The purpose of writing a positioning statement is to ensure that all your marketing activities for a customer group are consistent and clear. (And having a positioning statement saves you tons of time in the long run.) Initially, focus on writing a positioning statement that’s used only internally. In the future, you may end up using it for other purposes, such as in your marketing collateral, but if you throw that possibility into the mix the first go around, crafting a statement that makes sense may be more difficult. Use your value proposition to build your positioning statement.
To write your positioning statement, follow these steps:
- Select the target customer group you want to focus on.
- Develop a list of needs your customer group has that you intend to meet by conducting customer research (if not already included in your customer profile).
- List your product or service’s benefits that uniquely meet these needs.
- Use the lists of customer needs and product or service benefits to finish this sentence: “When this customer group thinks of my product or service, I want them to think…”
- Evaluate your positioning statement to make sure that it’s simple, clear, and consistent.
- Get the word out to everyone by consistently communicating your positioning message in everything your company does for this customer group.
Don’t forget: The customer does the real positioning by paying attention and deciding to buy your product or service. What you do have control over is assessing what positions exist in the customer’s mind and then determine which of those positions you have the best chance of occupying and defending based on your own strengths.
