BRAND POSITIONING

UNIT III – LESSON 1

MEANING & DEFINITION

 The space a company owns in the mind of a customer and how it

differentiates itself from competitors, brand positioning is a
marketing strategy that helps business set themselves apart.
 Brand positioning has been defined by Kotler as “the act of
designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive
place in the mind of the target market”.
 Effective brand positioning can be referred as the extent to which a
brand is perceived as favourable, different and credible in
consumers’ minds.
 BRAND POSITIONING PROCESS

Brand Continuous
Understanding Opportunity Brand
Brand Identity architecture evaluation &
stakeholder’s needs modelling Platform development
1. UNDERSTANDING ALL
STAKEHOLDER NEEDS AND DESIRES

 The brand positioning process begins with identifying an organisation’s

stakeholders, or audiences, assessing how important different stakeholders are,
and defining the ideal relationship needed with each to enable business goals
and objectives to be met. Different stakeholders will define the brand
differently, according to their needs and their distinctive agendas.
 For example, a corporate brand such as Procter & Gamble primarily has
resonance with employees, investors, channel partners and suppliers, whereas
the company’s product brands such as Tide and Ariel speak to consumers.
 OPPORTUNITY MODELLING

 Almost every strong brand begins with a great idea, and for it to succeed it needs to have great positioning. To
some extent inspired intuition can help identify the positioning opportunity, but in practice it requires the
perspiration of systematic research and analysis that takes into account strategic options, core competencies,
current and future market trends, and customers’ wants, needs and perceptions.
 To identify the core idea for positioning, there are four things to focus on:-
a. Relevance
b. Differentiation
c. Credibility
d. Stretch
 RELEVANCE

CREDIBILITY STRETCH

DIFFERENTIATION
BRAND PLATFORM

 The underlying aim of a brand position should be to enable it to survive and thrive
forever, regardless of how competitive dynamics and business needs evolve over time.
 Vision, mission and values are the terms most often used to define the central building
blocks for the brand, and they form the “brand platform”. The vision gives the brand a
reason for being; the mission provides it with specific strategic objectives to accomplish;
and values underpin all actions taken concerning the brand and the perception of it among
different stakeholders.
BRAND IDENTITY

 Brand identity is a bundle of mental and functional associations with the brand.
Associations are not “reasons-to-buy” but provide familiarity and differentiation that’s not
replicable getting it. Brand identity is the noticeable elements of a brand (for instance -
Trademark colour, logo, name, symbol) that identify and differentiates a brand in target
audience mind. It is a crucial means to grow your company’s brand.
 These associations can include signature tune(for example - Britannia “ting-ting-ta-
ding”), trademark colours (for example - Blue colour with Pepsi), logo (for example -
Nike), tagline (for example - Apple’s tagline is “Think different”),etc.
BRAND ARCHITECTURE

 Brand architecture orchestrates the relationship between the corporate brand and its
businesses, product lines and product brands. Brand architecture creates value through
clarifying all levels of branding based on:
a. the needs and priorities of target audiences
b. expressing the breadth and depth of the offering
c. generating economic efficiencies
d. Extending and transferring brand equity between corporate and product and sub-brands;
e. making brand strategy credible.
 CONTINUOUS EVALUATION &
DEVELOPMENT
 An intelligent and well-crafted positioning statement is a powerful tool to bring focus and clarity to the marketing
strategies, advertising campaigns and promotional tactics of a company. Proper brand positioning helps to differentiate
the brand, attract target customers and win market share from competition. A good brand positioning should answer
these questions:
1. Does it differentiate your brand?
2. Does it match customer perceptions of your brand?
3. Does it enable growth?
4. Does it identify your brand’s unique value to your customers?
5. Is it focused on your core customers?
6. Is it memorable and motivating?
7. Is your brand promise believable and credible?
8. Will it help you make more effective marketing and branding decisions?
Brand Strategy

 There are 3 types of Product Brand Strategies:-

1. Multi-Product Brand
2. Multi-Branding
3. Private Branding
MULTI-PRODUCT BRAND

 It is also known as Family branding or Corporate Branding. Under Multi-product

Branding the company uses one brand name for all its products within a class.
 Eg. Sony. Sony is the company or Parent Brand name. The company uses the name Sony
for almost all its products like TV, Headphones, Mobile Phones, Camera, Playstations etc.
 Benefits of this strategy are that it requires lower promotion cost, is expected to generate
better brand equity return, and has growing brand awareness. The idea is to take
advantage of the already established brand.
MULTI-BRANDING

 It is also known as Product Branding. As the name suggests, different products are
named differently.
 Eg: Lays, 7UP, Pepsi, Mirinda, Tropicana etc. are all products of the company Pepsico.
HLL has Lux Lifeboy Pears Rexona etc.
 Multi-branding can be used when a product or product line is targeting different markets.
 Here each brand is promoted exclusively. Product brands are standalone. People do not
even know that they all share a common root in the company.
PRIVATE BRANDING

 Private Branding is the production of goods by a manufacturer for

a reseller. A prime example of private branding is store-branded
goods. Some retail stores use private branding to undercut
competitors in a given market. In most cases, private branded
products are considered to be of lesser quality, but in some cases,
this can help retailers gain customer loyalty.
BRAND PLANNING

 “Brand planning is the process of allocating resources to a strategy designed to achieve a business
objective that drives a brand closer to delivering on a valuable future vision”.
 According to this definition brand plan should document and communicate:
i. What the company wants the brand to achieve in the future(vision)
ii. What needs to be achieved in short-term to move towards that vision (Objective)
iii. How the company aims to achieve it (Strategy)
iv. What needs to be done to make that happen and at what cost (Tactics)