CH 10: Crafting the Brand Positioning

Developing Brand Positioning

All marketing strategies are built on segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP). A
company finds different needs and consumer groups in the market, targets those it can
satisfy in a superior way, and then positions its offering so that the target market recognizes
its offering and distinctive image.

Understanding Positioning and Value Propositions

Positioning is the act of designing a company's offering and image to occupy a special place
in the minds of the target market. Good brand positioning helps guide marketing strategy by
clarifying the essence of the brand, identifying goals that help consumers reach, and
showing how to do it in a unique way.
A useful measure of organizational positioning effectiveness is the brand substitution test. If
there is a brand advertisement and what appears in the market is a competitor's brand, then
the marketing activity will not run well.
A good position has one foot in the present and one foot in the future. It should be rather
aspirational the brand has room to grow and develop. The real trick is to strike the right
balance between what a brand is and what it should be

Choosing a Competitive Reference Framework

The competitive terms of reference determine which other brands compete with the brand
and thus which brands should compete
Identifying Competitors. Companies should expand the competitive framework to call for
more favorable comparisons. Consider the following example: The International Poker
Federation has tried to downplay some of the imagery of poker gambling to emphasize the
similarities of card games to other "mind sports" such as chess and bridge.
An industry is a group of firms offering products or product classes that are close substitutes
for one another. Marketers classify industries according to several different factors, such as
the number of sellers; level of product differentiation; presence or absence of barriers to
entry, mobility and exit; structure costs; degree of vertical integration; and the degree of
globalization.
Analyzing Competitors. Once a company has identified its main competitors and their
strategies, it must ask: What are their respective competitors looking for in the market?
What drives each competitor's behavior? Many factors shape a competitor's goals, including
size, history, current management, and financial situation. If the competitor is a division of a
larger company, it is important to know whether the parent company is running it for growth
or profit, or milking it
● Points of Difference (PODs)
Attributes or benefits that consumers strongly associate with the brand, evaluate positively,
and believe they cannot find to the same extent as the brand's competitors.
Identifying Potential Points of Difference and Points-of-Parity
 1. Consumers want. Consumers should see brand associations that are personally
relevant to them as if given good reasons to believe why the brand can provide the
desired benefits.
2. Can be sent by company. Companies must have the internal resources and
commitment that are worth maintaining brand associations in the minds of
consumers.
3. Differentiate from competitors. consumers should see brand associations as
distinctive and superior to relevant competitors.
4.
● Points of Parity (POPs)
Attributes or benefit associations that are not necessarily unique to a brand but may actually
be shared with other brands.
This type of association comes in three basic forms:
1. A point-of-parity category is an attribute or benefit that consumers consider
important to a legitimate and credible offering in a particular product or service
category.
2. The correlational parity point is a potentially negative association arising from the
presence of a positive association for the brand. In other words, if your brand is good
in one way, such as inexpensive, consumers may not see it as good in other ways,
such as "highest quality."
3. Competitive points equations are associations designed to address perceived brand
weaknesses with respect to competitors' points of difference.
POPs vs PODs. There is a zone or range of tolerance or acceptance with parity points.
Brands don't really need to be seen as equal to competitors, but consumers should feel they
are quite successful in terms of attributes or benefits. If so, they may be willing to base their
evaluations and decisions on other factors that are more favorable to the brand.
Multiple Frames of Reference. It is not uncommon for a brand to identify more than one
actual or potential competitive frame of reference, if competition widens or the company
plans to expand into a new category.
For example, Starbucks may define a very different set of competitors, suggesting different
possible POPs and PODs as a result:
1. Fast food restaurants and convenience stores (McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts) The
POD in question can be in terms of quality, image, experience, and variety; The
intended POP may be convenience and value.
2. Consumption at home and office (Folgers, Instant NESCAFÉ, and K-Cups Kopi
Green Mountain) The POD in question can be in terms of quality, image, experience,
variety, and freshness; The intended POP may be convenience and value.
3. POD referred to by local cafes may be convenience and quality of service; POP may
mean product quality, variety, price, and community.
In such circumstances, the marketer must decide what to do. There are two main options
with multiple frames of reference. First, develop the best positioning for each type or class
of competitors and then see if there is a way to create a combined positioning that is strong
enough to handle effectively. However, if the competition is too diverse, it may be necessary
to prioritize competitors and then select the most important set of competitors to frame the
competition.
 Straddle Positioning. Occasionally, a company may straddle two terms of reference with
a set of points of difference and points of parity. In this case, the point of difference for one
category becomes the point of balance for the other category and vice versa.
Subway restaurants are positioned as offering healthy and tasty sandwiches. This
positioning allows brands to create POPs on taste and PODs on health related fast food
restaurants such as McDonald's, at the same time, POPs on health and PODs on taste with
respect to health food restaurants and cafes. Straddle positioning allows brands to expand
their market coverage and potential customer base.
While straddle positioning is often attractive as a way of reconciling potentially conflicting
consumer goals and creating a "best of both worlds" solution, it also carries an added
burden, namely that if the point of parity and point difference are not credible, the brand may
not be viewed as a viable player. valid in one of the categories.

