Speaker 1: In a sea of pricey marketing campaigns and new business ventures arising daily, you may be thinking, how can my brand earn people's trust and give my business the inside track? Well, unfortunately, bad news first. I'm here to tell you that it's not enough just to have a great product or service. You need to control the narrative around how you're perceived by the outside world. This is called your competitive advantage. It is the single most compelling reason people should buy from you. And in order to craft this narrative, your branding needs to be based on a clear strategy of how to manage and influence public perception. That's why you should hire me as your PR manager. No, just kidding. In this video, we're going to dive into how you can build a more compelling positioning and stronger branding and the crucial building blocks you need to have in place in order to make that happen. Positioning is a huge undertaking. No one company is the same, and there will be specificities in your niche that you'll need to take account of. But there are common questions and exercises you can do to help you get close to the answer. To ground this topic in something more familiar, we'll be taking a look at Arcteryx, a high performance outdoor clothing and equipment company, to show how a positioning exercise can manifest itself in real life. The first thing is to learn from your competition. When someone in your target audience searches for a cure to their problem, they probably won't be looking for you specifically. Unless, of course, you've already solved the positioning problem. In which case, I'm not sure why you're watching this video, but I'm glad that you're here. Instead, they'll be looking for a solution to their problem and assessing the best provider of that solution. So you'll need to take stock of the competition. Let's take a super successful company like Arcteryx. They provide high-end outdoor wear. They're not cheap, but they're one of the best-owned brands out there. How do they stand out from the competition? To figure that out, you'll need to explore questions like, what are your competitors offering? For Arcteryx, that meant examining things like their competitors' production. Most other outerwear manufacturers produce their clothes cheaply abroad. Arcteryx chose to produce its clothes on-site in Canada. Style is another factor. Many outdoor retailers were revamping designs and patterns without drastically changing the actual quality of their products. Arcteryx chose to make iterative changes to gradually compound the quality of its clothes, rather than making superficial changes. So take stock of the areas your competitors are clustering around. What are the commonalities between them? What language do they all use? If they all talk the same, maybe you need to have a different tone of voice to stand out. Another question is, where are your audience's needs not being met? Serious outdoor people, the ones who climb mountains and laugh in the face of frostbite, not me, want to know that they're equipped with clothing and products that are built to last, no matter how harsh the conditions get, especially if they've paid a lot of money for it. Arcteryx has a laser focus on sustainability. They don't want you to have to buy three jackets from them. They'd rather you only need one that lasts and performs. That's a brand people are willing to pay extra for. So what's your brand's equivalent? The better you understand these things, the faster you'll identify gaps you alone can fill. Some key questions to ask are, what's the change in the world that's made my product or service a must-have? People don't like change. They're only going to start or stop a behavior if they believe their place in the world is going to drastically improve or worsen. So think about the change in the world that makes your brand the best partner to lead them through that change and not your competitors. You should also ask, what's possible for your customers once they've chosen you as a partner? What's the new potential? Envision what your customer's lives will be like with your product. To zero in on what that could look like, let's talk about the next step of your positioning, identifying your USP or unique selling proposition. What does your business offer that no one else can? A gap in the market isn't enough. You need something unique to fill that gap and heal the pain caused by that gap. More than that, you need to back it up. If you make empty claims, you'll get found out very fast. And I'm not saying that's coming from personal experience, but don't you dare Google Jamal hoax scandal 2022. So your USP needs to be authentic and fundamentally true. Arc'teryx has put evolution at the heart of its brand, right down to its logo. Its products are in a continuous process of improvement. Do you help people do new things or the same things, but better? Can you solve a specific problem faster? Is your product or service of a higher quality? That's a claim consumers hear a lot. So if it is, how? Arc'teryx aren't afraid to get into the specifics. They fuse quality materials from suppliers like Gore-Tex and Polartec to create the very best materials. Or are you cheaper? If you are, how can a potential customer trust that you'll do as good of a job as a more expensive competitor? Figure out your point of difference and lean into it. From there, you can start to build a brand positioning strategy. First, clarify what your business stands for. Figure out the pains it solves, who it helps, why your way is unique, and the payoff that happens when someone chooses you. The more tightly you can articulate your positioning, the more focused your messaging and the more compelling your brand will ultimately be. So with Arc'teryx, they're unashamed that they make clothes for