Successful & unsuccessful positioning

strategies

For brand to be successful:

Be different - make sure you stick out from your competitors

Be focused – find a niche, and not only will qualified customers seek you out, but they'll be willing to pay more

Be relevant – fins out if there is market space for you

Great positioning

The strongest positioning is built on reduction. People unconsciously place brands in categories. Those brands that rise to the top are known for simple—even simplistic—ideas. In fact, the top brands in most categories can usually be summed up in a word or a short phrase:

1. FedEx revolutionized the package delivery business because they became synonymous with "overnight."

2. Volvo built its reputation on "safety." When people want a safe car, they buy a Volvo.

3. What company has become known for spectacular "innovation" in the consumer electronics market? Apple, of course.

The more you can simplify your positioning, the more powerful it becomes.

Pringles

brand of potato and wheat-based stackable snack chips owned by the Kellogg Company

opposed to competitors’ chips that are greasy and broken

tubular paperboard can with a foil-lined interior and a resalable plastic lid

Pringles are sold in more than 140 countries

yearly sales of more than US$1.4 billion

attractive logo

Head and Shoulders shampoo

A brand of anti-dandruff shampoo produced by Procter & Gamble

Power of the name

Lifestyle and consumer preferences

New element ZPT formula

Clever package

Virginia Slims

a brand of cigarette manufactured by Altria Group (formerly Phillip Morris Companies)

Slogan – "You've come a long way, baby.“ "It's a woman thing," in the 1990s, and "Find your voice.“

link smoking "to women's freedom, emancipation, and empowerment."

Volkswagen Beetle ‘Think small’. "The People's Car"

By 2002, over 21 million Type 1s had been produced

Powerful engine – compact size

Unsuccessful positioning

Brands fail for many reasons — from poor marketing, to culture shifts, straight down to a bad idea.

Heinz EZ Squirt Ketchup

In October 2000 H.J. Heinz Company introduced green ketchup.

The artificially-colored ketchup came in a new EZ Squirt bottle designed with a narrow nozzle for drawing smiley faces on cheeseburgers.

EZ Squirt ketchup rolled out three more funky colors, including purple, blue, and Mystery Color, which could be either purple, orange, or teal. 

Eventually, consumers lost interest

Bottled Water For Pets

In 1994, the Original Pet Drink Company based in Florida introduced liters of Thirsty Dog! and Thirsty Cat!, bottled water for pets.

The carbonated, vitamin-enriched beverage came in two lip-smacking flavors: Crispy Beef for dogs and Tangy Fish for cats.

The drink was even approved by the FDA for human consumption (in case owners had a sudden hankering for liquid sirloin).

The product was short-lived

Pepsi A.M. In the late 1980s, the Pepsi-Coca-Cola rivalry was as strong as ever.

In an aggressive move to win over the elusive group of morning soft-drink guzzlers, the Pepsi-Cola Company introduced Pepsi A.M., a carbonated beverage with "all the sugar and twice the caffeine" of regular Pepsi.

Pepsi A.M. fizzled out within one year. There was no specific demand for a breakfast cola-drink, and the name proved limiting to product sales.  Plus, it didn't taste that good steaming hot. 

Orbitz Water In 1997, the Clearly Canadian Beverage Corporation broke the

beverage boundaries by cross-breeding a lava lamp with a fruit-flavored drink. The result: Orbitz water, "a texturally enhanced alternative water" that had little edible gelatin balls floating in it.

The stuff tasted like cough syrup, looked weird, and plus the gelatin is inherently unappealing.

The product failed within a year of its debut.

Reddi-Bacon Pre-cooked bacon packaged in absorbent paper between sheets of

aluminum foil that you could pop in your toaster for breakfast in minutes.

Bacon has a lot of fat. Solid fat turns to liquid fat when it gets heated. The absorbent paper didn't do such a good job of sopping up all the grease, thus leaking into toasters making a mess and creating a potential fire hazard.

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