality Brand personality is an important part of your brand positioning strategy. It can play an instrumental role in communicating with your customers, and it’s what distinguishes you from competitors. By aligning your brand with a personality, you’ll be able to better identify who should be targeted as the end user (i.e., high-end vs budget-conscious), which in turn will help you create more targeted marketing messages. Once you understand your target audience and have crafted your value proposition and differentiation strategy you’ll be better placed to develop your brand’s personality and one of the best ways to do this is to use brand archetypes to create an archetype mix unique to you that can distinguish you from the competition. Archetypes are distinctive character personalities that have been in use for thousands of use in stories, mythology and throughout history. They are also roles we take throughout our lives depending on certain situations and we also look for people to fill these roles in our life at different times we are hard-wired to recognise these characters and seek them out at different times. Each archetype is aligned with a customer need or desire so If you know your target audience is feeling at the point just before interacting with your brand you can build your brand’s personality type on the archetype they are seeking. An example of this is a businessman who is middle-aged and works for a large financial institution in the city, they go to work everyday same routine to the same office, in a large grey building to a small cubicle and rinse and repeat every day. It doesn’t take much to realise that he might be craving freedom, rebellion and the open road, this alerts his mind to look out for or seek brands, opportunities and life events aligned with rebellion, freedom and potentially at the extreme anarchy. This is why a brand like Harley Davidson jumps out at him at this point in his life and Harley Davidson communicates the spirit of the Outlaw Archetype by showcasing images of open roads and non-conformity. They also mix the outlaw with the Explorer utilising symbols of wings and the Everyperson leaning into the spirit of community. If you create a well-defined brand personality it can tune a dull bland brand into an impactful, magnetic offering for your audience that if done correctly will draw your ideal audience to you. Brand Personality 6) Brand Identity What does your brand identity say about your brand? Your brand identity can be anything from the company’s name, to its logo, to the tone in which it communicates with

customers. The role that your brand identity plays in your positioning strategy depends on what you want people to know about your product or service. To do this, you must first decide on the type of positioning strategy you would like to use and then choose an identity that best suits it. Your branding should match your positioning strategy because a poor match will lead to confusion among consumers and even cause them to negatively associate themselves with the brand. Your brand identity is made up of four layers: Core (Heart of the brand) – The foundation for an effective brand identity includes purpose, vision, mission and values Strategy (Brain of the brand) – The strategic aspect to your brand includes positioning and differentiation Communication (Personality of the brand) – The way you communicate to your audience includes personality, tone of voice, messaging and marketing Design (Face of the brand) – The visual aspect to your brand includes logo, colours, fonts, collateral, signage, product design, packaging In order to effectively position your brand these four layers need to be unified and in complete alignment. Brand Identity Design Agency 7) Price Your pricing strategy will play a major role in your brand positioning strategy, especially if you’re selling to consumers. It’s important to consider what position you want your brand to take in the market and how competitive pricing will affect that position. For example, if you want your brand to be seen as affordable and accessible, then having low prices is key. However, if you want to offer high-end luxury goods for an exclusive clientele then higher prices are more appropriate. You should also think about price from the perspective of customer psychology. Some people associate lower prices with great value while others associate higher prices with quality products. In order to figure out which approach is best for your brand, it would be smart to conduct research on who your target customer base is and what they believe about pricing related topics such as value and cost effectiveness. Pricing Strategy Brand Positioning Example One of the most successful examples of brand positioning done well is Nike. Their slogan Just Do It captures the essence of their brand in just six words. The slogan makes it easy to understand what Nike stands for and why they are different from other brands. This positioning also created a sense of urgency that has led to decades of success for Nike. In contrast, GM had been struggling for years before deciding to abandon its position as America’s best-selling car company and instead focus on being a mobility company. They abandoned their iconic logo, saying goodbye to more than 100 years of branding. However, this pivot didn’t work out too well because GM still owns many car brands. If you know how strong the original GM was at one point in time, seeing them now can be heartbreaking—especially if you’re an old-school fan who remembers when big three automakers were synonymous with America’s automotive industry.

