The Essential Entrepreneur, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 6Brand positioning and marketing

In this chapter you'll learn about the importance of positioning your brand in the market so the right customers can find you, undertaking market research to understand who your customer is and how to reach them, and then how to motivate them to make that all-important enquiry.

Just a reminder that I use the term ‘product’ when I talk about a product or service, just to keep things simple.

The brand

A good brand must say what you do, or at least have a tagline that does. Clever dual meanings that encompass your values work well, but be careful with made-up and misspelt words as people need to be able to find you, and educating the market about some made-up name costs a lot of money. If people can't find you or don't know you exist when searching for a product it can be a fast track to business failure.

Brand positioning in a crowded market space is a critical part of the process. Do you picture your brand as an aspirational or luxury brand at a premium price, and if so how will this be justified (through luxury design, or features or both)? How will this impact the sales model: will it be at a high price point with a high margin due to the quality, design and complexity of the product and possibly as a result limited to a niche wealthier market and a lower sales volume? A luxury brand has to look, feel and function like a luxury product and there are plenty of examples out there across the fashion, automobile and other sectors to model ...