Why Brands Need to Take Bigger Risks in 2020

Positioning 101

Market positioning refers to a brand’s ability to influence consumer perception, especially relating to competitors.

Think of the Coke vs. Pepsi ‘feud’. Though they both generate a lot of revenue and nobody can complain about that, you’ll find a lot of consumers defending one over the other. That’s because, for that person, one of the brands has a stronger positioning that connects with them.

The objective in brand and market positioning is to have such a clear identity of a brand or product, that the average consumer identifies you with it, and not your competitors, even if you are both offering virtually the same thing.

Why You Need to Take Risks

It’s really difficult to reinvent the wheel in 2020 when it seems like everything has been done. Still, even if the strategy itself is nothing new, it’s important for brands to think outside the box when trying to improve their market positioning.

For instance, let’s assume you want to sell handbags, and go on the idea that said handbag is a statement of luxury. You have two other brands, your competitors, doing the same thing. What’s worse, you most likely have very similar audiences, and your ads and campaigns reach the same users.

If this is the case, then put yourself in the shoes of a buyer: with three brands selling the same thing, in the exact same way, how could they know which one to choose? What separates the three of them? Sure, if they go on a little research journey they could find said differences, but that’s already a step too far because you have no guarantee they will actually do that.

Without taking risks, your brand could potentially stay buried in the crowd, and while there are ways to get out of it at one point, it could be difficult and time-consuming.

How Can You Set Yourself Apart?

There are several types of positioning strategies:

• Product benefits and attributes;

• Product price;

• Product quality;

• Competitors, or making audience members think you are better than them.

 To know which strategy works best, you have to keep in mind two essential things:

• What are your strengths?

• What are your competitors’ weaknesses?

For example, if you’re selling similar handbags as two of your competitors, you need to find the thing that sets you apart, and the things your competitors lack. Perhaps in terms of quality and benefits, you are on the same plan. But, your prices may be a lot better, making your handbags more affordable. Then, you can leverage the idea that luxury and style can be achievable for everyone, in spite of what your competitors are doing. It could be a risk because people associate high prices with luxury, but this angle could potentially be strong enough to get people to notice your brand.

Over to You: Create the Strategy Now

Market positioning is a complex process that requires a lot of time and effort, but given the high levels of competition businesses often face, it’s not something you want to skip.

Don't Save the Commentary: Why Comments and Dialogue Matter More Than Likes

There are countless ways of tracking your engagement on social media platforms, but it’s fair to say that some matter more than others.

If we take Facebook, for example, it’s easy for marketers and business owners to focus a lot on the ‘like’ metric, meaning the number of reactions (like, love, angry, wow, sad, haha) it generated. The more likes, the more successful the post, right?

Not so fast. While yes, having posts with a large number of likes can tell you a thing or two about a brand’s ability to reach a certain audience, there is another metric that is much more telling: comments.

Why Are Comments Important?

Comments are rarely a metric one focuses on. It’s great if they appear for a particular social media post, but marketers are more concerned about the overall audience that post reaches. But comments symbolize something more powerful than likes.

For one thing, it’s easier to give a like than to comment. The former involves a tap or a click of the mouse, while the latter requires a lot more effort on the user’s part. Additionally, a like does not guarantee the user actually read and understood the post. The comment, on the other hand, requires the users to go through the post in its entirety, and share their thoughts with you.

Comments essentially signal that your audience isn’t just an audience in the traditional sense - comments mean your target takes part in the conversation you start and are actively contributing to it. A post with a high number of comments speaks to a brand’s ability not only to reach a certain audience size but also engage it and get it to react.

The Benefits of Focusing on Dialog

It’s much harder to get people to comment than to get them to like something. Again, this has to do with the very effort required by each of these tasks, but if you focus on engaging in a dialogue with your audience, these efforts will pay off.

Here are two key benefits of getting the audience to talk to you:

1. They Add Life to Your Page: If a new user stumbles upon your page for the first time and sees a lot of people commenting on your posts, that sends a clear message to them. This page is active, engaging, and other people are paying attention. This can be enough for them to decide to follow you as well.

2. You Build a Community: Likes or follows don’t necessarily say much about your community, as there is no guarantee your posts will reach all of those people. But when they comment, a lot of social algorithms will continue to show these people posts of yours, and you can build a stronger audience.

Final Thoughts

Comments are a telling sign of how strong a brand is because everybody knows it takes a lot of effort to engage an audience. And as far as metrics go, you’re a lot better off focusing on comments than likes.