Knowing your place on the competitive ladder is crucial. Overstepping your position can mean biting off more than you can chew, while playing it safe can mean missed opportunity. Using the snakes and ladders analogy, we hope to help you better visualise and refine your brand positioning.
Sure, life is a roll of the dice. But… who’s to say we can’t get a feel for it? Great preparation will allow you to resonate with your audience, beat competitors and climb organically.
Positioning is outside
Brand positioning is not what you do to a brand, it is what you do to the minds of the people who perceive it.
The only reality that matters is what’s already there in the person’s mind. To be creative, to produce something that doesn’t already exist, is getting more and more difficult today.
Billions of pounds are spent trying to change minds, but mind-changing is the path towards marketing disaster.
Strategic copywriting works when you spark connections that already exist in the mind of the customer. When successful, the customer will actively use their imagination to make it their own!
Noise Noise Noise
In today’s digital world, where people are swamped by company claims of brilliance, it is no wonder why Gen Z – the first to be fully brought up in the internet age – embrace a research-orientated approach to life.
People are learning, by necessity, how to cut through noise and find winners. These winners use strategic copywriting to communicate clear, concise and alluring branding.
The ladder – How we cope
To deal with the mass of choice, people have learned to rank brands in their mind (a ladder). This is our way of simplifying things and making everything easier.
Not only does the ladder simplify things, it also allows us to conform to the group, a safe option for everyone to accept.
The brain has less space for what’s different unless it’s related to the old. This is why introducing something new can be a tricky thing, as you must provide a new ladder. It is often better to tell the customer what the new thing isn’t rather than what it is. Some examples are: driverless cars, wireless headphones and Coke Zero.
People love the self-aware
Avis managed to position themselves successfully with “Avis is only No.2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder.” By simply communicating where they were in the industry, the company started to boom.
Avis later ruined their message with “Avis is going to be No.1”, marketing to their own goals and not really connecting with their customers. Jeff Bezos touched on this self-focused approach when he said, “your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room”.
Pepsi managed to also turn their number 2 status into leverage, positioning themselves as a “challenger brand” to coke. Their “Pepsi challenge” campaign dared to defy convention; people love to back an underdog!
Be the oasis and not the mirage
Try imagining the proper use of the ladder as being an oasis in a desert, while the snake is like a mirage. The mirage promises the earth but doesn’t deliver, leaving everyone unfulfilled. The oasis, on the other hand, is true to its word, refreshing and real. With all the noise out there today, people are crying out for authenticity and relatability. Appealing to the senses and not the intellect can often be a great place to start.
Here at Editing Edge, we can help you communicate your business so you prevent the bored and ward off the sceptics. With mirages everywhere, your oasis will be even more attractive!
