Positioning is an established tool of marketers, but not one that family-owned companies have always used as well as they could.

It is time that family businesses reach beyond their tradition of virtually ignoring who they are and embrace this fundamental principal of marketing to acquire new customers while they keep the ones they already have.

Let’s say your objective is to position your products or service capabilities in the mind of the prospective customer to help create more than a sale—to create good feelings such as stability, loyalty, dedication to service—and encourage the formation of a relationship with an emotional bond that will encourage the customer to engage you and to return for more.

Positioning helps build a unique place in the mind of the customer. In so doing, it overcomes several important environmental issues:

• Marketplace dynamics are no longer served by just traditional approaches to work.
• Buyers today are acknowledged to be savvier and, thanks to the continuing growth of technology, have more knowledge and opportunities to compare products and services.
• It can help your business win the competitive battle of alternatives for your customer. (Recognize there are alternatives)

Think of a stepladder with your products and services on one of the rungs. Every other competitive product and service with greater share is on a different rung above you, and product and services with lesser market share on rungs below you. Positioning helps you move up the ladder without getting knocked off by any of the competitors.

And that is your goal: to get as high up the ladder and into your customer’s mind as possible. Let’s label that “mindshare.”

The Importance of Mindshare
To build mindshare, you must work to understand the customer’s mind. That is, what do they want, what do they need and why will they buy? With positioning, you work to become “top of mind” (on the top rung of the ladder) when your customers make their choice.

Positioning helps give prospective customers the “reason to buy” or “reason to believe” by adding a strong, compelling factor beyond the service itself. With so many communication messages in front of customers today, it is not enough just to know who the competitors are. Market research can play a critical role in understanding the customer and in establishing and implementing your positioning strategy.

Today, your customers usually have several alternatives to your product or service. Before a final decision is made, customers establish a mental hierarchy of values their wants and needs, which they use to compare different companies’ offerings.

Mindshare is what you are after. Winning the customer’s mind is the central challenge. As renowned futurist Alvin Toffler said, “Even when they appear identical, there are likely to be significant psychological differences between contending choices.”  It is this battle of psychological differences that can best be won by successfully using the principles of positioning.

Positioning encourages a positive response to the question, “Why do business with me?” Your family business, for example, can offer a unique competitive advantage. The tradition, stability and commitment of family businesses is well known and highly regarded in the marketplace.
In a world where the customer has many options, positioning that builds mindshare is one of the keys to establishing and retaining customer loyalty and acceptance.

The Keys to Extraordinarily Successful Positioning
There are three positioning issues that can be characterized as the “keys to extraordinarily successful positioning.” Consider using taglines to reinforce ideas or positioning statements to provide insight into your marketing strategy or to provide an emotional component that takes the customer beyond the functional attributes of your services or application software.

Business positioning // How do you want your family business be perceived in the competitive market? For this, you may decide to develop and consistently communicate a positioning statement or theme. One of my favorites is “SC Johnson, A Family Company.”

Market positioning // How do you achieve the perception that your product or service is the right one to choose? You need to understand the customers and their needs and requirements, and you need to consistently communicate your ability to meet those needs. For example, consider Smuckers’ tagline: “If it’s Smuckers, it’s got to be good.”

Positioning strategy // You must clearly identify and communicate your strength as a family business in the relevant terms of the customers. Customers want to deal with successful businesses, especially with those where a strong relationship has been or can be built. That’s why Hallmark uses its slogan: “When you care enough to send the very best.”

Understanding—and Improving—Your Place on the Ladder
Positioning is one of the five pillars of extraordinarily successful marketing along with strategy, differentiation, branding and marketing/sales communications. Positioning relates to placement on the customer’s mental map, in the context of all that customer’s known alternatives, to achieve the maximum mindshare.
And, you need to establish your position from your customers’ point of view. Not what you think, but what they believe. That can be a challenge in a multigenerational family business. But you must know what rung you occupy today on the marketing ladder. Is it on the top rung or in the middle? And where do you want to be tomorrow?
Seek a persuasive, unoccupied position your company can seize. It may just be the fact that you are a family business. And strive to achieve extraordinarily successful positioning in your marketing program. The payoff is profitable growth and increased business success with a collection of loyal customers for your family business.