What Is Competitive Positioning? (Examples & Types) - YouTube

What's up brand builder Stephen Houraghan here at  BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video you're  

going to learn what competitive positioning is  with top brand examples and types so you can see  

how leading brands use strategy to influence  their audience with competitive communication  

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the term competitive positioning sounds like an  intimidating business term to describe a complex  

topic and to add to the apparent complexity you'll  often hear the term used interchangeably with  

a number of equally complex sounding terms such  as positioning strategy differentiation strategy  

or competitive differentiation but semantics  aside these are all more or less the same topic  

which is not that complicated at all and  once you understand it then you can define  

a positioning strategy for your brand to give  your brand a competitive edge and to maneuver  

into a position of strength but the reality  is competitive positioning more often than not  

is overlooked or completely avoided  by many entrepreneurs business leaders  

and even professional branded builders as well  it is the cornerstone of brand strategy though  

the strategy of a brand is still a new concept  to some with many business leaders going for  

the easy and more cost effective route which is  to develop a visual brand without considering  

a strategy but as is often the case there  are consequences to taking shortcuts and  

when it comes to branding without a competitive  positioning strategy you just have a brand without  

a compelling reason for the audience to choose  it now in his time philip cutler was defined as  

the father of modern marketing and he defines  competitive positioning as the act of designing  

the companies offering an image to occupy a  distinctive place in the mind of the target market  

now if we were to define it in a little  more conversational language then  

your competitive position is the defining reason  that your customers choose your brand or your  

competitors so what's the difference between  competitive positioning and competitor positioning  

well these two are often confused  competitive positioning relates to the  

competitive edge of your brand while competitor  positioning relates to the competitive edge  

of the competition so before defining your  competitive position in the market it is important  

that you understand who else is playing in the  market and what their position is for example if  

car brand a has developed a reputation as the most  economical in a category then car brand b rather  

than competing on that decision-making factor  might position themselves as the most reliable  

so before defining an effective competitive  positioning strategy you have to really understand  

who the competitors are in the market and exactly  what they're doing with their own strategy so what  

is a positioning map well this is also known as a  perceptual map a positioning matrix a perceptual  

matrix these are all really the same terms  used interchangeably they're all referring to  

this perceptual map or this competitive positional  map and it's simply a tool that allows brand  

strategists to compare decision-making factors and  visualize the competitive landscape the comparison  

allows for two decision-making variables to be  considered with brands within the category so  

you'll have a look at the decision-making factors  within a certain category and then you would plot  

the brands based on their reputation on that map  so for example to visualize the economy family  

car market we might use the positional map to  consider fuel economy and reliability variables  

then you would plot the brands on that map based  on the reputation in the market now the positional  

map is a tool that's been around for many decades  and although it's not an exact science it is a  

great way to visualize the market to see where  your competitors are playing and to identify gaps  

and opportunities now when it comes to competitive  positioning there are many different approaches  

that a brand can use to position themselves in  the market and to provide their audience with  

a compelling reason to choose them over their  competitors but the key is in understanding  

the buying decision factors that your audience  places a high value on and creating a perfect  

combination to appeal to them so here are some  examples of competitive positioning approaches  

against brand positioning now this approach uses  another brand another category or another audience  

as a reference point of their difference so this  strategy essentially points the finger at their  

opposite and says we're the opposite of these guys  whether that's a brand or a group of people now it  

is a bold strategy but it's a very effective  one especially if the audience has a beef  

with the point of reference for example the dollar  shave club indirectly used gillette's expensive  

feature heavy razors as a point of focus and  they highlighted the pain points of the audience  

and then they offered them an alternative  the next example is experience positioning  

now this approach puts a focus on the entire  end-to-end experience of the brand rather than a  

single focal point or a single feature throughout  any experience there may be many different pain  

points that hamper the overall experience  of the audience and experience positioning  

tends to iron out these pain points and then  communicates their absence to the whole market  

and in doing that they tell the market look  our end-to-end experience is our unique point  

of difference jetblue was one of the first  airlines to disrupt air travel in the u.s  

coming into a market where competitive fares  and comfortable travel were mutually exclusive  

jetblue placed the focus on the entire  experience so competitive affairs extensive  

in-flight entertainment comfortable leather  seating and additional leg room they place  

the focus on the entire end-to-end experience  and that's what they communicated to the market  

now today with all of the digital advantages  that we have it's pretty easy to start  

a business but it's not enough to simply provide  a solution to a problem every single business in  

the world has some kind of solution to some kind  of problem and you know that's not enough anymore  

taking a competitive position forces you to look  at the competitive landscape from the shoes of  

your audience and if you spend enough time in the  shoes of your audience and ask the right questions  

you're far more likely to find a competitive  position and ultimately an edge of your  

competition now if you're ready to define a  competitive position for your brand or for a  

client's brand and you're looking for inspiration  for an approach to that position then this video  

will help you out until next time brand like  a master and I'll see you in the next video