If a cross-border e-commerce enterprise does not have a positioning and a clear product line, it will easily become a grocery store that is nothing. Therefore, when traditional foreign trade e-commerce transforms into cross-border e-commerce, the purpose of brand positioning for the enterprise is to occupy the minds of consumers in the market and obtain consumers’ expectations of their own brands, so that consumers can choose themselves among many enterprises. No matter how small the enterprise is, it has its own brand. This is the same whether it is at home or abroad.
Therefore, it is very important for a cross-border e-commerce enterprise to position its own brand and quickly build its own brand. So much so that the five elements of the brand, namely brand name, brand logo, brand creed, brand audience, and brand story, are all serving it.
Brand positioning is the consumer’s emotional and rational cognition of a product or enterprise, and it is difficult to change the consumer’s cognition. For example, Apple mobile phones are currently the best mobile phones in the minds of many consumers. If a company says that it wants to build a mobile phone that is better than Apple, consumers will not believe it, and then this positioning will not be successful.
How to position the brand of your cross-border e-commerce enterprise? How to find accurate brand positioning and win a favorable position in the market? In the current context of price wars on large platforms swallowing up all small brands, how should small and medium-sized enterprise sellers position themselves? What else needs to be done before determining brand positioning?
First, when researching the target market, you need to answer the following questions.
(1) Under what circumstances will consumers need and buy your products?
(2) What are the specific characteristics of the products you sell? In which commodity category are the products?
(3) In the perception of consumers, what is the market share of the leaders and competitors in your product market?
(4) What are the evaluation tendencies of consumers?
(5) Is there a market gap that your brand can fill?
Based on the above questions, here are four effective positioning strategies for small and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce companies.
Strategy 1: Become the first in the category. This is easy to understand, that is, focus on a certain category and make it an industry benchmark. For example, the brand positioning strategy of lotsofbuttons.com to become the first is “the world’s largest online button store.” lotsofbuttons.com is a vertical fashion cross-border e-commerce company in Hong Kong, China. With its super-complete categories (various types, sizes, shapes and designs), huge quantities, low procurement costs and high efficiency, it can meet the needs of customers all over the world and become the first in consumers’ cognition.
Strategy 2: Opposites. Opposites brand positioning is relative or opposite, what is and what is not. For example, mobile phones for young people and mobile phones for the elderly are opposites. Young people pursue fashion, and mobile phones are comprehensive, and they wish they could handle all aspects of a mobile phone; while the elderly require the simpler and clearer the better, and the mobile phone only needs to meet the most basic call function.
Strategy 3: Become an expert product. Expert product positioning means being very focused and profound in a certain field. For example, eatingtools.com, an American online website that sells tableware, each of its products is made by some famous craftsmen, with excellent craftsmanship and unique style.
Strategy 4: Fill the gap. The so-called gap is some product directions that are ignored by the market and have a very marketable market. For example, a US company does not follow the usual path and focuses on making underwear for young, lively, sporty and fashionable girls. This has clear restrictions, but it is also a very distinctive selling point.