Positioning Your Company for Success

Written by Kerry O'Malley Wednesday, 22 July 2009 21:07

Answer this question about your company, "Why should I buy from you?"

"Why should I buy from you" is what your customers and prospects ask themselves constantly when considering a purchase. Of course what they're really asking is "What's in it for me?"

A simple strategy for positioning your company or product deeply in your target market's mind is to develop a branding statement, or "unique selling proposition."  The idea is to identify and communicate a concise statement of your company's most compelling offer and benefit in a way that a potential customer can automatically answer the "what's in it for me" question.

Here are some examples:

• Hallmark: When you care enough to send the very best.
• Fedex: When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.
• Domino's Pizza: You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less -- or it's free.
• M & M's Candy: The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand.

OK, I know - these aren't industrial companies. (That's because not enough industrial companies use this strategy for marketing their business.)

So what's your compelling offer? What can you do and offer that no one else in your industry can offer? "Buy from us because we've been in business for 20 years," or "we're dependable," are over-used and really mean nothing. The fact that you are dependable, provide quality products, offer fair pricing, or are honest are expectations...they are not points of differentiation.

To craft a branding statement for your company first make a list of all the benefits of doing business with your company. Don't leave anything out.

Then cut the list down with these guidelines:

1. What things on your list are unique versus your direct competitors?
2. Which of these benefits is most important to your customers?
3. Which of these would be difficult for others in your industry to copy?
4. Which of these can be easily communicated?

From this set of guidelines you should be able to narrow your search to the top one or two benefits of doing business with your company. From there it's simply a matter of injecting this chief benefit or branding statement into everything you do.

Craft headlines for ads that promote your brand; put your branding statement on your stationary and business cards; build it into all of your sales presentations; make sure it's on every piece of communication that leaves your business, down to every email.

The ultimate goal is to become known to the market as whatever your branding statement promotes.

One final caveat: It's essential to deliver on the big promise communicated in your branding statement. Failure to do so may actually do more harm than good!.