Conclusion A brand positioning strategy is important for any business, regardless of size or industry. The key to positioning your brand for success is having a strategy that’s tailored to your unique business and situation. Our guide has helped you work through the seven essential elements needed to craft your own successful positioning strategy. Now it’s time to start implementing what you’ve learned! GENERIC COMPETITVE POSITION A firm relative position within its industry determine whether a firm’s profitability is above or below the industry average. The fundamental basis of above average profitability in the long run is sustainable competitive advantage. There are two basic types of competitive advantage a firm can process: low cost or differentiation In lower cost it has: cost leadership and cost focus. In differentiation it has: differentiation and differentiation focus GENERIC COMPETITIVE POSITION DIAGRAM BEST POSITION OF GENERIC COMPETITIVE POSITIVE In this we choose lower cost because : It has Cost Leadership- in cost leadership a firm sets out to become the low cost producer in its industry. The sources of cost advantage are varied and depend on the structure on the industry. They may include the pursuit of economies of scale, proprietary technology, preferential access to raw materials and other factors. A low cost must find and exploit all sources of cost advantage. If a firm can achieve and sustain overall cost leadership then it will be an above average performer in its industry, Provided it can command prices at or near the industry advantage. The second point is Cost Focus- A cost focused strategy is when an organization tries to attract potential customers solely based on pricing. Organization that employ this strategy tries to beat their rival’s prices for the least value for their goods on the market. Organizations that apply this method frequently target a definite market segment. The generic strategy of workers rest on the choice of a narrow competitive scope within an industry. The focuser select a segment or group of segments in the industry and tailors

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its strategy to serving them to the exclusion of others. IMPORTANCE OF COMPETITIVE POSITION 1. Inspiration It forces businesses to innovate their products. It inspires team spirit among employees at a company. A lot of teams bond through having a common goal. One of those goals could be surpassing the competition in sales, new customers, or market share. Competition inspires growth, progress, and creativity. When things get competitive, you might take a bigger risk in the hopes of a big reward. You can’t just stay the same and hope to keep your customers as times change and new names enter your industry. 2. Partnerships A good relationship with competitors can result in several mutual benefits. Networking can lead to shared tips or sending helpful content or events to each other. Not every business around you is competition. That restaurant next to your movie theatre is not competing with you. In fact, it’s probably increasing your traffic. Who doesn’t want to go see a movie after they fill their stomachs with delicious food? Complementary businesses are teaming up everywhere to host events or give their customers promotions for the other business. This teamwork benefits both businesses greatly through exposure and more customers. 3. Customers Competition is good for consumers because it gives them better prices and more choices. Since competition makes customers happier, it’s good for your business. How would you feel if you could only have Almond Joys for the rest of your life because Snickers and Reese’s peanut butter cups were never invented? That would be a sad life for people who love peanuts or don’t like coconuts. It’s true that Almond Joys would get less business with this new competition. However, customers would be much happier. In a world of candy bar choices, now Almond Joy serves the customers that really love their candy. Competition creates brand loyalty that is otherwise non-existent. Now, you have people who advocate for Almond Joys and those who are loyal to Reese’s peanut butter cups. 4. SWOT Competition encourages companies to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats by doing a SWOT analysis. Businesses should recognize their strengths and capitalize on them. Weaknesses should be recognized and addressed. 5. Learning What better way to learn about how to effectively appeal to customers than by observing another successful business in your industry? If you are that successful business, then don’t feel threatened when other companies follow your lead. You should be flattered that your business is doing well enough to be copied. Even if you’re at the top, you can always learn something from your competition. Maybe there’s one minor change you can make to drastically improve your success. Whether your competition is successful or not, you can learn from their effective decisions and their mistakes. 6. Customer service How do you keep your customers and steal customers from the competition? Better customer service is a good start. The more expensive the purchase a customer is making,

the more important customer service is. Your employees have to work harder to keep customers interested in your business since there are plenty of other options. This requires you to choose your customer service staff carefully and make sure that they have the motivation to help customers in any way they can. Even if customers aren’t buying something, they should be treated with the same care and respect as the buying customers. This might encourage them to come back or spread good words about your business. When your customer service improves, your company’s image improves with it. 7. Niche When your market is saturated by competitors that are all the same, your business could stand out above the crowd. Focus on what makes your company special. Your competitive advantage, superior customer service, or high quality products should be evident to customers. Competition splits up the market into groups of people that are loyal to different brands. If your company is truly unique and offers value to customers, you will get some loyal customers.

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