Only Promise What you Can Deliver

Positioning is the way customers think about your company’s brand, explains Michael Goodman. It is their perceptions and emotions. Although you don’t own the positioning, understanding how customers think about your brand can help you influence potential customers.

Before you try to change perceptions, you need to be clear on what you want your positioning to be. Goodman outlines four steps for developing a good positioning statement:

Know your audience. Think in specifics, Goodman recommends. By defining your audience clearly you will find the sweet spot—attracting the people most likely to need or want your product or service.

Identify what your audience considers the most important benefit. This may not be the same benefit you envision, cautions Goodman, which is why you may want to conduct some market research to ensure that you understand what your target audience really wants and needs.

Determine the level of benefit you can promise. This could be simple or involve defining a higher-level emotional reason for the audience to purchase your product or service.

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