Positioning guidelines Defining & establishing brand values Identifying & establishing brand positioning Basic concepts Target market Nature of competition Points of parity & points of difference
Basic concepts Target consumer Main competitors P.O.P. P.O.D. Target market IDENTIFYING THE CONSUMER TARGET IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE DIFFERENT CONSUMERS MAY HAVE DIFFERENT BRAND KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES & THUS DIFFERENT PERCEPTION & PREFERENCES FOR THE BRAND: Without this understanding, it may be difficult to state which brand association should be strongly held, favourable, & unique We need segmentation & targeting for this
Segmentation bases Behavioural Demographic Psychographic Geographic Criteria: Identifiability Size Accountability Accessibility Responsiveness Nature of competition THE TARGET & COMPETITVE FRAME OF REFERENCE CHOSEN WILL DICTATE THE BREADTH OF BRAND AWARENESS & THE SITUATIONS & TYPES OF CUES THAT SHOULD BECOME CLOSELY RELATED TO THE BRAND: Recognising the nature of competition has important implications for the desired brand association Arriving at the proper positioning requires establishing the correct P.O.D. & P.O.P. associations P.O.D. PODs are strong, favourable, & unique brand associations: According to CBBE model, brand associations can be broadly classified on following consideration: - functional, or performance related - abstract, or image related POD is closely related to: - USP - SCA POD may involve: - performance attributes/benefits - imagery associations - Overall superior quality - low cost provider
P.O.P. 2 basic forms: 1. Category POP: Legitimate & credible offering within a certain product/service category Specially critical for launches of brand extension into a new category: # POD may be clear from brand name, but what about POP 2. Competitive POP: Designed to negate competitors POD Positioning Guidelines 2 key issues in arriving at optimal competitive positioning: 1. Defining & communicating the competitive frame of reference 2. Choosing & establishing POP & POD Defining & communicating the competitive frame of reference PREFERRED APPROACH TO POSITIONING IS TO INFORM CONSUMERS OF A BRANDS MEMBERSHIP BEFORE STATING ITS P.O.D. IN RELATION TO OTHER CATEGORY MEMBERS For new products separate marketing programmes generally needed Occasionally, a company may straddle both frames of reference. For e.g. - BMW Ultimate Driving Machine spanned POD in luxury & POP in performance w.r.t. performance cars & POD on performance & POP on luxury w.r.t. luxury cars Brands category membership 1. Category benefits: * To provide supporting rationale so that consumers believe that a brand has the benefits that imply membership in a category, performance & imagery associations can be used 2. Comparing to Exemplars: * Well-known, noteworthy brands in a category can be also used to specify a brands category membership 3. Product descriptors: * Product descriptor that follows the brand name is often a very compact means of conveying category origin. E.g.: # Leher Namkeen Choosing POP & POD IN TERMS OF CHOSING POD, BROADLY, THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS ARE THAT CONSUMERS FIND THE P.O.D. DESIRABLE & BELIEVE THAT THE FIRM HAS THE CAPABILITIES TO DELIVER ON IT Desirability: - Relevance - Distinctiveness - Believability Deliverability: - Feasibility - Communicability - Sustainability
Desirability Relevance: - Target consumers must find POD personally relevant & important - relevant considerations can easily be overlooked Eg. Clear cola from Pepsi Distinctiveness: - Target consumers must find POD believable & credible - Challenge is to find a viable basis for differentiation, when entering category with established brands Believability: - Target consumers must find POD believable & credible - must offer compelling reason for choosing over other brands
Deliverability Feasibility: - Ability of the product to perform at the level stated? - Easier to convince consumers some facts about the brand they are unaware of rather than make changes in the product & convince consumers of these changes Communicability: - can a consumer be given a compelling enough reason to believe that the brand will deliver the desired benefits Sustainability: - sustainability of the actual & communicated performance over time: # is positioning pre-emptive, defensible, & difficult to attack? # is positioning likely to last for years? Establishing POP & POD Creating a strong, competitive brand positioning requires establishing the right POP & POD. The difficulty in doing so, however, is that many of the attributes that make up the POPs or PODs are negatively correlated.
Following 3 approaches are listed in increasing level of effectiveness but also increasing level of difficulty: Separate the attributes: - launch 2 different ad campaigns for POP & POD: run concurrently or separately; expenses high - flip side, consumers may not develop as positive an associations as desired Leverage equity of another entity: - used borrowed equity to leverage equity of celebrities or ingredients for establishing POD or POP Redefine relationship: - powerful but difficult way is to convince consumers that the relationship is positive: develop a credible story consumer will agree. For example: # Apple computers ad Power to be your best is an attempt to redefine what a powerful computer meant
Updating positioning over time Updating positioning involves 2 main issues: 1. Laddering: How to deepen brand meaning to tap into or brand values or other more abstract considerations: - involves a progression from attributes to benefits to more abstract values & motivations, i.e., moving up the Maslows Hierarchy 2. Reacting: How to respond to competitive challenges that threaten an existing positioning: - When competitor challenges an existing POD or attempts to overcome a POP, 3 main options: (i) Do nothing: continue brand building (ii) Go on defensive: if it has potential to disrupt market, add some reassurance in product or advertising to strengthen POPs & PODs (iii) Go on the offensive: if it seems potentially quite damaging may be necessary to reposition brand - one approach is to launch product extension or ad campaign changing meaning of the brand