Brand Positioning Strategy Seth Godin Positioning Grid Exposed.

“You think you know brand positioning? Think again.”

Positioning your brand requires a clear framework to make it impossible to ignore. A framework that Seth Godin swears by, that reshapes the way brands communicate with their target audience.

Many thriving brands, such as HubSpot, Slack, and Zoom, follow this strategy and build loyal consumers. This framework helps these brands seize market dominance, outshine competitors, and turn casual browsers into raving fans. Forget about generic positioning strategies, which wouldn’t help much in the long run.

In this post, we’ll cover the critical elements of Seth Godin’s positioning grid and provide a guide for applying them to your brand positioning strategy.

Spoiler alert: By the end of this article, you’ll never look at positioning the same way again.

What is Brand Positioning?

Simply put, brand positioning is an approach that sets a business apart from competitors and forms a unique spot in the target consumer’s mind. The place that makes you their first priority.

Through brand positioning, you highlight how your company differs from your competitors in the market. It shapes the audience’s perception of the brand.

Why Brand Positioning Strategy Matters?

Brand positioning helps your company in many ways. Here are some.

• Differentiation: The topmost thing is to differentiate your company in a packed market and make your brand shine brighter.
  
• Audience Recall Your Brand: On average, it takes 5-7 interactions with a brand to remember it. Brand positioning helps create memorable interactions so consumers recall your brand when purchasing.
  
• Provoke Emotional Response: When a brand strategically positions itself to target consumers, they don’t just remember the brand. They feel an emotional connection with the brand’s purpose, and this emotional connection impacts their purchasing decisions.
  

What is Seth Godin’s Positioning Grid? How can you apply it to your brand positioning strategy?

Seth Godin is a marketing expert, best-selling author, and thought leader who has revolutionized the way we think about brand positioning. He believes that developing remarkable products and services is really important for positioning your brand.

Seth Godin’s Positioning Grid is particularly inspired by his philosophy about brand positioning in his books Purple Cow, This is Marketing, and All Marketers Are Liars.

He brilliantly put in the critical dimensions of brand positioning that help brands build deep connections with their audience. 

Brand Positioning Strategy Seth Godin Positioning Grid framework revolves around these core pillars:

1. Market Category

Are you defining your brand solely by knowing your market? It’s a big no-no from Seth Godin’s perspective. It makes your brand another commodity with endless competition in the market. Don’t fit in a category to compete;
create your own.

Specify yours

Your category defines how you are different from others in the market. You can redefine the category or create your own to excel in the market.

We have seen how Tesla reinvented and redefined the category as a sustainable tech-luxury electric vehicle, different from other auto manufacturers. Their category distinguishes Tesla from the rest of the market.

When you dominate your market category, you stop competing with other brands over price or features. You become the only choice for that niche.

For instance, if you own a brand in the cosmetic industry, you already have a lot of competition, as many brands already sell beauty products.

And you can’t stand tall if you don’t define your unique category in the market. In the cosmetic market, your category could be vegan skincare products.

Brand Positioning Strategy Seth Godin Positioning Grid is about re-framing and owning your category rather than competing within a category. Godin emphasizes being a purple cow in a crowd of brown cows.

2. Tribe

Godin believes you must build a tribe (the smallest viable audience) deeply connected to a brand. The tribe that feels heard, their beliefs, and values resonate with your brand.

You don’t have to please everyone with your product or service. Nurture your tribe, as this group of people is your customers and your real advocates who spread the word about your brand. Word-of-mouth marketing from your advocates helps you flourish.

So, take a stand in what your brand believes to compel the right, smallest, viable audience rather than the large one. Building a tribe is like fostering a meaningful relationship with your customers. The tribe is more than a commercial transaction; it’s a long-term conversation with them to listen and share.

How can you build your tribe?

The stepping stone you must follow is to ditch the broad market and embrace the Smallest Viable Audience.

This mindset discourages brands from trying to be all things to all people. When you target a group of people with the same interests, values, and beliefs, they fuel your brand. You have to choose your customers, not everyone, but someone.

Suppose you own a women’s fitness brand. In the general market, you position your brand for women. But if you look at the Godin approach to defining your audience, instead of trying to please every woman, focus on a specific group of women with pressing needs that your product or service can fulfill.

Like FIT4MOM, the brand specifically targets mothers who need to be seen and heard. Moms struggle to find self-care time and are losing their personal identity. FIT4MOM offers pre- and postnatal health, wellness, and fitness programs to help moms at every stage.

They target a specific audience that helps build a loyal tribe of moms.

FIT4MOM’s community programs, like Stroller Strides, FIT4BABY, Body Boost, and Run Club+, help mothers to build strength and connect with like-minded people. These programs are created by moms from moms with shared values that fuel a meaningful relationship with a brand. Simply, it’s more about resonance with a specific group than broad reach.

3. Story

Seth Godin advocates storytelling to position a brand in the market. Relatable stories are a powerful way for a brand to connect emotionally with the audience. By telling an unprecedented story, you win a unique spot in a consumer’s mind, no matter the product’s or service’s price.

How do you craft your remarkable story?

The story you tell your audience must be authentic, as today’s consumers are sharp enough to detect inconsistency. Your product or service is the physical manifestation of the story.

Formulate a remarkable product.

First, create a remarkable product or service. Then, it will be easier to tell a remarkable story that stands out. Godin advises making your remarkable products or services to outshine the mediocre ones. Otherwise, they will stay invisible.

We all know Slack created a remarkable product that not only brings conversations, customers, and apps under one roof but also makes life easier and more productive. They have not done aggressive marketing to position themselves as they build an outstanding product.

Therefore, create a remarkable product that outsmarts the average product or service in the market. But how? Here are some ways to process your unique product.

• Identify your audience’s needs. You have to study your tribe from head to toe and discover the problems that your brand can solve. You can find their issues and preferences through social media surveys and direct interviews.
  
• Formulate a brand promise. Here, you have to come up with a unique solution for their problem that delivers results and can improve their lives. Pick the biggest problem your smallest viable audience has. Remember, your brand product values must resonate with their values and beliefs.
  

Then, craft your story.

A great story wins the audience’s trust over the brand; getting another way is hard. Today, consumers don’t unquestioningly trust. They only trust brands that connect them emotionally, and that relationship is built through a brand story.

For instance, Warby Parker crafted a story that resonates with its cost-conscious audience who wanted stylish glasses and high-quality eyewear but at an affordable price.

Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program has live its value in their story and actions, distributed above 15 million pairs of glasses. Their narrative resonates with their audience offering the opportunity to purchase from them and help people in need.

Meanwhile, your brand’s purpose, values, and mission must be reflected in your story. This way your audience connects with your brand emotionally, which ultimately builds trust and attracts loyal consumers.

Test your positioning.

At the end of the day, it’s time to test your brand position strategy. Have you crafted your brand story statement well? Does your small audience resonate with your positioning?

To figure it out, talk to your target group and collect their feedback from surveys and interviews. At the same time, take a look at your brand’s social profile metrics. Don’t fret; if adjustments are needed, do it. And make sure to refine your brand positioning as the market evolves.
 

Takeaway

Traditional marketing to position a brand is not working anymore. In developing a brand positioning strategy, Seth Godin Positioning Grid, critical elements like defining a unique market category, building a tribe, and compelling an audience with a product and story worth noticing are the ones that stand out.

Otherwise, you become invisible in the hyper-crowded market.