Brand Positioning Strategies for E-commerce Firms Stepping Into a New Market

Which brand name comes to your mind after reading this statement?

“Our vision is to be the earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

It’s easy to recognize that the brand is Amazon because it has strongly positioned itself along that ideology.

Brand positioning is a deliberate and well-thought-out strategy that sets any brand apart from its competitors. It establishes its visible position in the industry and enables its customers to recognize, connect, and trust the brand. Brand positioning is also vital to showcase a brand’s uniqueness, underscore its value, and place it as the “default” choice when it comes to customers’ purchase decisions.

Established e-commerce brands with strong brand identity enjoy a strong presence in their niche. Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, Home Depot, and eBay are all great examples. But what about smaller e-commerce companies, especially those looking to enter a new market? How can they position themselves to create a recognizable brand? Let’s take a look at five brand positioning strategies that are proven to work.

Brand Positioning Strategies for Firms Entering a New Market

An e-commerce company’s brand position creates a clear and coherent perception for the target audience. It conveys the brand’s values and determines whether its products and offers will stand out to convert shoppers into loyal brand advocates. Positioning a brand is especially vital in a new market where the brand-building efforts are still in a nascent stage and the audience is not aware of the company.

The following strategies enable the newbies to create a compelling brand positioning strategy in a new market:

Determine the Target Audience and Create Customer Segments

E-commerce brand positioning that resonates with a new audience requires a carefully created strategy. To craft this strategy, it’s crucial to understand which customer segment to go for, what they need, and how the company can satisfy that need. Here’s where target audience determination and segmentation come in.

Segmentation starts with identifying all the potential buyers for the company’s products and then breaking down this “product universe” into smaller, more manageable segments. Each segment consists of a cohort of buyers that stands apart from another.

These traits may be demographic like age, gender, or location, psychographic like attitudes or beliefs, or occasion-based like time of day when shopping. They influence shoppers’ buying decisions and enable e-commerce sellers to target the right segment and appropriately position their brand to increase its attractiveness and value.

Analyze Competitors’ Brand Positioning

In a new market, benchmarking incumbent brands and possible competitors is a good way to determine their position. Research into competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, offers, social media profiles, and key messages enable a new entrant to understand where it stands and how it can strengthen its own position, communicate its promise, and outdo a competitor’s positioning.

There are many ways to determine competitors’ positioning. One is market research. Another is to solicit customer feedback and ask them which brand they considered in the past and why. Social media platforms are also a good way to discover competitors in specific e-commerce niches.

Create a Brand Essence Chart

A brand essence chart is a useful tool to develop a brand’s positioning strategy and statement. The chart clarifies various elements such as product attributes, brand characteristics, personality, and expected customer benefits. It also states how the company would want its customers to describe their feelings when interacting with the brand.

In addition to creating a brand essence chart, the e-commerce brand should also identify its mission, values, and differentiating factors to inform its brand positioning and build its brand persona and voice.

Create a Brand Positioning Statement

An effective positioning statement is based on a thorough understanding of the target audience, market, and promise. It clearly identifies a brand’s unique value proposition and communicates what customers will get from it.

After building the positioning statement, it must be evaluated to understand whether it works. This requires gathering feedback from target customers, identifying flaws, and making the necessary adjustments. The final positioning statement should reinforce the brand’s unique qualities and establish an emotional connection with the audience.

Focus on Authenticity

Positioning statements help a lot in carving out the brand image in the mind of the consumers. In their mind, consumers create a visual when they hear a brand name or slogan or see a logo. This is why authenticity is crucial. One way to create an authentic position is to humanize the brand.

A compelling brand story that communicates the company’s mission and values also play a role in building and showing the brand’s authenticity – it makes the brand more relatable and trustworthy. Customers will recognize it instantly and acknowledge its unique attributes. In combination with an authentic and unique message, the brand story shapes the brand’s image and influences customers’ attitudes towards it.

Conclusion

A well-known brand influences every aspect of an e-commerce company’s business including conversions, sales, revenues, and profits. That’s why they must make efforts to create a strong brand position as soon as – and ideally, before – they enter a new market. Do keep this in mind if your e-commerce firm is considering expanding its operations and presence in a new region or country.

If you need to work on your brand and craft its positioning strategy, contact Ergode. As a brand aggregator, we can help you stand out, attract your target audience, and create an infallible position even in crowded marketplaces.

 

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