Market Positioning

Sometimes my favorite thing in the world is hopping in the car with my wife and our cameras; we have no plan, no road map, just a free day and the spirit of adventure. The sense of freedom is exhilarating, the journey into the unknown is what I live for – feel free to follow me on instagram if this interests you – because that is the last I will talk about doing anything without a plan. The “great unknown” is amazing in your personal life, but there is absolutely NO PLACE for it in your business. Some companies appear to be a man in the back of his pickup truck, living for the thrill of it – and that’s exactly what they want you to think.

The recent successes of Clark Little and Chris Burkard (while we’re on the subject of photography and instagram) would lead most people to believe that anyone with a passion and motivation can be successful; what you don’t see is the marketing genius behind companies like these – yes they are companies, and yes they are hugely successful from following their passion – but they have been very diligent in their market positioning.

With this post I do not intend to answer every single question that you have about market positioning, to be completely honest I don’t think that I could do that with 100 posts! Many people have made amazing careers by focusing on the subject – if you’re looking for something a little more eccentric, you should definitely check out the “Ask Gary Vee Show”. My goal is to help you understand that Market Positioning exists, and it is critically important to the success of your company, no matter what field you are in.

The technical definition would be: “An effort to influence consumer perception of a brand or product relative to the perception of competing brands or products. Its objective is to occupy a clear, unique, and advantageous position in the consumer’s mind.” (according to Business Dictionary) but that’s boring. Market Positioning is everything that you do for your company that is available to be viewed by your potential customers; every time you hit “publish”, “tweet” or “post” – you have to be thinking “does this reflect how I want my brand to be viewed?”

The reason that big brands spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on “branding” isn’t because they’re bored and the money is burning a hole in their pocket – it’s because they are trying to establish or improve their market positioning. The athletic apparel company Nike spends millions on ad campaigns and celebrity endorsements is to further the thought in your mind that they are the top apparel company in the world! Are you really going to run faster, jump higher and train harder because you’re wearing their apparel? Probably not – but when you go to the store for a pair of basketball shoes, or running shorts – Nike will be right in your face, and that’s exactly where they want to be.

Let me just start by saying, I LOVE my clients, I honestly have not worked with a single company or client that I wouldn’t recommend highly to my best friends. That being said, the main issue that always needs to be addressed (because they never addressed it before) is – What is your market positioning strategy? Seriously – What is yours? I’m guessing that you have a general idea about who you want to sell to or work for, you probably know where most of these people browse/shop/live. Have you thought about the amount of effort that you put in to reaching these people and only these people?

If you haven’t thought about your market positioning, and have an ad campaign on any social media or paid platform do yourself a favor and take it down right now. I talk to too many people who have “given up” on paid advertising and rarely post on social media because it is “ineffective”. Yes, your efforts may have been ineffective, and yes, it is frustrating, but we can help! Shoot us an e-mail, comment on this blog post, hit us up on facebook – get in contact with us and we can save you time, money, and effort.

Your job is to serve your customers: whether that’s providing landscape materials, selling houses, or promoting that next concert. Our job is to make your company look good while doing it, and to maximize your return on investment (ROI). I’ve personally spent 4 years in college (and countless more) focusing how to maximize your ROI, how to boost your search engine results, and how to analyze the effectiveness of my efforts. I’m a marketing nerd, product specialist, statistician and computer geek all wrapped up into one. It’s my job to help you – Maximize your ROI by investing your marketing budget wisely. My goal is to help you work smarter, not harder.