What Every Entrepreneur Must Know About Brand Positioning

Brand and brand positioning has always been elusive to the average business owner. Brand positioning is a very delicate idea with far-reaching consequences for businesses. And as an entrepreneur, you must understand that the results of your actions can either build and reinforce your brand’s image or shatter it. 

Your brand is the personality your business communicates through its name, logo, tone, and several other elements. This personality sets the stage for your brand’s relationship with its customers and its relationship with other brands. 

But then, since your business’s brand doesn’t exist as a physical construct—like a building—but only exists in the minds of your audience, there’s a great need for your brand to be positioned properly. 

A consistent brand is more important to customers than anything else since it helps them understand your business’ identity and personality.  

And to guide you on how to position your brand effectively, we’ll be taking a simple look at:

The Impact of Branding and Brand Positioning on Businesses

Branding is the act of creating a system that allows your consumers to recognize your products and services easily. Brand positioning, on the other hand, is the value buyers place on your firm that separates it from competitors.

Consider the following data:

• According to Fundera's research, 89% of people trust and remain loyal to businesses that reflect their beliefs, and 61% are more likely to purchase from companies that create unique content.
• According to Demand Metric, consistent brands are 3.5 times more renowned than inconsistent ones.
• Consumer Thermometer shows that 68% of men and 64% of women have an emotional attachment to their favorite brand.
• According to Gensler's survey, 94% of consumers are more likely to recommend firms they like to their friends.

The Successful Brand Positioning of Apple

Apple, one of the largest businesses globally, has a long-term vision that allowed it to stand tall as a dominant player in the market. Apple's success has been built on its solid brand position. And they did so by meticulously developing their:

• Core ideas: Pursuing technological innovation, next-gen design, and creativity.
• Brand strategy: Creating a valuable experience for customers that appeals to and integrates them into the Apple ecosystem.
• Position: Developing a strong track record as a luxury brand.
• Emotional marketing: Boosting consumer loyalty and trust.
• Customer segmentation:  Interacting with customers based on certain criteria like age, gender, income, and location.

Now that you know what brand positioning is and how it can make or break your company's success, it's vital to understand that properly positioning your firm will not be easy. 

So, to assist you, we evaluated various brand positioning techniques to discover how customers react to companies that take traditional positions against those that take a modern position.

So What was the Goal of This Research?

This research aimed to determine which brands audiences are fascinated by and how this varies by demographics.

The information we gathered will assist business owners who are starting or rebranding their small, midsize, or large firms in making fast, well-informed changes that will benefit them when position or finding the best business name ideas.

So, to help us fulfill the survey's objectives, we asked Americans if they would prefer to work with a known and reputable company or a fresh and innovative one. 

Why Did We Feel Compelled to Ask?

It's crucial to remember that establishing a tone is among the most vital and far-reaching branding decisions you'll make when starting or rebranding your company.

Founders, marketing teams, and management executives need the correct tone since it allows them to establish their brand image and how others perceive them.

Consider how the world might be different now if: 

• Instead of Amazon, Jeff Bezos had chosen Cadabra.
• Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs had named their firm Executex rather than Apple.
• Phil Knight hadn’t changed Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike.
• Larry and Sergey chose Backrub as the brand name of their company. 

Your company's entire identity, as well as client expectations, are influenced by your brand tone. When dealing with branding, your tone is vital, and you can't afford to disregard it when building your company.

And the purpose of our study was to see which clients would prefer modern businesses over traditional ones. We picked this path because deciding whether to position one’s brand as a fresh or vintage one is perhaps the most important decision an entrepreneur must make.

What the Research Revealed About Positioning

Even though the study's findings were not earth-shattering, the responses we received were pretty interesting. Here's a quick breakdown of what we discovered from the 301 people that took part: 

• Customers in their 20s and 30s were drawn to new enterprises, with more than half of those polled preferring new and developing businesses to well-known and respected ones.

• Young brands are preferred by 35 to 45-year-olds over established brands. But, this age group was evenly split between the two options.

• Audiences aged 45–54 and 55–65 were more interested in traditional and established brands.

• Traditional and respected businesses appeal to all those between the ages of 55 to 65.

• The data we received showed that men had no inclination either for modern or traditional companies. 

• Contrary to men, women prefer traditional and trusted brands to be modern and innovative ones.

• 153 of the 301 participants favored well-known and dependable businesses, while 148 selected fresh and innovative businesses. According to the survey, any company can take any stance they choose as long as it is in accordance with their intended audience.

What All of This Means

According to the findings, millennials prefer new, modern, inventive, and disruptive companies, whereas Boomers and Gen Xers prefer traditional brands.

If you want to appeal to a younger demographic, make sure your company has a distinct, current, and unique brand identity. If you're reaching an older customer base then make sure your company has a strong traditional identity.

Featured image by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash