Positioning through reframing

When facing unexpected shifts in consumer behavior, adjusting positioning decisions requires a strategic and agile approach. The first step naturally is to determine specific changes in customer behavior and analyze the reasons behind these changes.

Assuming that you have the customer data, and the required insights, the question is how one translates that into functional initiatives that would address the shift in how the consumer views your brand. It is here when everything seems to be known, the several tried solutions having not worked, a time comes when you are wondering what to do.

It is in such situation that you must consider reframing a problem. Problem reframing is to redefine or reinterpret a problem to reveal new perspectives, opportunities, and solutions. It’s a powerful tool for overcoming obstacles, fostering innovation, and driving growth.

Reframing a Problem helps to challenge the assumptions and biases and reveals hidden opportunities. It encourages creative thinking and fosters collaboration and diverse perspectives leading to more effective solutions.

One could start by flipping a problem to see the opposing side. For example, how can we increase sales becomes how can we reduce losses. Going higher, broaden the scope of the problem and see what it looks like from a higher plane. For example, instead of looking to improve customer satisfaction can we look at creating a loyal customer community? Now after having gone higher, it is time to go deeper. Reframe the problem by drilling it down to specifics. Ask questions like how we can optimize our workflow rather than trying to increase productivity. Eventually, take the problem outside its familiar context and situate the problem into unrelated domains. For example, how can we improve healthcare?” could become “what if hospitals operated like high-performance sports teams?

Once you have defined the original problem, identify assumptions and biases and ask reframing questions. Through ⁠ ⁠what-if scenarios, challenge assumptions with hypothetical situations or perhaps argue against prevailing views by being a devil’s advocate. Think of how might we achieve what we wish to. Subject it to variations like why not, how could we, what would it take.

You might feel that you got what you want after the initial iteration. Afterall, 80% of ideas generated during brainstorming come within the first 15-20 minutes, but the most innovative and valuable ideas often emerge after that initial burst. Don’t settle for the initial ideas. Continue pushing and iterating. As time goes by participants become more comfortable sharing unconventional ideas. Group dynamics lead to idea cross-pollination. Later ideas often combine or improve upon earlier suggestions.

Remember there are many successful examples of reframing and positioning such as ⁠IKEA who reframed furniture shopping from “expensive, custom-made” to “affordable, self-assembled” or ⁠Airbnb reframing accommodation booking from “hotel rooms” to “unique, local experiences” or your everyday ⁠Uber, who reframed transportation from “taxi services” to “on-demand, shared rides”.

One of the important aspects to consider when reframing is to question the biases and challenging them. The starting point is to recognize assumptions which comes in the form of unstated assumptions and conventional wisdom. ⁠There are cognitive biases such as confirmation bias which seek only supporting data or an anchoring bias which relies too heavily on initial information or a hindsight bias which leads us to believe events were predictable. ⁠Challenging biases is critical to the success of problem reframing. Examining how past experiences shape current thinking one must seek diverse perspectives by encouraging input from diverse stakeholders.

Problem reframing is a powerful tool for unlocking innovative solutions, driving growth, and overcoming complex challenges. By challenging assumptions, exploring new perspectives, and applying creative thinking techniques, you can reframe problems and uncover exciting opportunities.

The positioning by itself will not be enough to revisit. Once you have challenged your bias, reframed the problems, drawn insights and have uncovered new opportunities, you need to press the pedal on putting it together to be introduced in the mainstream. Starting with the messaging, you would need to update messaging to resonate with the changed consumer behavior and update the content strategy to address new consumer concerns. To adjust product/service offerings to meet changing needs, you would need to adapt marketing channels to reach the evolving target audience. You would need to review pricing strategy to ensure competitiveness, develop strategic partnerships with relevant influencers/brands, enhance customer experience through omnichannel engagement, invest in employee training for enhanced customer engagement and explore new distribution channels.

After having done the hard work, continue to monitor and adapt. continuously track consumer behavior and market trends, measure the effectiveness of adjusted positioning decisions and rRemain agile and willing to make further adjustments.