How To Build And Use A Product Positioning Chart.

Imagine having a profound understanding of your target market, positioning your new product so effectively that it outperforms even the biggest CPG brands. This is the outcome of effective brand development where you can drive a 30% lift in both brand equity and market share. It may sound impossible, but it’s a reality for brands who follow a data-driven approach, leveraging strategic exercises such as creating a product positioning chart.

A product positioning chart, also known as a positioning map or perceptual map, carves out a unique and memorable space in the minds of your target audience while setting your offering apart from competitors. This guide walks you through the process of practical brand positioning.

You’ll learn to craft an impactful product positioning chart, conduct thorough market research, and identify key positioning attributes. You’ll also map your product against competitors and communicate your unique value proposition (UVP). This article provides the knowledge and practical strategies to establish a solid and unique market position. Let’s get into it!

How Does the Product Positioning Chart Work?

Positioning charts are powerful visualization tools that map your product or service alongside your competitors in a two-dimensional chart. Each axis represents vital attributes or features essential to your target audience. Leveraging the perceptual map for product positioning requires detailed brand positioning research. It involves:

• Identifying the target audience and their specific needs and preferences.
• Analyzing the competitive landscape to understand how competitors are positioning themselves.
• Determining the most relevant attributes or features that customers value and use as decision-making criteria.

After conducting this fundamental research, plot your product and competitors on the positioning chart based on their rank on the selected attributes. This visual representation lets you identify white spaces and gaps in the desired market where your product can occupy a unique and differentiated brand position.

Product management and development teams can utilize these insights to refine strategies, focusing on attributes that help them stand out and appeal to the target audience. The product manager works closely with marketing to create a compelling positioning statement and align all brand messaging and marketing efforts to reinforce the desired market position.

Critical Elements of a Product Positioning Chart

The critical components of an impactful perceptual positioning map are the axes representing attributes your target audience values. Selecting these attributes is vital because they shape the entire mapping exercise. Examples include price, quality, innovation, or specific product features. The placement of products on this map reflects customer perceptions, not necessarily objective reality.

A solid brand positioning statement articulates the desired position, capturing how you want customers to perceive your brand relative to competitors. It guides marketing activities and product development priorities. It addresses the target audience, essential benefits, support points substantiating that benefit, and the competitive frame of reference. 

When constructing a product positioning map, target competitors based on customer research and market data. Make sure these are competitors in your primary sales channels. Plot your desired position, identifying any white space opportunities or the need to reposition away from overcrowded areas.

Steps to Create a Product Positioning Chart

Developing a meaningful product positioning chart is crucial for establishing a solid market presence and differentiating from competitors. By following a well-defined brand positioning framework, businesses gain a deep understanding of their target consumers’ perceptions, preferences, and the competitive landscape. Follow these steps to build a reliable and insightful positioning chart:

Conduct Market Research for Product Positioning

Thorough market research is the first step in creating a meaningful positioning chart. This critical step provides valuable insights into consumers’ preferences, perceptions, and the competitive landscape, enabling companies to develop a compelling brand positioning matrix and marketing strategy.

Extract and analyze data from various sources to understand the target audience, their needs, and how they perceive different brands and products. Engage directly with your target audience through surveys, focus groups, interviews, or observational studies to gain in-depth insights into their preferences, pain points, and decision-making factors. Learn more in our PREformance™ positioning test and baseline category testing. 

Analyze existing data sources, such as industry reports, market trends, competitor analysis, and social media conversations, to supplement primary findings and provide a broader market perspective. Evaluate competitors’ positions based on identified attributes to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and unique selling propositions, identifying potential gaps.

Identify the Target Audience for Mapping

Identifying the target audience is crucial when creating a brand positioning matrix and product positioning framework. Analyze factors like age, gender, income level, education, and location to pinpoint potential target segments. Additionally, understand the attitudes, values, interests, and lifestyles of the target audience, as these can significantly impact their purchasing decisions.

Identify potential target segments by examining consumer behaviors such as purchasing patterns, brand loyalty, and usage occasions. Define the primary target audience as the main focus and any secondary audiences that may also be relevant.

Analyze Primary and Secondary Competitors

Analyzing primary and secondary competitors is crucial when building a brand positioning model. This analysis helps you understand where your brand stands relative to competing brands and their products. 

Primary competitors offer similar products or services and target your customer base. Gather detailed information about their product features, pricing strategies, marketing tactics, and overall brand positioning.

