POSITIONING

Suma-oy| 03.31.2020
 Definiti
on
Positioni
ng
Examp
le
Product
Positioning
Example of Product
Positions
POD
OVERVIEW POP
Example of POD &
POP
Packag
ing
Category
Membership
Law of the
Category
Product-Oriented
Positioning
POSITIONING
♦ It is the act of establishing a strong brand
image for a product. This includes telling the
market exactly what your product is, who is it
for, what product category it belongs to, what
its most essential attributes or benefits are and
what it is not.
POSITIONING
♦ Positioning is a concept first popularized by Al
Ries and Jack Trout in their best seller book
“Positioning – A Battle for your Mind” in the
1970s

♦ Ries and Trout argued for the need of products

to focus on just one message and one message
alone.
EXAMPLE
♦Colgate should only be associated with
toothpaste and nothing more while Safeguard
should only be associated with germ-fighting
soap and nothing else. They would be firmly
against the idea of launching Colgate
mouthwash or Safeguard deodorant because
these will only serve to dilute these brands’
strong associations with their particular product
categories.
PRODUCT POSITIONING
♦In the early days of advertising, a product’s
positioning was referred to as the Unique
Selling Point.

♦USP - a factor that differentiates a product

from its competitors, such as the lowest cost,
the highest quality or the first-ever product of
its kind. 
PRODUCT POSITIONING
♦A product position is a space that a product
owns in the minds of the consumers. If a
product can be tied to a particular benefit, then
it can use this to effectively get the buying votes
of consumers who prioritize this particular
benefit.
EXAMPLE OF PRODUCT
POSITIONS
♦ In an early campaign, men’s apparel brand
Dockers came out with ads that simply said
“nice pants.” It was a very simple message, and
yet, it resonated with men who were searching
precisely for, of course, nice pants.
POINTS OF DIFFERENCE
♦ Refers to attributes or benefits that the market
associates primarily with a particular brand, to
the point that the market believes that no other
brands offer these attributes or benefits to the
same degree as that brand.

♦ Indicators of the point of difference's success

would be increased customer benefit and brand
loyalty.
POINTS OF PARITY
♦Market expectations about what products in a
particular product category should be or should
have.

♦It is what makes consumer consider your

brand, along with your competitors.
EXAMPLE OF POD & POP
WHY IS PACKAGING
IMPORTANT?
Packaging gives an opportunity for creating points of difference
especially in highly competitive product categories where the
actual product itself has minimal differentiation.
CATEGORY MEMBERSHIP
♦Consumers categorize the product into a specific
group and understand what the brand offers and
what makes it a superior competitive choice.

♦Marketers need to be aware of the elements that

communicate a product’s membership to a
particular category, which includes elements
such as price, color palette, size, shape, medium
of distribution, brand, and packaging.
LAW OF THE CATEGORY
♦Ries and Trout argues that being the first in a new category
of product is an important advantage.

♦The trick to competitively position your product is by making

sure that your product is placed in a product category where
it will have a good fighting chance vs the existing competitive
field.

♦Under extreme cases, it will even be possible for a marketer

to develop a new category in which to place his product
under, effectively avoiding competition altogether.
PRODUCT-ORIENTED
POSITIONING
♦ Products can use product-oriented positioning
where emphasis shall be placed on a feature,
benefit, or attribute that is inherent in the
product.
CONSUMER-ORIENTED
POSITIONING
♦Products can use consumer-oriented
positioning where the focus is on the type of
person who is expected to purchase the product.