When you want to boost sales or increase awareness of the products or services your company offers, the key lies in understanding consumers. Especially when similar products or services are abundant, it’s crucial for yours to stand out.

Creating a positioning map helps understand where your company stands and aids in branding. It also highlights areas where you excel compared to competitors. This not only helps identify appealing points for effective marketing but also visualizes strengths that might not have been apparent.

When there’s a need to chart a new course due to declining sales for SEO consultants, positioning maps prove highly effective. Additionally, touching on companies that have succeeded through positioning provides valuable insights for creating your own map.

Understanding Marketing Positioning

Positioning involves clearly defining your company’s or product’s place in the market and communicating it to customers. In a crowded market, having many competitors means there are plenty of choices for consumers. To ensure your product stands out, it’s essential to understand its attractiveness, strengths, and weaknesses and make precise appeals.

Positioning proves immensely helpful in such scenarios.

The Importance of Positioning

There are two key reasons why positioning is important.

-STP Analysis 

-Company Branding

Positioning is one part of STP analysis. STP stands for the first letters of three words:

-Segmentation 

-Targeting 

-Positioning

Segmentation refers to grouping similar consumers based on their knowledge, values, and usage patterns of a particular product. For instance, when introducing a new planner, the needs for weekly and monthly planners differ.

In this case, we have two segments: weekly and monthly. Targeting involves deciding how to appeal to these segments with your company or product.

For instance, with weekly planners, there are distinctions between business, household, and student uses, influencing size, design, and functionality. By further segmenting those seeking weekly planners, we can consider how to leverage unique advantages, attractiveness, and strengths not offered by competitors.

Once targeting is established, we consider how to deliver the value of our company or product. This is where positioning comes in. Even if other companies offer similar products, there’s always something unique about yours. By emphasizing what sets us apart, we aim for differentiation.

For instance, if selling weekly planners to students, designs that students would like to share on social media or planners with study plans and tracking features could be considered. For household use, planners that track weekly expenses or manage the schedules of the entire family could be convenient.

Other considerations might include the quality of paper, writing experience, or integration with smartphones, social media, or apps.

In summary, for effective appeal and selection, STP analysis, and consequently positioning, are essential.

Furthermore, positioning is crucial for establishing the concept and identity of your company or product, in other words, branding. By clarifying our company’s direction and position, we can identify weaknesses and discern markets to target.

Creating a Positioning Map

Creating a positioning map allows for a visually clear and concrete strategy. The process for making a positioning map is as follows.

1.Identify important factors from your company’s target (KBF)

2. Extract what influences purchasing decisions from these factors

3.Compare the KBFs of your company and competitors’ products or services. 

4.Create and analyze the positioning map.

As an example, let’s create a positioning map targeting households with children who have allergies, using Laundry Detergent as the theme.

Pick Out Key Buying Factors (KBF) from Your Company’s Target

KBF stands for Key Buying Factors, which are essentially the reasons that influence purchasing decisions. For instance, although there are many laundry detergents available in the market, consumers always have reasons behind their choices.

These reasons could vary from price, performance, package design, to celebrity endorsements in commercials. Please pick out factors that could be decisive for your target customers.

In this case, targeting households with children who have allergies, factors such as scent, ingredients used in the detergent, environmental considerations, and pricing can be considered as KBF.

Extract Factors That Determine Purchases from KBF

Once you’ve identified KBF, consider further factors that could determine purchases for your target audience. Here are three potential KBF.

-Gentle ingredients suitable for delicate skin 

-Reduced likelihood of allergens (such as pollen or dust mites) clinging to clothing 

-Affordable price range 

When extracting factors that influence purchasing decisions, always choose elements that align with your target audience.

Compare Your Company’s KBF with Competitors

Once you’ve determined important KBF, compare them with those of competitors’ products or services. Creating a table for comparison makes it easy to grasp information at a glance.

Laundry Detergent (Allergy Prevention)/Your Company/Company A/Company B 

Price Range/Moderate/High/Affordable 

Cleanliness after Washing/Soft/Normal/Slightly rough (though fine with fabric softener) 

Stain Removal/Normal/Thorough/Not suitable for grease or ink stains 

Scent/None/Faint/Normal 

Consideration for Allergies/Almost no issues/Considerate, but not suitable for severe cases/No problem for mild allergies 

Package Design/Simple, Organic/Flashy/Fresh 

Word of Mouth/High ratings but few reviews/Many reviews with average ratings/Average reviews with slightly lower ratings 

Creating a table allows you to see how you can appeal your company’s product to the target you’ve set. To make this even clearer and capture information more accurately, we’ll proceed to create a positioning map

Creating and Analyzing a Positioning Map

Once you grasp the KBF, you’ll create a positioning map. The goal of this positioning map is to understand our company’s strengths. We’ll set up the map with allergen consideration on the vertical axis and stain removal on the horizontal axis.

By creating a positioning map like this, you can clearly see where your company stands in comparison to competitors, identifying points of superiority and differentiation.

You’ll also notice blank spaces where there’s no competition, which can provide insights for creating targeted products or highlighting unique selling points.

Key Considerations When Creating a Positioning Map

When creating a positioning map, there are three points to keep in mind.

-Align the positioning axes with the customer’s KBF. 

-Tailor the positioning axes to the target audience. 

-Choose axes with low correlation. 

Understanding these points helps avoid pitfalls in positioning.

Align the Positioning Axes with the Customer’s KBF

Customers hold the key to successful positioning. No matter how superior your product is compared to others, if there are no customers (if it’s not chosen), it’s not a success. To be chosen, you need to set axes from the customer’s perspective.

