Any time that you are promoting your business, it is important to consider marketing positioning. Sure, you have already figured who your target market is, have done testing and tracking, and even made some adjustments, but have you given any thought to how your product or service is being positioned in the marketplace? Do you have an idea of what positioning is? Do you know how to determine an effective position? 

A simple definition of positioning is the way you wish your products or services to be perceived by your target market. This may relate to a specific aspect of your offer, your brand, or your company as a whole. Another thing to keep in mind is that a single product has the potential to be positioned in more than one way. For example, let's say we have a breakfast cereal that is both tasty and healthy. It could be marketed to kids as a cereal that tastes good, and that parents can feel good about because it's healthy. It could also be marketed to adults as a healthy cereal that also happens to taste good.

Sticking to the breakfast cereal example, the advertising used would depend on what marketing positioning was trying to be achieved with the particular campaign. That's one reason why how you position your product is so important. However, the main reason for positioning is that it plays a major role in how your product is received by your target market. In other words, positioning can be the difference between failure and success.

Did you notice that? The difference between failure and success is how you position your product, and not necessarily the actual merits of the product. Why is this so? The reason is that nobody can find out how great your product is unless they buy it, and they will only buy it if it's positioned effectively. The question then becomes one of how to position your product in a way that resonates.

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You need to have a detailed image of who your ideal customer is and what their real problems and desires are. Most of us have learned that you have to solve people's problems, but that alone is not enough to figure out a good position. To do that, you also need to know what they want; what they really want. 

If they have health problems, then you can help them to get healthier by eating your healthy cereal. You have solved their problem, but that's not very captivating. Let's move on to what they want. Okay, they obviously want to be healthy, right? Sure, but why do they want to be healthy? Is it so they can look good in a swimming suit? Is it so they can be more active and have more energy? Is it so they can live longer? Aha! Now you're starting to zero in on the best marketing positioning for your product. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, you will see how much of an improvement it makes.

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