Positioning Research
The Key to Successful Product and Service Innovation and Transformation

Brand Positioning Research: The Key to Successful Product and Service Innovation and Transformation
Brand positioning is crucial for businesses to succeed in today’s competitive landscape. However, developing a brand positioning with customer insights can be challenging. That’s where brand positioning research comes in. This research answers four key questions for brand positioning development:
How can I evolve my product and service value proposition?
Do I have opportunities to tap into a new customer segment?
How can I stand out from my competition?
How can I project myself ahead of my competition?
To answer these questions, traditional consumer needs and expectation research involving ethnography, interviews, focus groups, and quantitative surveys may be used. Additionally, semiotics and related cultural research methods can be used to address the last two questions.
Unilever provides a great example of successful brand positioning research. The company used brand positioning research to uncover a global truth to connect with mothers and promote its various washing detergent brands. The “Dirt is Good” concept was born, which flipped the interpretation of customer needs and expectations, re-engaged their core customer seeing them through a different length that is more aspiration driven, captured the cultural trend advocating a more liberated relationship with cleanness, and gathered a community of thought around this call, opening the horizon to a bigger purpose.
Brand positioning research differs from market entry research, which focuses on the most likely products or services for a new market and tactical adjustments for brand messaging, brand identity, and packaging.
A brand positioning research provides answers to build a brand positioning that can be combined with industry audits and internal stakeholders interviews. In a changing world, brand positioning needs to be more dynamic, and brand positioning research is becoming a more dynamic exercise that can be done together with regular brand equity research that measures the “brand health”.
A better brand positioning provides clarity and actionability to the enterprise towards its transformation goals by aligning its teams and customers towards a vision that impacts the world and society, and accelerating innovation and consumer centricity with a focus on its value.
In conclusion, brand positioning research is a crucial tool for businesses to succeed in today’s competitive landscape. By answering key questions related to brand positioning development, businesses can better understand their customers and competitors, develop a unique value proposition, and align their teams and customers towards a vision that drives innovation and consumer centricity.
Brand Positioning Research: The Key to Product Innovation Success
In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business environment, companies need to innovate continuously to stay ahead of the competition. Product innovation is one of the most critical drivers of business growth, and companies invest heavily in research and development to stay ahead of the game. However, product innovation can be a risky and costly endeavor, and the failure rate of new product launches is high.
One of the essential factors that can help companies succeed in product innovation is brand positioning research. Brand positioning research is a process that helps companies understand how to position their brand in the market to achieve maximum impact and success. In this article, we will explore how brand positioning research can help companies innovate successfully and stay ahead of the competition.
What is Brand Positioning Research?
Brand positioning research, also known as brand lifter, is a process that helps companies understand how to position their brand in the market to achieve maximum impact and success. The process involves answering four critical questions:
How can I evolve my product and services value proposition?
Do I have opportunities to tap into a new customer segment?
How can I stand out now from my competition?
How might I project myself ahead from my competition?
The first two questions are usually answered through traditional consumer needs and expectation research involving ethnography, interviews, focus groups, and quantitative surveys that may use segmentation methods. The last two questions can be approached through similar methods, as well as semiotics and related cultural research methods.
A good example of brand positioning research is Unilever’s “Dirt is Good” campaign. Unilever uncovered a global truth that connected with mothers and promoted its various washing detergent brands. The “Dirt is Good” campaign not only led to product and service innovation, but also traditional marketing campaigns and purpose-led campaign initiatives that are now operating in 78 nations worldwide to address the play deficit and help children rediscover outdoor play.
Why is Brand Positioning Research Important?
Brand positioning research is critical to the success of product innovation for several reasons. First, it provides clarity and actionability to the enterprise towards its transformation goals. It aligns teams and customers towards a vision that impacts the world and society, accelerates innovation and consumer-centricity, and focuses on its value.
Second, brand positioning research is becoming a more dynamic exercise that can be done together with regular brand equity research that measures the “brand health.” In a changing world, brand positioning needs to be reinterpreted by its leaders to fit a variety of situations. A brand positioning research helps leaders reposition the brand to fit current market conditions, and to anticipate future market trends and shifts.
Conclusion
Brand positioning research is essential for companies looking to succeed in product innovation. It helps companies understand how to position their brand in the market to achieve maximum impact and success. With insights gleaned from brand positioning research, companies can not only innovate in products and services, but also in traditional and purpose-led marketing campaigns. By aligning teams and customers towards a vision that impacts the world and society, companies can accelerate innovation and consumer-centricity and focus on their value.