What is Brand Positioning and Why Does it Matter?
Why trust EnticEdge?
At EnticEdge, we are healthcare and wellness business consultants dedicated to helping companies clarify and align around their competitive advantage, which we call your authentic edge! Our team brings 30+ years of healthcare expertise in strategic advising, value mapping, business consulting, client experience, team and cross-departmental alignment, and more, all tailored to helping teams achieve mission-driven growth.
Branding is a key element of your business’s marketing strategy. Developing the right logo, messaging, and company persona are important in building a brand, but they are not everything. For all these pieces to succeed, a focus on brand positioning is a must.
New players enter the healthcare and wellness market constantly as new medical technologies are developed and new customer needs are recognized. In today’s competitive markets, like the healthcare and wellness space, understanding and controlling your company’s brand positioning is critical. Brand positioning is about showing patients and consumers how your product or service is necessary amidst the overcrowded marketplace of alternatives and industry giants.
What is brand positioning?
The concept of branding is drilled into all steps of starting and expanding a business, but the notion of “brand positioning” is commonly overlooked. Brand positioning refers to the unique space a brand occupies in the marketplace in the minds of its target consumers. It shows consumers where you lie among the competitors in the market and is strongly dependent on how consumers perceive what you bring to the table. The key to guiding this perception is to have a grasp on these three contributors to your business’s position:
Your target consumer. Branding is meant to attract and persuade consumers to trust, connect with, and invest in your business. Brands need to identify the demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and pain points of their audience. If the positioning of your brand does not align with your audience, it’s unlikely to resonate. This is why you must understand all facets of your target audience’s needs, wants, and preferences to successfully position your brand in their minds.
Your differentiators. It will be nearly impossible for your business to take off if you cannot show your audience how and why your business is unique to the many others already populating the marketplace. Whether your product is revolutionary, your approach is fresh, or your patient experience is unmatched; identifying what component makes your business valuable, that is distinct from competitors, is how it will be accepted as a legitimate competitor itself.
Your competition. The current companies occupying the market have competitive advantages of their own as well as gaps that make entering the market possible. Positioning your business among them is not feasible without discerning their present standings. Maintaining a clear view of your competitors will ensure your business stays relevant and credible as brand positioning is dynamic and should evolve as the market does.
Ultimately, effective brand positioning helps consumers understand why they should choose your brand over another. It’s what allows consumers to hold unique opinions from one another and opens the doors for new businesses to be recognized and valued.
Why brand positioning is important.
In countless cases, if no direct effort is made to purposefully position a brand, it will organically find a spot in the market. However, this spot may not be optimal which is why having control over how your business infiltrates the market is ideal. Here are 5 reasons why positioning your brand is important:
To stand out. There are hundreds of thousands of healthcare and wellness companies globally. Brand positioning requires you to find your niche in the market, thus allowing you to infiltrate the busy market and become a notable brand.
To be recognized. Ordinarily, familiarity equals trust to the average consumer. Based on a survey by Nielsen, consumers are 59% more likely to buy a product if the brand is familiar to them. Thoughtful brand placement will help your business be more recognizable as it will inherently improve marketing and outreach efforts.
For profitability. Strong brand positioning allows you to stay true to what your product is worth and list it as such. When consumers perceive your brand as unique and valuable, they are often willing to pay more for it.
To achieve customer loyalty and trust. Throughout the healthcare and wellness industries, the quality and reputation of a brand is strongly considered by potential customers as well as the emotional connections they form with brands. Brand positioning depends on successfully tugging on ethos which ultimately fosters long-term loyalty.
To maintain consistency. Brand positioning is based on pinpointing a concise quality of your business’s personality or product that’s unique and revolving your marketing around it. This ensures that your company’s messaging is clear and consistent which in turn builds credibility with customers.
Effective brand positioning requires messaging and value proposition clarity and strong team alignment. EnticEdge is a strategic advising firm specializing in just that. If you are ready to pursue intentional growth for your healthcare business, we hope to be the consultants you can trust.
To clarify your messaging and elevate your branding, give us a call.
