Crafting the brand positioning
CHAPTER 10
Building strong brands requires a keen understanding of competitors and
competition.
How to deal with competition?- Just through creatively designed and well-
executed marketing programs.
All marketing strategy is built on STP
If a company does a poor job of positioning, the market will be confused.
This is what happened when National Car Company and Alamo Rent-a-car were combined by their former parent, ANS Rental Corp.
Positioning-
is the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target market.
What is the result of positioning?
the successful creation of a customer focused value
proposition
Examples of value propositionCompany and product
Target customers
Benefits Value Proposition
A - chicken Quality-conscious consumers of chicken
Tenderness More tender golden chicken at a moderate price
B – station wagon
Safety – conscious families
Durability and safety
The safest, most durable wagon in which your family can ride
C - pizza Convenience – minded pizza lovers
Delivery Speed and good quality
A good hot pizza, delivered promptly to your door, at a moderate price
Deciding on a positioning requires1. Determining a competitive frame of
reference – a starting point is to determine a category membership
2. Identifying the ideal points-of-difference brand associations
3. Identifying the ideal points-of-parity a. category POP b. competitive POP
http://www.digiorno.com/
To understand better category POP
Try to imagine a travel agency without making hotel reservations, without
providing advice about leisure packaging. Is it an easy task one?
Miller Lite BeerAdvertising company had 2 goals:1.Establishing category point-of-parity with
competitors2.At the same time creating a point-of-parity
“Everything you’ve always wanted in a beer and less…”
POP vs. POD
Often the key to positioning is not so much achieving a POD as achieving POP
Marketers must inform consumers of a brand’s category membership.
But what should consumers know before it?
Initial advertising - on creating brand awareness
Subsequent advertising – on crafting the brand image
Ways to convey a brand’s category membershipAnnouncing category benefitsComparing to exemplars
At which level to anchor the brand’s POD?
BRAND ATTRIBUTES – the least desirable level to position
BRAND BENEFITS ORBRAND VALUES?
Dove soapOne quarter cleansing creamSofter skinIts value of being more attractive
What level is the buyer more interested in?
Research has shown that brands can sometimes be successfully differentiated
on irrelevant attributes.
POP and POD are negatively correlated
Differentiation strategiesCompetitive advantageLeverageable advantageConsumer advantage
Marketers can differentiate brands on the basis of many variables
SOUTHWEST AIRLINE – Dallas-based company
Low pricesReliable servicesHealthy sense of humor
First-come – first-served open seating
o PERSONNEL DIFFERENTIATION
o CHANNEL DIFFERENTIATION
o IMAGE DIFFERENTIATION
PLC1. Products have a limited life2. Product sales pass through distinct
stages, each posing different challenges, opportunities and problems to the seller
3. Profits rise and fall at different stages of a PLC
4. Products require different marketing: financial, manufacturing, purchasing and human resource strategies in each life-cycle stage
not all products exhibit a bell-shaped PLC
Growth-slump-maturity patternCycle-recycle patternScalloped pattern
Special categories of PLC1. Style
2.Fashion a. distinctivness b. emulation c. mass fashion d. decline
3. Fad
Introduction StageSales growth ProfitsPromotional expendituresCostsPrices
Pioneers’ advantageSecond mover advantage
Growth stageSalesEarly adopters of productAdditional consumersNew competitorsDistribution
To sustain to improve product quality, features, styling, add new models and enter new market segments.
Maturity stageSales growthLasts longer or shorter than other stages?
MODIFICATION
MARKET M. PRODUCT M.
To work with 2 factors that make up
sales volume – number of brand users and usage
rates among users
• Quality improvement• Feature improvement• Style
improvement
Decline StageSalesIncreased domestic and foreign competitionProfit
What products experienced slow decline and which once rapid decline?
Market Evolution1. Emergence – before a market
materializes, it exists as a latent market.Diffused-preference marketSingle-niche, multiple niche or mass-market
strategy?1. Growth2. MaturityMarket fragmentationMarket consolidation1. Decline
HomeWork assignments1. Name 10 examples of irrelevant attributes of a
brand from everyday life2. Choose one company that has recently introduced
a new product.A. At what stage of PLC would you put this product
and why? B. How does this company try to differentiate this
product from its competitors?C. Describe the potential PLC for one of the possible
new inventions of this company.3. Name and describe three ways for a firm to expand
the number of users of a brand.YOUR ANSWERS MUST BE TYPED AND HANDED IN ON
MAY, 23th.