The journey of transformation from a business to a brand is extensive yet critical. One of the important stages during this journey is to build the foundation for your brand positioning amongst the customers. The way your brand is positioned in the market is an essential process as it helps establish your identity, capture the attention of your target audience as well as offers you a competitive edge over the other industry players. However, merely having high-end products and services won’t suffice the purpose. To position themselves desirably, brands need to connect effectively with their customers. Fostering valuable relationships with their customer base in turn paves the way for brand loyalty and equity.

Due to the ever-evolving industry trends, brands are always on the lookout for unique strategies to communicate with their customers and strengthen their image in the market. Influencer Marketing has thus been gaining popularity as an innovative approach. The authenticity of the influencers, the data driven model of the strategies which help in generating greater ROI along with the effective social selling ability, together make influencer marketing the go-to strategy for brands to position themselves in the present times!

Influencer Marketing: The new-age solution for brands for enhanced positioning in the market

Positioning is a crucial step for brands as it impacts their long-term success. It also has a major to play in reaching their desired customer base and developing connections with their target audience. However, in the present times, as the customers’ preferences and behaviors keep on evolving, positioning effectively is emerging to be a major challenge for the brands. They are keen to explore a plethora of options to overcome this hurdle and hence consider adopting the new-age approach of influencer marketing on social media.

According to the research conducted by Statista, the global influencer marketing industry is projected to be valued more than $370 million by 2027. This is indicative of the fact that influencer marketing is gradually gaining prominence and possesses great potential for growth. Hence, brands are resorting to this modernistic social media marketing strategy to sail through the challenge of effective brand positioning in the market-

Bridging the gap between the established brand identity versus the brand image in the market

Brands evolve over the period of time and so does their identity that was established during the foundation. However, this identity can vary from how your target audience in actuality perceives you. Hence, to communicate with your customers, you as a brand need to research about your awareness in the market and gather insights on the status quo. Once you realize that this gap between the self-image and external image amongst the customers exists and is indeed significant; you will be able to modify your communication strategies accordingly. The reach and engagement rates captured via influencer marketing strategies help in bridging this gap seamlessly.

Adding value and sharing an opinion

As per Deloitte’s recent reports, the new-age consumers connect with brands and stick around for long with the ones that support them as well as are considerate about the society. Hence, as Gartner points out appropriately in its study, for brands to achieve a strong positioning, sharing their opinion on the current and relevant topics that impact the society at large is an effective method. This combined with the provision of exciting deals and promotions would further help in facilitating meaningful conversations with your customers. However, the relevance of the subject and its alignment with your brand messaging is an important point to be kept into consideration. Curating influencer marketing campaigns highlighting your stance on the social issues won’t help in direct selling of your brand’s offerings but would definitely help in positioning your brand image amongst the target audience effectively.

Fostering authentic communication via influencers

Influencer marketing helps to bridge the communication gap by enabling brands to connect and engage with their customers by utilizing the power of influencers. The influencers have a strong follower base and not only come with greater reach and engagement rates but also authenticity and credibility. They can further help brands in fostering deeper associations with their consumers and even pave the way for brand loyalty by collaborating with brands for their tailor-made influencer marketing campaigns. This is how brands can leverage the consumers’ trustworthiness and reliability on the influencers to position their image on social media.

Summing up

Brands face various challenges but positioning them effectively amongst their target customers is a significant hurdle. Influencer Marketing with its new-age approach, data-driven strategies and robust influencer community possesses the power to impact the purchasing decisions and mindset of the consumers and is thus emerging to be an effective solution. It leads to garnering engagement, greater conversions, and enhanced brand visibility further carving the path for positive brand image and positioning along with boosted organic growth. However, for brands to optimally harness the power of this approach, it is imperative that they ensure their messaging is honest and authentic! The reputation of both your brand as well as the influencer is at stake and in case of any misleading, false or incomplete information; your relationship with your customers (in case of brand) and followers (in case of influencers) would be tarnished for life!

The influencer marketing industry is expected to boom in the times to come. Hence, brands will be relying all the more on the power of influencers and the content creators to engage with their customers and eventually to strengthen their positioning in the market