5/20/2021 IGNITOR Student

Positioning

NOTES

and
of

Source: Adapted from Kevin Lane Keller. ‘Conoeptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity,‘ Journal of Marketing 5?
[January 1993), ?.

Figure 4.3 A Framework for Brand Positioning

view of the consumer—based brand equity framework (Figure 4.3), you will see that these
three categories are shown as a specific type of association termed bentfits. Please note that
the distinction between benefits and needs simply involves a matter of perspective. That is,
consumers have needs; brands have features that satisfy those needs. Thus, benefits are the
need-satisfying features provided by brands. In short, needs and benefits can be thought of
as flip sides of the same coin.

Posltlonlng Based on Functional Needs

A brand positioned in terms of functional needs attempts to provide solutions to consum-
ers‘ current consumption-related problems or potential problems by communicating that the
brand possesses specific benefits capable of solving those problems. Appeals to functional
needs are the most prevalent form of brand- benefit positioning. In B2B marketing, for ex-
ample, salespeople typically appeal to their customers‘ functional needs for higher-quality
products, faster delivery time, or better service. Consumer goods marketers also regularly
appeal to consurners’ needs for convenience, safety, good health, cleanliness, and so on, all
of which are functional needs that can be satisfied by brand benefits. For example, the Crocs
brand appeals to consumers‘r desire for lightweight, comfortable, and odor-resistant footwear.
The [MC Focus insert offers further details about this brand.

Positioning Based on Symbolic Needs

Other brands are positioned in terms of their ability to satisfy nonfunctional, or symbolic,
needs. Positioning in terms of symbolic needs attempts to associate brand ownership with
a desired group, role, or self— image. Appeals to symbolic needs include those directed at
consumers’ desire for self-enhancement, group membership, affiliation, altruism, and other
abstract need states that involve aspects of consumption not solved by practical product ben-
efits. (See the Global Focus insert for discussion of the growing importance of appeals to con-
sumers using claims that agricultural products are “fair traded.") Marketers in categories
such as personal beauty products, jewelry, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and motor vehicles
frequently appeal to symbolic needs.

Positionlng Based on Experientlal Needs

Consumers’ experiential needs represent their desires for products that provide sensory
pleasure, variety, and, in a few product circumstances, cognitive stimulation. Brands posi-
tioned toward experiential needs are promoted as being out of the ordinary and high in sen-
sory value (looking elegant, feeling wonderful, testing or smelling great, sounding divine, MH…
being exhilarating, and so on) or rich in the potential for cognitive stimulation (exciting, chal- Mm 69-

https://reader.ignitorlearning.com/#/book/ff1a9b80—8f7c—4436-b4ad-6669ffd72907/00re/content-player/ed363abd-1eb3-b147-7814-56d95ae17. . . 77/295