Choosing Specific POPs and PODs

Michael Porter encourages companies to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Competitive advantage is the company's ability to perform in one or more ways that
competitors cannot or will not match.
Singapore Airlines can boast of its superior customer service due to its better trained flight
attendants and strong service culture
Means of Differentiation. The way of differentiation for consumers is the benefits
associated with performance.
Companies can create attractive images that appeal to consumers' social and psychological
needs. The main explanation for Marlboro's massive worldwide market share (about 30
percent) is that its "macho cowboy" image has a responsive feel. with many of the cigarette
smokers community.
Perceptual Maps. Perceptual maps are visual representations of consumer perceptions
and preferences.

They provide a quantitative picture of the market situation and the way consumers perceive
different products, services and brands on multiple dimensions. By masking consumer
preferences with brand perceptions, marketers can reveal "holes" or "gaps" that represent
unmet consumer needs and marketing opportunities.
 For example, Figure 10.1(a) shows a hypothetical perception map for the beverage
category. The four brands — A, B, C, and D — vary in how consumers perceive their taste
profile (light versus strong) and personality and image (contemporary versus modern). Also
shown on the map are ideal point "configurations" for the three market segments (1, 2, and
3). The ideal point represents the most preferred ("ideal") taste and image combination of
each segment.
Consumers in Segment 3 prefer drinks with a strong taste and traditional image. Brand D is
well positioned for this segment as the market strongly associates it with these two benefits.
Given that no competitor looks close, we expect Brand D to attract a lot of Segment 3
customers.
In contrast, brand A is seen as more balanced in terms of taste and image. Unfortunately
no market segment seems to want this balance very much. Brands B and C are better
positioned with respect to Segments 2 and 3, respectively.
- By making its image more contemporary, Brand A can switch to A' to target
consumers in Segment 1 and achieve a point of parity on the image and maintain a
point of difference on the taste profile with respect to Brand B.
- By changing its taste profile to be lighter, Brand A can switch to A '' to target
consumers in Segment 2 and strike a balance on the taste profile and maintain its
point of difference in the image associated with Brand C.
- Deciding which repositioning is the most promising, A' or A”, will require detailed
consumer and competition analysis on a number of factors including the resources,
capabilities, and likely intentions of competing firms to identify markets in which
consumers can be served profitably.
Emotional Branding. Many marketing experts believe that brand positioning should have
two things: points of difference and points of parity that grabs both head and heart.
Strong brands often seek to take advantage of their performance advantages to achieve an
emotional bond with customers. When researching scar care products Mederma found that
women buy them not only for physical care but also to boost their self-esteem, the brand's
marketer adds an emotional message
A person's emotional response to a brand and its marketing will depend on many factors.
What matters is the authenticity of the brand.

Brand Mantras
A brand mantra is a three to five word articulation of a brand's heart and soul and is closely
linked to other branding concepts such as "brand essence" and "core brand promise". The
goal is to ensure that all employees in the organization and all external marketing partners
understand what brands are most fundamental to consumers' representation so that they
can tailor their actions.
Brand Mantras Role. By highlighting the points of difference, they provide guidance on
what products to introduce under the brand, what advertising campaigns to run, and where
and how to do so.
Designing Brand Spells. Here are three key criteria for a brand mantra:
 1. Communicate. A good brand mantra should explain the uniqueness of the brand. It
may also be necessary to define a business category (or categories) for the brand
and set brand boundaries.
2. Simplify. An effective brand mantra should be easy to remember. For that, it must
be short, sharp, and clearly meaningful.
3. Inspire. Ideally, the brand mantra should also pay attention to the foundations that
are personally meaningful and relevant to as many employees as possible.

