Where are you on the road to market leadership? With very few exceptions, successful companies do not emerge overnight.  It takes time to establish your business and grow your customer base.  Yet companies we've never heard of claim to be "market leaders" in their particular fields.  Amazing, isn't it?   Also, with very few exceptions, companies don't become successful by chance or accident.  That's why I'm constantly surprised at how many companies, especially in technology markets, fail to manage their market positioning --  not just marketing in general -- with the same sense of urgency as they do engineering, sales, finance and other aspects of their business.  To address this problem, I've developed a Market Positioning Pyramid, shown above, that suggests a progression from awareness to market leadership, and approximate time frames that apply to each stage of market positioning.  The bullets in each layer of the pyramid, read from top to bottom, define specific messaging for each layer.  Each layer or phase builds on the attributes of the one below it The pyramid shape is proportional to the relative number of companies found at each level. Only a few make it to the top. The pyramid is hardly groundbreaking in its insight, yet it provides a pathway to go from virtual anonymity to market leadership.  Let's take a look at what the pyramid entails. Awareness This is the entry point of the Market Positioning Pyramid.  This typically is the business plan for any entity's first year. After all, it's hard to operate a business profitably if no one knows who you are, what you sell or why they need it.  Read from the top down, building awareness is a function of the following exercises: What we do.  Know what business you're in.  Sounds obvious, but young companies are tempted to "branch out" and can lose sight of their mission statement.  At this early stage, do one thing and do it really well.  Keep your eye on the ball. Audience segmentation. Clearly, you must know what types of people will want your product or service.  But within those groups you need to reach decision makers and actual end users, and they don't speak the same language. Do the research to identify and communicate with each group. Why do you need it? Stop admiring your "feeds and speeds" and find the things that keep your customers and prospects up at night -- their pain points.  While "solutions" is an overused word, it at least stresses ROI and the importance of selling benefits, not just features of your product/service. Messaging/branding.  Now you're ready to develop your messaging and unique sales proposition: why what you do, and how you do it, delivers measurable value for your target audiences.   Developing a message hierarchy is a delicate process, but vital to building brand identity and equity.  To me, branding means defining the marketplace in your own image.  Your messaging and brand (company/ product names and associated attributes) become inseparable in PR strategy and tactics. Differentiation Establishing differentiation is a function of the following processes: Competitive strengths.  No matter what business you're in, you have competitors.  Don't kid yourself or insult other people's intelligence by claiming otherwise.  So take the time to carefully study not only the product/service features of your direct competitors, but also how they approach the marketplace.  Your customers and prospects are doing this, so you don't want to be blindsided. Why this matters.  Differentiators are often considered product features, typically born of proprietary processes or technology.  But what's "breakthrough" stuff to you may be foreign to your prospects who are hearing this for the first time.  You must tell them the tangible, measurable benefits your differentiators actually deliver -- using language and metrics they will readily understand. In step with market dynamics.  Your prospects and customers are familiar with the marketplace.  They don't need you to educate them. Instead, you must  demonstrate that your new solution, which likely creates possibilities that didn't exist before in your industry, leverages their existing investments in this area.  It truly is all about ROI. Define the market in your own image.  This is my favorite part.  Building on the messaging and branding you created in the Awareness phase, you're ready to define the "state of the art" in your field now and forever more.  You do this through PR and other marketing techniques which, when bolstered by third-party statements, validate your differentiation.  You then have the best of all worlds, you're a "company to watch," well on your way to being "the new sheriff in town." Preference Preference is the level where customers form a special bond with your company for reasons that often transcend considerations of product or service alone.  Apple Computer, Nordstrom department store and Lexus cars are examples of brands that, despite less than unequivocal competitive advantage, have parlayed differentiation into preference and appeal primarily based on the superior service they provide. Establishing preference is a function of the following: Win rate starts to climb. This is the surest sign that your differentiation messages, such as competitive strengths and why this matters to customers, are getting through.  You're beginning to win market share, which is the essential ingredient in market leadership, the ultimate goal. Service/support programs.  We've all experienced times dealing with suppliers where the level of service and support either drove us away vowing never to return...or won our devotion vowing never to shop anywhere else.  Companies that believe product and price alone are the only things that matter to customers will never reach the level of preference. Customer loyalty begins.  As your win rate climbs and your service/support programs mature into winning processes that become second nature to your employees, you develop loyal customers.  It's at this point that preference translates directly to profitability. Innovation, value set stage for long-term viability. Of course, you haven't stopped improving your core products and services.  But combined with superior service and support, and the customer loyalty thus engendered, you're a market force to be reckoned with for a long time. Market Leadership The pinnacle of the Market Positioning Pyramid is Market Leadership.  This is the smallest layer, which makes sense because few companies reach this level -- and even fewer stay there. Market leaders have traversed the underlying levels of the pyramid and, in the process, are familiar names in their industries.  They have managed to harness the attributes of innovation, product/service leadership and excellence in service and support. Gaining and maintaining market leadership looks like this: Market share/revenue.  No hype here.  The only real test for market leadership is by the numbers.  You don't have to be number 1 in market share and/or revenue, but you rank among the top five in your field. Customer loyalty established.  This key component of the Preference layer is now fully in place.  The good news is that a market leader has an enormous and loyal customer base.  The bad news is that most customers must endure frustrating phone menus, web support, etc.  Personalizing the customer experience becomes a real challenge. Vision paces industry advances.  Companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, eBay, Starbucks and Dell come to mind here.  Market leaders may not have created their industries, but through innovation they show us what's possible.  Others site you as a trendsetter. Another way to say this is that you're among the 30 firms that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  In practice, this is where the media and other key influencers validate your power and impact on the market.  The buzz becomes a roar. Copy cats emerge. This is inevitable, and is further proof of your market leadership.  Competitors often begin at the bottom of the pyramid, just where market leaders began.  They're hungry, and some market leaders become complacent.  Only time will tell if copy cats force their way to the top or languish in anonymity before disappearing. BLC is ready to work with your company to help you reach the top of the Market Positioning Pyramid.  Contact us today to begin your ascent. Contact BLC