Brand Positioning

Brand Positioning is a marketing strategy that aims to make a brand occupy a distinct position, relative to competing brands, in the mind of the customer. Companies apply this strategy either by emphasizing the distinguishing features of their brand (what it is, what it does and how, etc.) or they may try to create a suitable image (inexpensive or premium, utilitarian or luxurious, entry-level or high-end, etc.) through advertising. Once a brand is positioned, it is very difficult to reposition it without destroying its credibility. It is also called as product positioning.

Elements1 Branding has been given a lot of importance in the fast changing world and to keep up with the pressures of the market as well as the competitors the element of branding is inevitable. In this particular report we will talk about the things the marketers keep in mind while positioning a particular product or a brand. Thus we shall begin with the ELEMENTS, which hold the most importance in terms of positioning. They are as follows: -

For successful positioning, the elements required are:

1. Uniqueness2. Importance to the customer3. Communicable4. Easily understandable and memorable5. Sustainable by the company’s approach through all the mix elements.

Fig 1.1 Elements of Positioning

Strategies1 Elements are the key to the success of the particular brand. Each & every element is distinctly taken care of will deciding upon the positioning of the products & services of the organization. If this elements are not relied upon they might hamper the growth of your brand. After the elements are often well communicated within the organization the path which leads to the fulfillment of those respective elements are the strategies the organizations frame. There are 7 peculiar strategies which are to be looked upon for study and they are :-

1. Attributes of the offering.2. Benefits offered by the organization or product.3. Application/use of the offering.4. User group of the offering.5. Comparison with competitors.6. Positioning in a different product or service category.7. Differentiation in terms of quality and price.

Uniqueness

Importance to customers

Communicable

Easily Understandable

Sustainable

Fig 1.2 The Strategic Pyramid

Brand Alliance – New Market Strategy for Positioning2 Brand alliance is marketing cooperation between two brands. It is mainly classified into two groups:

Industrial cooperation involving capacities to create a new product with a different brand name. It helps in creating consumer trust and penetrating new markets.

The second group involves brand alliance as joint promotions as different brands.

Brand alliance can be categorized into two main types as functional alliance and symbolic alliance. Functional alliance implies industrial cooperation. The example of Phillips and Nivea coming together to manufacture a shaver aptly shows this. Here Phillips was in the primary role while Nivea took the role of secondary.

Price

Different Category

Comparison with Competitiors

User Group

Applictaion of offering

Benefits Offered by Product

Attributes

In symbolic alliance, there is no alliance at the functional level between the brands. In this one category of the brand benefits from the brand value and positioning of the other brand.

Advertising of this kind can be unbalanced and balanced. Some methods used for unbalanced advertising are, sponsorship method, recommendation method and the contribution method.

In the sponsorship method, the primary brand is advertised side by side with the inferior host brand. In the recommendation method, the host brand is well known and is used to introduce a new product. In the contribution method, the host brand is the owner and the contributing brand is additional, providing technology and support to the host brand. An example of Intel and hp shows this relationship where hp is the primary brand and Intel is the supporting one.

Balanced advertising is done for brands where there is no inferior or superior brand. This can be done in two ways. In the first method, brands with same power appear together on packaging, promotion etc. In the second method, brands with same strength but different categories come together to create excitement and attraction in terms of luxury, beauty etc.

Brand positioning aims to distinguish the product from competitor’s product based on functional and symbolic aspects. The alliance of Algeria Post and Mobilis is taken as an example.

The companies provided three similar services, mobiposte, racidi, and racimo. It was a functional alliance between the two firms. All required current postal accounts of the customers. Mobiposte gave services ranging from 1200 to 2000 dinars, extending upto 3000 dinars. Rancidi allowed customers to access their current accounts by just sending a sms. Racimo enabled customers to load their or someone else’s phone line by just sending a sms. The two brands opted for co-communication and displayed the logos of both side by side. The deal signed was exclusive between the two and helped those open new fronts in the market. Algeria Post benefitted as Mobilis customers were now opening new accounts and Mobilis benefitted as Algeria post’s customers were able to pay their bills by postal transfer. In a survey, 82% customers believed both the firms gained new customers. Customers liked the hassle free bill payments and easy access to their accounts. This was the edge the firms were looking for.

