5/20/2021 IGNITOR Student

IWW-g

NOTES Yes (3)

Promote Competitors-

No .. _ (2)
SUTR‘

No Yes

a Swimming up the river.

Figure 4.2 Outcomes of Proposed Positioning

brands that do have a competitive advantage with respect to a particular product feature or
benefit. Finally, the "Winner" label characterizes a situation where we have positioned our
brand on a product feature or benefit for which we have an advantage over competitors and
which gives consumers a persuasive reason for trying our brand. When considering how best
to position a brand, it is essential to appraise objectively and hypercritically whether a pro-
posed positioning affords "your” brand a competitive advantage and whether this advantage
is important enough to encourage consumers to at least make a trial purchase of your brand.
To make this idea of positioning even more concrete, let us call on the customer- based
brand equity framework. For present purposes, it will be useful to reproduce the brand image
part of the brand equity framework as a useful graphic for expanding our discussion of brand
positioning. As can be seen in Figure 4.3, a brand's image consists of types, favorability,
strength, and uniqueness of brand associations. Our focus for now will be limited to the types
of brand associations. Please notice in Figure 4.3 that types of associations include brand at-
tributes, benefits, and an overall evaluation of, or attitude toward, the brand. Brand attributes
include product-related and non-product—related features. Non-productrelated attributes
would include, for example, a brand’s price, consurner perceptions of the type of people who
own the brand (user imagery), and the occasions when the brand would be appropriately
used (usage imagery). Brand benq‘îts consist of ways by which a brand satisfies customers‘
needs and wants and can be classified as functional, symbolic, or experiential.
With Figure 4.3 and the previous terminology in mind, we now can pursue the options
available to marketing communicators for positioning their brands. Generally speaking, we
can position a brand by focusing on product attributes or benefits. Because benefits provide
132C consumers or 1323 customers with more compelling reasons for selecting a particular
brand than do product attributes per se, we will first look at positioning via product benefits
and then via attributes.

Benefit Positioning
safe… Positioning with respect to brand benefits can be accomplished by appealing to any of three
68 Mm categories of basic consumer needs: functional, symbolic, or experiential.” Upon a quick re-

https://reader.ignitorlearning.com/#/book/ff1a9b80—8f7c—4436-b4ad-6669ffd72907/core/content-player/ed363abd-1eb3-b147-7814-56d95ae17... 76/295