There is a huge amount of talk and banter these days about niche business and the necessity to focus your efforts in very targeted segments of your market sector.
There is a lot less open talk about what it means to position your business in a certain way or stance and how to do it within your specialized niche.
"Positioning" very simply refers to the choices you will be making about how you desire your business to be viewed by others. You will be determining your positioning either consciously by the actions you take, or automatically if you don't do anything to influence your position.
You business positioning differentiates your company and brand from others in the same niche, your competitors, by:
1. Causing your customer's opinions about you, your company, and products to conform to a certain pre-established "image."
2. Placing your business in particular company, or among certain groups of competitors, by associating with the quality and same types of products and service that they offer.
3. Forcing a rank order of some kind to the list of similarly positioned businesses. You either push your business to be at the top of the ranking, in the middle, or at the bottom depending upon your success at convincing your customers that you are "the best" at your chosen position.
4. Locating your business in a position where it is not readily compared. Usually this is an enviable position because it means you are truly unique - if a buyer wants your product type, you are the only logical choice because no one else offers what you have.
We will discuss how you go about solidifying a position for your business in future discussions.
If you want some excellent reading on the subject, get a copy of Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start. There's a whole chapter on the subject and his insights are fresh and largely non-traditional but excellent.
If you leave your business positioning to chance, there is every reason to believe that you will be perceived much the same as the typical and mediocre businesses in your niche. That is not a good thing!
Since there will be lack of evidence that you desire to position your business differently, your customers will simply assume that your business is pretty much a clone of all the other run-of-the-mill competitors that exist in your space. You must do your own differentiation (or positioning.)
Even in very competitive and crowded niches, smart positioning sets your business apart. It helps to brand you as a notable exception. It singles your business out to those who are looking for exactly what you are selling. That is a very, very good thing!
No doubt you've heard the term "competitive advantage." It speaks to your ability to position your business products and services in a way that others can't. When you have the advantage, others have recognized your positioning and have bought into the idea that you can give them a unique experience in dealing with your company that they can't get elsewhere.
Positioning can even allow you to justifiably ask more (in terms of price points) for your products since you have designed them to be highly specialized, of great value compared to others, and containing information and benefits that others don't simply because your offering is incomparable.
If you continually work hard at positioning and are successful, you can ensure your long-term business profitability and dominance in your specific market niche. Such positioning has nothing to do with random "luck."
More information on positioning will be coming soon . . .