Secondary competitors may not offer the same product or service but still compete for the same customer attention. After comprehensively understanding primary and secondary competitors, map your brand’s position on the positioning chart. 

This visual representation reveals where your brand fits in the competitive landscape and identifies potential gaps or opportunities to differentiate your offering. A successful brand positioning process is about finding a unique and compelling position.

Outline Your Goals and Axes

After knowing the exact audience and analyzing competitors, outline your goals and axes for the brand positioning template. Ask yourself: what specific objectives do you hope to achieve? This question directs you toward the appropriate axes and frames your approach to analyzing the competitive landscape. Common goals include:

• Evaluating pricing competitiveness: Use “Price” and “Perceived Value” as your axes to assess whether your product’s pricing aligns with its value proposition and market positioning.
• Identifying market gaps: Use axes around product features, target demographics, or unique selling propositions (USPs) to uncover untapped opportunities within your industry.
• Refining target market segmentation: Use axes focusing on psychographic and demographic factors and specific pain points or use cases your product addresses.

Once you’ve established your goals, determine the appropriate types of brand positioning that align with your objectives. This decision will shape the axes you choose to plot your brand and competitors on the positioning map.

For example, if your goal is to assess pricing competitiveness, opt for a “Product Attribute” positioning approach, comparing products based on specific features, benefits, or attributes. Alternatively, if you aim to identify market gaps, a “Use or Application” positioning strategy could be more suitable, focusing on how different products address specific customer needs or use cases.

By following these steps and adhering to a data-driven approach, you can create a product positioning chart that helps you achieve a unique and competitive market position, ensuring your product stands out and appeals to your target audience​​​​.

Building a Product Branding Strategy

After creating a comprehensive product positioning map, companies can leverage the insights gained to develop a robust brand positioning strategy. This process involves translating the visual representation of the competitive landscape into a clear and compelling brand positioning statement. 

The first step is to analyze the brand positioning map carefully, identifying your product’s unique space and the key attributes or benefits that make it unique. It could be a specific feature set, a price point, a target audience, or a personality. The goal is to pinpoint a distinct value proposition that sets your product apart and resonates with your target customers. 

Once you have identified your product’s unique positioning, craft a concise and compelling brand positioning statement that captures this essence. This statement must clearly articulate the target audience, the category or market in which your product competes, the critical benefit or point of differentiation, and the reason why customers should believe your claim (often referred to as the “proof point” or “support statement”).

By leveraging the insights from a well-crafted product positioning map and distilling them into a compelling brand positioning statement, companies can effectively communicate their unique value proposition to their target audience, establish a strong brand identity, and maintain a consistent and cohesive brand positioning strategy across all marketing and product effort.

Role of Product Teams in Positioning

An impactful product positioning strategy requires close collaboration between product teams and marketing. The product manager plays a crucial role in this process, as they possess deep insights into customer needs and the product’s value proposition. 

The product team identifies and prioritizes features and enhancements that address specific customer needs and pain points. This deep understanding of the product’s capabilities and target audience is crucial when developing a positioning strategy that connects with customers.

Collaboration Between Product Teams and Marketing

Effective product positioning requires seamless collaboration between product teams and marketing. Marketing teams bring expertise in market research, competitive analysis, and brand positioning, while product teams contribute deep product knowledge and customer insights.

This collaboration can take various forms, such as:

• Joint workshops and brainstorming sessions to align on the target audience, key benefits, and unique selling propositions.
• Share customer feedback, user research, and market data to inform positioning decisions.
• Iterative review and refinement of positioning statements and messaging to ensure accuracy and resonance.

Ensuring Consistency and Alignment

Once a positioning strategy has been established, it is crucial to ensure consistency and alignment across all existing product and product marketing efforts. Product teams should prioritize features and enhancements that reinforce the core value proposition and differentiation factors identified in the positioning.

Meanwhile, product marketing teams should develop messaging, sales enablement materials, and go-to-market strategies that accurately reflect the positioning and resonate with the target customer segments.

Regular cross-functional alignment meetings and reviews help maintain consistency and ensure all teams work towards the same positioning goals. Additionally, establishing clear communication channels and feedback loops can help identify and promptly address misalignments or inconsistencies.

Uplift Your Product Positioning Through a Stage-Gate Approach

More than just a product positioning agency, we drive growth through our integrated and iterative brand development methodology. Our Path To Performance™ process can determine how your product will perform with high predictability when it hits the shelf. Book a call to discuss your project.