BRAND POSITIONING

Brand is. .A promise by a company to its customers that

differentiates its products and services over time.

(The objective is customer loyalty)

A Brand is more than a Product

PRODUCTScope

AttributesQuality

UsesBrand-customer

Relationship

Symbols

Brand Personality

Emotional BenefitsSelf Expressive Benefits

User Imagery

Country of origin

Organizational Associations

Understanding the Brand Promise

The brand promise defines the customer’s expectations for the experience.

Being the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve.

We want to do business with you on your terms-- when you want, where you want.

Brand Identity and Brand Image

Brand Positioning

“To position a product/service in the minds of consumers relative to competitors”

Ries and Trout

“The brand has to be distinctive, relevant and appealing to its target audience”

Robbertson 2000

Positioning Levels

By attribute - Omo, Dove, and Volvo

By price/quality - Mr. Price, Woolworths

By product user - Diesel, Chivas Regal

Marketing Strategy

Segmentation

Targeting

Positioning

Target Market Segmentation

A market segment should have similar Knowledge structures and brand knowledge

Similar knowledge structures might mean

similar perceptions and beliefs about your Brand

There are 2 ways to segment:-

Descriptive: characteristics of the individuals in the market

Behavioral: grouped by how individuals in the market perceive or use the product

Toothpaste Segmentation

Four main segments:-

Sensory segment

Flavor and product appearance

Sociable

Brightness of teeth

Worriers

Decay Prevention

Independent

Low Price

What is Positioning

Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market.

Proper Positioning

Proper positioning

Clarifies what the Brand is all about

How it is both unique and similar to

competitive brands

Why customers should purchase and

use the Brand.

In order to Position a Brand…

You must decide

Who the Target Consumer isWho your main competitors areHow the brand is similar to your competitorsHow the brand is different from your

competitors

Where do you get this information?

Your BRAND INVENTORY!!

How do I begin to Position my Brand?

Communicate category membership

This is the “frame of reference”, where customers can activate what they know about the category and how apply it

How?

Communicate category benefitsCompare your product to exemplarsRely on product description

FOCUS OF POSITIONING

Attributes and benefits of the product

Competition

Product User

Product use or application

Product class

Cultural Symbols

STEPS IN POSITIONING

Identify Competitors.

Determine most important attributes consumers use in choosing a brand

Determine consumer’s perceptions of competitors.

Determine pereptions of your brand

What is the ideal brand for your market segments?

Assess best positioning strategy

Track image of brand over time

Brand Positioning Brand positioning is all about identifying the optimal

location in our customers’ minds for our Brand and our competitors.

Proper positioning makes it easier to facilitate understanding of our Brand.

Taken to its’ logical conclusion, you might think of the Principle as an indicator of a brand’s position.

First Steps…. The first step is to identify and establish Brand

positioning and brand values (Keller)

Positioning is the foundation for creating and fostering the desired knowledge and perceptions of your customers

remember our 3 types of associations in memory? We can really only manage one (positive), can

respond to a second (negative), and have no control over the third (idiosyncratic)

Identifying and establishing Brand Positioning

The Integrated Brand Model

Six elements that define a brand

UnifiedLeverage each otherBrand Drivers a function of Organization

drivers

These six elements serve as a “roadmap” to our Brand Equity model

At every step, we can figure out what to do from our Brand and Organization Drivers

Brand Positioning Guiding Principles….

1. A brand's positioning should be updated every three tofive years, or as often as needed to update the company's overall growth strategy.

2. Positioning should drive all of an organization's brand strategies, as well as revenue and profit streams.

3. Senior management has to lead the charge in implementing a brand's positioning.

4. Employees, not advertising agencies, bring a brand positioning to life.

5. A strong brand positioning is customer driven and fits with customer perceptions of the brand.

Positioning - The Process….

POP and POD

Points-of-difference –unique brand values

Desirable Deliverable

Points-of-parity–shared brand values

Necessary Competitive

Nuts and Bolts

How do I decide on my PODs and POPs?

POPs

Analysis of category

What attributes do all of my competitors have? I probably need to have those, or my competitors automatically have a POD

POPs get you included in category

PODs are more difficult

Don’t use PODs that are product centric (dominate competition) but customer centric (uniquely address need of customer)

POP and POD

POD (Point of Difference)Strong, favorable, unique brand associationsMay be any kind of attribute or benefit

Two types of PODs

Attribute Based Functional, performance related differences

Image Based Affective, experiential, brand image related

differences

POP (Point of Parity)

Associations that are shared with other brands

Two types

Category: attributes that are required to include your product as a member of that category

Competitive: POP that negate your competitors PODs

Managerial issues

Criteria for POD

DesirabilityMust be RelevantMust be DistinctiveMust be Believable

DeliverabilityFeasibilityCommunicabilitySustainability

Establish POP and POD in marketplace

Difficulty: Many attributes that make up POP and PODs are negatively opposed

Low price vs. High quality Tastes Great vs. Less filling

Separate the attributes

Leverage equity in another entity

Redefine the relationship

Positioning - The Process….

Point of Difference?

“Announce the frame of reference but compete on point/s of difference.”

- Keller

Relevant Compelling

Believable Deliverable

Difficult to attack

Point of Difference Questions….

Is the key benefit important to our customer?Can we deliver the benefit? Can we own this point of difference over time? Is this point of difference sustainable over our

competition and their directions?

Craft the Brand Positioning Statement

Relevant, differentiated and single-minded!

Plato - Deep within everything is the idea of that thing (essence)

The “defining idea” Moon 2000

Integration

Experienced at every point of contact - over time

Three Elements

Target Audience

Compelling benefit

Reason Why (Kitchen Logic)

All Elements

Packaging, Pricing, Distribution, Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing….

All work in unison to the beat of the brand positioning statement.

Going From Strategy to Idea

Brand PositioningProvides the strategic framework for how we

are going to differentiate our brand vs. competition.

Advertising Idea:Transforms the strategy Into a powerful,

motivating, and consumer relevant selling idea.

Brand Positioning Perceived fit between a particular product

offering and the needs of target market

Positioning is defined relative to: competitive offerings consumer needs

Physical Positioning How a firm’s product compares to the

competition’s on some set of objective physical characteristics

Perceptual Positioning How a firm’s product compares to the

competition’s on some set of subjectivecharacteristics

A brand can be positioned in several ways:

Benefit positioning.Target positioning.Price positioningPositioning by distribution.

Similar concepts

Unique Selling Proposition (USP; Reeves and Bates)

Advertisers should give a compelling reason to buy a product that competitors could not match

What component of the IBM reflects this? Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)

The advantage of delivering superior value in the marketplace for a prolonged period of time

Further, SCAs can result from any component of the firm

Similar to notion that Principle exists in every part of the firm

CONCLUSION….Adopting a strong position is not a passive act;

rather it is a deliberate attempt to influence events. It requires ignoring certain business targets in favor of others, and if successful, will yield growth in sales and profits and a consumer franchise who believe that your brand has no adequate substitute, even if it costs more.

Neither innovation or quality are, by themselves, sufficient to guarantee that a brand will achieve all that it is capable of in the market place.