Meet your customers where they are

Why positioning shapes every booking

Every booking starts somewhere. Maybe it’s a billboard ad that sparks an idea. A feature in the Sunday papers. A social post that catches the eye mid-scroll. Or a testimonial that lands during a daydream about next summer.

You only have a moment to catch someone’s attention but if you do, that moment can dictate everything that follows; how much someone is willing to pay for their holiday, how confident they feel choosing you over a competitor, whether they believe your promise of quality or service. Even whether they rebook.

When your positioning is tight, it helps people recognise what your brand is about wherever they are in their buying journey.

And as a specialist or premium travel brand, you might be thinking your positioning is already pretty tight because you’re a specialist and occupy a niche.

But let me assure you, positioning is a lot more than sitting in a niche.

What we really mean by positioning

Most marketers know the textbook definition of positioning. The reality is more practical. Positioning is the lens which shapes how people interpret everything you put into the world. It is the organising principle behind who you serve, the value you signal and the expectations you set before anyone reads a line of copy.

Strong positioning starts at the very first encounter and stays present through the entire journey. Colour choices, type, tone, pace, imagery, proposition, the way your team speaks, the way your experience unfolds. None of these work in isolation. Together they help to build a narrative which tells customers what kind of brand you are and whether they should trust you with their time, money and holiday.

For premium and specialist brands, positioning is fundamental to how you build price integrity, credibility and preference in markets where your product alone is unlikely to differentiate you.

Standing apart

You may occupy a niche in the world of travel, but you still have competitors. In travel there are so many travel brands saying and offering a version of the same thing.

You’ve heard the phrases “exceptional experiences”, “unbeatable service”, “once-in-a-lifetime moments”, even “tailor made” from a wide spectrum of operators. The usual stunning visuals (lovely, but indistinguishable from those other brands use).

It’s not fundamentally about what you’re offering, it’s about how you frame it.

All your competitors are claiming to be bespoke, authentic or immersive. So what are you going to do to stand apart?

Take HX Expeditions, for example. It’s a cruise line, and just like plenty of others, promising adventure at sea. While its destinations include some of the remote and far flung destinations, their positioning lives in something deeper - purpose and authenticity. Those that have booked with HX know that it has scientists onboard every cruise, and discretionary money set aside to support local communities they visit in different ports. While it doesn't shout about this all over its website, this probably adds even more authenticity - and the experience backs it up.

I’ve seen this play out even at the smallest scale. We rebranded a B&B in Torquay and rather than the usual bathroom-and-bed shots, through photography we elevated the building’s architectural details. This shift in perspective helped to position it as a premium stay in a ‘sea of same’ at one of Britain’s most popular seaside resorts.

How positioning shows up

Positioning helps you win the sale

Very often the way people interpret your brand is tacit - it’s an impression which is given and interpreted in a fleeting moment. And sometimes you only have that one moment to convey who you are. It could be as small as an 1080 x 1350 Instagram ad. Maybe it’s 15 seconds before a YouTube video. Maybe it’s one sentence in a sponsored article. But of course, sometimes that’s all you need.

For example your visual cues - colour, font, tone, proposition - can help to compress who you are into a second. Are you red and bold with big price slash icons or do you have a “Farrow and Ball” palate and minimalist fonts?

It’s your Jet2 versus someone like Audley Travel. Its logo feels premium because of its elegant serif curve, the confident sweep of the stroke and the stripped-back simplicity.

One of the biggest mistakes a premium brand can make is trying to cram every message into a single ad or asset. I always revert back to this metaphor - if you throw ten tennis balls at someone, they’ll drop all of them. Throw one, and they catch it. You do not need to explain the full experience, every USP, every detail of your craftsmanship or every community initiative in one go. You only need to land one clear, confident idea that gets someone to take the next step.

From that first touchpoint you should be able to trust your website, your team and the wider consumer journey to fill in the rest. You give people just enough to feel something - interest, trust, curiosity - and then you let the rest unfold where it belongs.

Positioning shapes the experience after the sale

Good positioning should follow your customer through their entire journey, if you pardon the pun.

When the experience matches the promise - the tone you set, the expectations you created, the feeling you offered - trust is reinforced. If the customer believes you and believes in you - that belief is what will keep bringing them back.

Having confidence in your positioning

One of the quickest ways for a brand to lose value is to dilute what made it distinctive in the first place. It could start with a shift in tone to sound more “mainstream”. A design tweak to feel more “accessible”. A positioning statement rewritten to avoid putting anyone off.

Before long, the sharp edges are gone, and with them, the thing people actually remembered you for.

We see it across the industry. Virgin Atlantic used to feel irreverent and rebellious. Now it blends into the establishment it once disrupted. Airbnb began as a community-driven challenger brand. Its positioning shifted, and so did perception. The sense of belonging faded and the backlash around local impact grew.

TripAdvisor was once the gold standard for unbiased reviews. As it expanded into bookings and monetisation, the clarity of its purpose became harder for customers to trust.

When you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal less to the people who matter most.

Imagine a world where everyone liked Marmite!?

Confidence is part of positioning. Knowing who you are. Staying true to it. And letting the right audience recognise themselves in what you stand for.

If you want customers to understand the value behind your price, trust your brand quickly and keep coming back, your positioning has to carry the weight. If you’re ready to sharpen it, we can help. Get in touch.