hikers, runners, and explorers. They don't try to push loungewear or formal wear. Their clothes are for the outdoors. They live and breathe it. They believe it. And so do their customers. I haven't even bought anything from them, and I'm starting to think, no, geez, maybe I should go on more hikes. You know what I'm saying? An example positioning for your brand should include all the elements and go something like this. The way people are buying in our part of the world is changing. It's never been harder to do this, which means it's never been more important for providers to offer this. Because when we do, it doesn't just help customers continue to do the same things well, but it also unlocks a whole new world of opportunities that you can only tap into in this new world. We're here to help make that possible. Here's how. If your positioning includes these elements, my friend, you're going to be golden. And I'm not talking the Harry Styles song, although that is a mayhem. One more thing to note about your positioning. It should be just as much an internal guide as an external message. Everyone in your company should believe in it and feel that it's authentic to your brand. Pull together an internal document of the rationale for your brand's positioning. Share it across the business and make it easily accessible. You need people to believe in your positioning before your customers can. Also, and this is really important, don't be afraid to say who your brand isn't for. Bold and honest brands are open about who they can and can't help. Your competitive advantage should attract the right people and turn away the wrong ones. It'll save you and the customer a lot of time if you're both confident about what you do or don't want from each other. So don't try to be all things to all people. A niche brand will find a broad audience. When you've found your USP and articulated it through your positioning, it's time for the rubber to hit the road. You need to put in the work in the real world. So it's crucial you choose the right marketing channels for your brand. Your positioning is no use in a vacuum. You need as many eyeballs, hearts, and minds as you can get. So when you're assessing your marketing channels, ask yourself these questions. Where does your target audience spend their leisure time? What people do with their time says a huge amount about what they value. Whether they're socializing, looking up new ways to do things, building, creating, learning, the more you can learn about their leisure habits, the more you can tailor your marketing to meet them in places where you can add value to their day-to-day lives. Places they could be include channels like social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, visual platforms like Pinterest, video platforms like YouTube, or communities like Substack, LinkedIn, or Reddit. We've done a whole video on persona research, including figure out what your prospects truly value and where to find them. The link is in the video's description. Link to this is understanding where your consumers spend their money. Do they prefer to buy in store or online? If they do buy online, do they make purchases through the original store or with Amazon or through social media? You should also get a sense of where they go for information and advice. This will give you a sense of what sources potential buyers deem trustworthy. Hopefully, I'm one of those sources. Amen. Finally, you need to track their progress and adapt your strategy. Once you know where your positioning is most likely to make an impact, you need to track its effectiveness. Successful businesses have started from scratch or rethought how they sell completely. It's a clear sign that you need to continuously examine and refine your competitive brand and strategy to stay ahead of the game. Some simple ways to track progress include ask people, conduct surveys on brand loyalty and advocacy. Surveys like net promoter scores and customer satisfaction are good indicators of customer sentiment. Another way is brand awareness. Do people recognize a brand? What are they associated with? This will give you a better sense of whether your brand has penetrated consumers' minds and become part of the consideration process. Market share and sales data can show if your brand resonates with consumers. Market share is one of the most revealing indicators of whether your competitors are competitive branding is working. The best competitive branding is delivering. It doesn't just emerge off the back of a great product or service. It needs constant support, evaluation, and tweaking. It's the best of you for all the world to see, so get excited about it because at the end of the day, bringing out your competitive advantage is fun and it matters a lot. It'll help you sell more products more often, give you and your fellow employees a cause to stand behind, and it'll make your consumers happier. If you're ready to start building your competitive advantage, we've got you covered, my friend, like a swaddled baby. You can get our free guide on how to build a consistent brand right here and tell us in the comments below what makes your brand stand out. Make sure you subscribe to the channel and check back every week for the latest and greatest marketing tips and best practices. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go competitively brand myself as the guy who needs some cookies, all right? I need people to know that I'm hungry for a nice chocolate chip Mrs. Fields ooey gooey. Hit me up, please. Until then, I'll see you next time. I can't find this client info. Have you heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform, so it shares its data across every application. Every team can stay aligned. No out of sync spreadsheets or dueling databases. HubSpot. Grow better.