Establishing a Brand Position

One useful scheme for doing this is target brand positioning. Often a good position has
several PODs and POPs, of which often two or three are strictly defined competitive
battlefields and must be carefully analyzed and developed.
Communicating Category Membership. When a product is new, marketers must inform
consumers about the product's brand category membership. Sometimes a consumer may
know a category membership but not be sure that the brand is a valid member. They may
know that HP manufactures digital cameras, but they may not be sure whether HP Cameras
are in the same class as those made by Canon

This approach is one way to highlight a brand's point of difference, by providing consumers
with actual membership information. A typical approach to positioning is to inform consumers
of brand membership before stating the point of difference. Presumably, consumers need to
know what a product is and what functions it serves before deciding whether it is superior to
competing brands.
There are three main ways to convey brand category membership:
 1. Announcing category benefits — To convince consumers that a brand will meet the
fundamental reasons for using a category, marketers often use benefits to announce
category membership.
2. Comparing with examples — A well-known and noteworthy brand in a category can
also help a brand determine its cat membership.
3. Rely on product descriptors — Product descriptors following a brand name are often
shorthand ways of conveying category origin. Ford Motor Co. invested more than $1
billion in 2004 in a radical new model called the X-Trainer, which combines the
attributes of an SUV, minivan, and station wagon. To communicate its unique
position — and to avoid association with the Explorer and State Guard models — the
vehicle, which was eventually called the Freestyle, was designated a "sports
carriage."
POP and POD Communication. We have seen that one of the common challenges in
positioning is that the many benefits that form points of patity and points of difference are
negatively correlated.
Consider three examples of negatively correlated attributes and benefits:

Low price vs High quality Taste vs Low calorie Everywhere vs Exclusive

Other approaches include launching two different marketing campaigns, each aimed at a
different brand attribute or benefit; linking a brand to a person, place, or thing that has the
right type of equity to define the attribute or benefit as a POP or POD; and convince
consumers that the negative relationship between attributes and benefits, if they perceive
them to be different, is actually positive.
Monitoring the Competition. Positioning requires organizational commitment. This is not
something that is constantly being overhauled or changed. At the same time, it is important
to regularly research the desirability, delivery, and distinguishing power of POP and POD
brands in the market to understand how brand positioning may need to evolve or, in
relatively rare cases, be completely replaced.
In assessing the potential threat from competitors, three high-level variables are useful,
namely:
1. Share of Market: The competitor's share of the target market.
2. Share of Mind: Percentage of customers who mention competitors in response to
the statement “Name a company that comes to mind in this industry”.
3. Share of Heart : Percentage of customers who mentioned competitors in response
to the statement “Name the company from which you would like to buy the product”

Alternative Approaches to Positioning

Brand Narratives and Storytelling
Instead of outlining specific attributes or benefits, some marketing experts describe brand
positioning as telling a narrative or story. Companies love the wealth and imagination they
can get from thinking about the story behind a product or service.
They identified five elements of narrative branding:
1. Brand stories in terms of words and metaphors
 2. The journey of consumers engaging with brands over time and the touchpoints where
they come into contact with them
3. Visual language or expression for brands
4. The way narratives are expressed experientially or brands engage the senses
5. The role of brands in consumers' lives
Based on literary conventions and brand experience, they also offer the following framework
for brand stories:
1. Settings. Time, place and context
2. Cast. Brands as characters, including their role in the lives of audiences, their
relationships and responsibilities, and their history or creation myths
3. Narrative Bow. The way the narrative logic unfolds over time, including actions,
desired experiences, defining events and moments of enlightenment
4. Language. Authentic sounds, metaphors, symbols, themes and main motifs
Cultural Branding
Douglas Holt believes that for companies to build iconic leadership brands, they must gather
cultural knowledge, strategize according to cultural branding principles, and recruit and train
cultural experts. ESPN Zone restaurants leverage competitive masculinity, for example, and
American Girl dolls capitalize on mother-daughter relationships and the transfer of femininity
across generations. Experts who see consumers actively creating meaning and brand
positioning even refer to this as “Brand Wikiffification,” considering that wikis are written from
contributors from all walks of life and viewpoints.

Positioning and Branding for Small Business

Building a brand is a challenge for small businesses with limited resources and budget
When resources are limited , focus and consistency in the program is very important.
Creativity is also paramount – finding new ways to market new ideas about products to
consumers.
Here are some branding guidelines specifically for small businesses
1. Discover the performance advantages of an attractive product or service.
2. Focus on building one or two strong brands based on one or two key associations
3. Encourage product or service trials in any way possible
4. Develop a cohesive digital strategy to make brands “bigger and better”
5. Creating a loyal Buzz and brand community
6. Use a well-integrated set of brand elements
7. Take advantage of secondary associations as much as possible
8. Do low-cost marketing research creatively
Unlike large brands, which often have more resources, small businesses usually don't have
the luxury of making mistakes and must design and implement marketing programs more
carefully.
Case
Nike started their product with a focus on performance and innovation. They invented the
waffle shoe and built their brand targeting serious athletes. Their product offerings have now
moved beyond shoes, and they offer athletic attire that enhances performance. Their
branding and messaging focuses on empowerment, from their tagline “Just Do It” to their
namesake, the Greek Goddess of Victory. Their models and athletes aren’t smiling and
happy, they’re doing physical activities with their game faces on.Nike’s brand is focused on
the concept of innovation for serious athletes to help you perform at your best every single
time.