Every business has a niche to fill. One of the most important parts of developing your marketing plan is deciding where your business will fit in amongst your competitors. Are there already three other businesses who provide the same service as you? How will you differentiate your business from those? If two of those businesses claim to have the best prices, and the third business claims to have the highest quality, you need to find the pigeonhole your business fits into. Your business should have its own flavor. Perhaps your business has the newest technology, best customer service, or you were the first one to provide that service.

Being different is key. Without a differentiating factor, your business will blend in with the crowd. You want to stand out. Finding some things that make your business different and better is an important part of building your client base. The same goes for your advertising. If you’re an insurance company, you probably shouldn’t use a lizard as your mascot because that’s already been done. Develop your own creative way to promote your business. Whatever you choose should also project your positioning strategy. You don’t want to use a cartoon mascot to represent a high end product.

Though it may be tempting to try to provide your product or service at all price ranges, that’s not the best strategy. If you want to provide luxury furniture, then the image you should project to your clients is that of a high end furniture store. Your customers expect to walk into a store full of luxury items. They don’t expect to see some luxury and also some inexpensive low quality furniture. This can actually hurt your image. Pricing should also reflect your positioning strategy.  Examine your competition’s prices. If you want to position yourself as the lowest priced, you will need to know your competitors’ prices too.

Your pricing and positioning strategies should work hand in hand. If they don’t both project the same image, customers will be confused about what your business really provides. If you claim to have the best quality, but you also have the lowest prices, customers might question your quality claims. Take a good hard look at your business and what it is that makes you unique. Focus on those things when you’re developing your pricing and positioning strategy.