Are you also looking for “Brand Positioning Mapping?”
If yes, then you’re at the right place!
After analyzing hundreds of brands and their mapping technique, we have created this ultimate brand positioning mapping guide to help you know all the essential information. Brand Positioning Mapping will help you decide your brand’s marketplace if you optimize its basic information.
Thus, if you’re also interested in exploring this topic and letting your brand skyrocket. Let’s begin the guide !!
What Is Branding Positioning Mapping?
Brand Positioning means a height or place you want your brand to reach. Brand Positioning Mapping refers to analyzing and seeing the positions in the map through different mapping techniques.
Brand positioning mapping aims to determine the consumer’s wants and desires towards a product or brand in the marketplace. Hence, the brand positioning mapping does the same as required. Once you know the consumers’ demands, you can establish your positioning brand accordingly.
For the best example, you can look at “Burger King” as how they have set themselves up as the king of burgers in the marketplace. They fulfill all the needs and wants of consumers while also giving them a superior position in the brand market. This strategy has taken them this mile away toward brand success.
Every product has a place to be established in the market, and so does your brand. All you need to do is to understand the positioning requirements and consumer opinion. After analyzing these maps, you can quickly figure out a lot for your brand.
Why Is Brand Positioning Mapping Important?
Brand Positioning Mapping is one of the essential elements while creating any brand strategy. The brand positioning mapping comprises two parts –
1) Brand Perceptual Map and
2) Product Positioning Map.
One helps identify the various elements of a brand that can help set up a brand. While the other consists of the consumer’s opinion and perception of a brand.
All this data will help you a lot in setting up your brand. Once you read this guide, you will find that brand positioning mapping is the fundamentals of any business strategy.
Thus, let’s start with the guide and gather some rational information about Brand Positioning Mapping and its two classifications:
Brand Perceptual Map and Product Positioning Map
Both Brand Perceptual Map and Product Positioning Map is one of the effective ways of marketing that helps develop the brand, product, or service positioning strategies of a business in the market.
These two mapping techniques are measured and shown in the graphical representation on the X and Y axis. Each of the axes represents two different variables. Their line indicates their extreme in terms of quantity and quality. When you finally create these lines and label them with the respective criteria, you are good to go to map the existing brand or its products.
Then, if you know where your competitors exist on the map, you can also define your brand’s or product’s position. Please create multiple such maps with different variables.
Product/brand position map or brand perceptual map are similar terms. They are often interchangeably used as well. However, both the terms have differences, and we have mentioned the key differences below:
Perceptual Map
Perceptual Map represents the positioning of dominant and competing brands. It is from the consumer’s perspective in the marketplace. It is essential to realize that the Perceptual Map only measures and shows the perception, as there is a significant difference between consumers’ opinions and market reality.
The Perceptual Map can be something other than the reality of the brand or product, as the consumers might have a different approach or viewpoint. Thus, you need to understand that viewpoint and mold your positioning grid.
Positioning Maps
A position Map doesn’t mean to measure and represent the consumer’s perception of a product and brand. It instead comprises different essential attributes for defining the market positioning of all the competing brands or products in the market.
As you can study the competing positions of the brands with the Positioning Maps, you can make the required changes in your strategic brand positioning to set your brand at the top or for brand leveraging. You can enter a gap or competition depending on your wish.
Benefits of Perceptual Maps
Helps In Unlocking the Insights About the Competitors and Industry
Perceptual maps help represent all the brands in the market through their relative positioning. It is based on the consumer’s perspective towards these brands. The line of axes helps in signifying the brand attributes. We have also mentioned a perceptual map below to have a better understanding.
This visual graphic representation is far better than the tabular representation, as it will lead you to understand and adapt the results more quickly.
In the above example, you can easily see that the natural sugar substitute has a proximity advantage over any artificial sugar. And “Truvia” uses raw sugar, while “Equal” uses fake sugar. It shows that most consumers are more likely to go for natural sugar substitutes instead of artificial ones.
To know the actual brand positioning chart, you should create various perceptual maps, as it will let you judge the brands, competitors, and the marketplace through multiple elements or variables. We have mentioned a few more perceptual maps below to give your brand positioning mapping clarity.
As you can see in these maps, the taste and preferences of sugar consumers have a broad scope. It will help you create a better strategic brand positioning.
Communicates Where The Brand Is Heading
Brand perceptual maps tell you about the consumer’s opinion and thought process towards a brand or product and where any brand is with the upcoming change and future.
If you properly study the perceptual maps, you can even reposition your brand in the market. To explain this phenomenon, we have mentioned one more visual example below:
Here, perceptual represents the goals or ambition of the “Equal.” It simply means that Equal wants to reach there from its current position. Therefore, perceptual maps can be the best method to establish a brand strategy.
It Helps In Confirming the Alignment With Your Business and Brand Strategy
One of the most crucial benefits of perceptual maps is establishing an alignment in the brand strategy. Perceptual maps also help determine whether our brand has a proper position in the market. It matches its work with the brand’s mission, vision, and scope. Which can later help the company in building umbrella branding.
We have mentioned some of the most-asked questions considering a brand’s present and future position in the marketplace:
- Does this brand position align with the brand’s strengths, assets, and capabilities?
- Does this brand express the value we offer to our consumers?
- How sustainable and defensible your brand position is in comparison to your competitors?
- Does this brand position have credibility and is compelling to its consumers?
In the “Equal” brand case, the company has not so focused on natural sugars and tried to compete with brands like Truvia.” Eventually, they lost their position from the excellent brand poisoning maps in the marketplace. Therefore, they have launched a whole new brand named “Naturals” while considering the demands of sugar consumers.
Final Words
Brand Positioning Mapping is a technique to gather all the ongoing information regarding the competing brands in the marketplace. Thus if you want to establish your brand correctly in the market, these maps will help you know exactly what you need to do.
We hope you like the article and that this article helps you find all the relevant information regarding brand positioning mapping.