What's Your Position?

• Author: Plume, Janis

It's important to take a stand in life, to be steadfast in who you are. The same can be said for your business--and how you position it in the marketplace. In a marketing sense, positioning is how your business, products, and services are perceived to be different from those of your competitors.

Here are three steps that will allow you to establish a strong marketing position:

1. Develop a Positioning Strategy--Analyze the characteristics of your business and those of your competitors. Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses as you determine how your business stacks up. Research your competitors to determine what they're doing and identify how you do it better. What does your business offer that's unique? How do you excel and what expertise do you have over your competition? How do you want your clients to think about and view your business? Formalize this strategy in writing and discuss it with your staff to make sure everyone is on the same page.

2. Write a Positioning Statement---After a long, hard look at your strategy (or several looks), distill it down to a concise statement that sums up your marketing position in a sentence. This should serve as a backbone for all your marketing communications.

3. Spread The Word...