Strategies based solely on your company’s desires or convenience, without considering the customer’s needs, often lead to failure. Understand that your company’s convenience and the customer’s perspective are different.

Tailor the Positioning Axes to the Target Audience

It’s essential not only to align the positioning axes with the customers but also to tailor them to the target audience. Even within the customer base, there are various groups such as men, women, young people, and the elderly. Deviating from the target axis can lead to ineffectiveness in reaching the intended audience.

For example, if you’re selling tumblers, the factors influencing the purchase decision differ between those who want to use it at home and those who want to use it outdoors. Even within the group who want to use it at home, there are differences between men and women in terms of size, capacity, and beverage preferences.

To set positioning axes tailored to the target, conduct thorough research and targeting. Additionally, when creating a positioning map, ensure you stay within the targeted segment.

Set Positioning Axes with Low Correlation

When setting the vertical and horizontal axes for positioning, choose axes with low correlation. Creating a positioning map with highly correlated elements would result in a linear positioning trend.

Suppose we create a positioning map with quality on the vertical axis and price on the horizontal axis. The visualization would simply show that higher quality corresponds to higher prices and lower quality to lower prices, which is an obvious result.

Positioning maps are intended to establish the position your company aims for and utilize in branding. When setting axes, pay attention to their correlation.

Success Stories in Positioning

Three companies stand out as successful examples of positioning.

-Red Bull

-Pocari Sweat

-Sea Breeze

Understanding why these companies have successfully positioned themselves will help you grasp the key techniques for creating a positioning map.

Red Bull

Red Bull is an Austrian company. Since entering the Japanese market in 2005, it has boasted a high market share in the energy drink market. Traditionally, energy drinks were associated with older demographics or those working long hours. However, Red Bull rebranded as a drink for boosting energy and focus when needed.

With slogans like ‘Gives You Wings’ and dynamic advertising, it captured the interest of younger demographics. Additionally, it engaged in activities such as sports sponsorship and club events, creating an active image not typically associated with traditional energy drinks.

Pocari Sweat

Pocari Sweat is produced and sold by Otsuka Pharmaceutical. Initially marketed as a soft drink, it struggled against competing products. Otsuka Pharmaceutical then positioned it as a healthful beverage.

Leveraging its pharmaceutical background, it established an image as an effective beverage for hydration during illness while adding persuasive elements. Its commercials targeted teenagers, evoking a youthful and healthy atmosphere.

Moreover, by adopting the color blue for its brand, it enhanced the refreshing image of the product. Its international expansion focused on developing countries, where it’s recognized as a beverage contributing to people’s health.

Through a health-focused positioning strategy, Pocari Sweat became a beloved product across all demographics.

Sea Breeze

Sea Breeze is marketed by Shiseido. Initially targeting men in their 20s to 30s as a product to cool down sunburned skin after marine sports, the brand faced a shift in consumer behavior as people began avoiding sunburns, leading to a decrease in beachgoers.

Shiseido then switched its target audience to young women, positioning Sea Breeze as a product that can be used anywhere to control sweat odors. The bottle design adopted a colorful and vibrant impression, with a slim shape for easy portability.

Advertisements depicted sweet and sour teenage romances, capturing the hearts of teenagers. Furthermore, a promotion suggested that exchanging bottle caps with a crush would lead to fulfilled love, leading influenced youths to actually exchange bottle caps and upload photos on social media.

As a result, Sea Breeze’s sales surged to eight times their previous low.

Positioning Map Creation Tools

There are mainly three tools available for creating positioning maps.

-Spreadsheet software

-PositioningMap.com

-Word

These tools offer the advantage of being free to use and are familiar to users, such as spreadsheet software and Word.

Spreadsheet Software.

Among spreadsheet software, three prominent ones are;

• Excel
• Spreadsheet
• Numbers

Utilizing the drawing functions within these spreadsheet software tools makes creating positioning maps straightforward. Additionally, converting tables into graphs is another method, characteristic of spreadsheet software. Moreover, there are websites offering free templates for this purpose.

PositioningMap.com

PositioningMap.com is a free tool for creating positioning maps.

No membership registration is required, so you can use it immediately upon accessing the site. Once completed, you can download and save the map to your device. There is no limit to the number of maps you can create.

Word

When creating a positioning map in Word, the SmartArt feature is useful.

Selecting the SmartArt feature from the Insert tab allows you to choose from various diagrams and tables. However, this feature is not available in the browser version. When creating a positioning map in the browser version, use the drawing tools to create it.

Summary

Marketing positioning refers to confirming the branding and positioning of one’s own company or product. Understanding the advantages compared to competitors and identifying market gaps can lead to new market opportunities. Creating a positioning map visually clarifies the current situation and helps determine the future direction of the company. It can also be a way to find solutions when sales are declining.When creating a map, consider the customer’s perspective and focus on the target by setting axes. Additionally, set elements for the vertical and horizontal axes that have low correlation. Maps created with highly correlated elements result in linear, upward-sloping structures, which do not serve the purpose of a positioning map. Positioning maps can be easily created using familiar tools such as spreadsheet software or Word. Additionally, there is the option to use the web service called PositioningMap.com.

Author Profile

Mr. Takeshi Amano, CEO of Admano Co., Ltd.

Mr. Takeshi Amano is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Nihon University. With 12 years of experience working in the advertising agency industry, he discovered SEO and began his research during the early days of SEO. He self-taught and conducted experiments and verifications on over 100 websites. Using this expertise, he founded Admano Co., Ltd., which is currently in its 11th year of operation. Mr. Amano handles sales, SEO consulting, web analytics (holding the Google Analytics Individual Qualification certification), coding, and website development. The company has successfully managed SEO strategies for over 2000 websites to date.

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