Brand alliance is an effective tool for re-positioning. It opens new markets for those firms involved and improves their brand image in the customer’s mind.

Evaluation of the Strategies3 (Customer Perspective)

Competitors facing difficulties to create sufficient differential advantage surround companies. So, they have to establish appropriate brand association in the minds of consumers to differentiate their brand from competitors by “Brand Positioning”.  

Sometimes advertising companies choosing the “wrong” positioning, (i.e. selecting positioning dimensions which are not perceived as being relevant and important by consumers and/or do not sufficiently differentiate the brand from rivals’ brands), taking the risk of harming the perceived positioning of a product, thereby leading to decreasing sales. Similar problems might occur if the intended positioning is well chosen but its execution (i.e. the actual positioning) does not turn out to be effective perceived positioning by consumers.

1. Benefit positioning (direct and indirect) is more effective than feature positioning.

Consumers tend to see more advantage in benefit that the product gives as compared to its rivals than the feature offered by a particular company. The belief is primarily grounded in the argument that consumers tend to value brands based on their (expected) benefits. On the contrary, sometimes consumers may get bored of the same old messages drawn by the brands.

2. Surrogate (user) positioning is more effective than feature positioning.

Different consumers interpret surrogate-positioning information differently. Thus every consumer would find its benefit from buying that product which may not be the case when you position a product based on a particular feature.

3. Benefit positioning (direct and indirect) and surrogate positioning differ in terms of their effectiveness.

Surrogate positioning tends to create brand associations about external aspects of the brand and at times become alternative means for effectively differentiating a brand from competitor brands. While benefit positioning is effective as it intends to solve a need or problem.

4. Direct benefit positioning is more effective than indirect benefit positioning.

Direct positioning means the communication of intrinsic motivation of possessing a brand while indirect positioning is the follow up benefit derived out of direct positioning. For example direct positioning is the brand features of Apple products and indirect positioning would be the status symbol.

Market Success through Brand Positioning4 There is a strategic importance of brand positioning in achieving market success. Generally two methods are used for achieving this objective.

1st is brand association i.e. the new product tries to position its brand by comparing it with market leader.it is for the brands which are less in resources so by comparing themselves with market leaders in attributes they can enter the consideration set of consumers. The familiar me too strategy is an example of such approach

2nd is brand differentiation, in this the brand tries to stand out in comparison to other existing brands. This they do so by exhibiting some new attributes which was earlier not they’re for that product category. They try to establish their unique image in comparision to other brands in consideration set for the appropriate brand positioning a correct mixture of the above two methods discussed is required.

Positioning options for seeking brand association

To position the brand effectively there are two ways as discussed earlier, in modern practice it has been given names the exemplary based and the abstraction based. Exemplary based is used for brand association technique. Abstraction based is used for brand  differentiation method. What mix is best for the particular products depends on the following factors

Product market definition: Consider the case of softdrinks, it is available in many tastes and flavours. Suppose there is a new brand in the market named Pepsi kona (coffee aerated drink) , it would be inappropriate for it to make Pepsi as exemplar brand because it wont be able to cover all its attribute.in such case abstraction based positioning is appropriate. The drink should be rather represented as cool, refreshing ,great taste,natural ingredients to connect it to the consumers.

Market share condition: The type of method employed depends a lot on the market share acquired by the brand.if the brand is already a market leader in its segment then abstraction based positioning is used.the company will go for defining new attributes which was not in the place earlier. If the brand has weak market share then exemplar based positioning is used .the company will look for the accepted attributes of the segment and will try to showcase it in its product for easy market consideration.

Industry organization and history : In some market there are 1 or 2 market leader and the other are the mid players or the small competitor .in such scenario for the small competitor it is good to bench mark the dominant players. There is also a case that in some market ther e is no market leader but lots of mid players, like in case of laptops ,in such markets it is advised that the players should not go for exampler based positioning because that will only reinforce the chances of lower end players. Hence abstraction based marketing is preferred. Also if the market is like that comparative based advertising is widely used ,as in case of softdrinks ,the preferred method would be to go for exemplar positioning as it help in easy brand association.

Product category life cycle stage: When a brand endorses a product which is new and had never been in the market then the abstraction based positioning is preferred.earlier there were no product of this category so it must be projected as a product which alters the life in some unique way. If the product is late entry in the market then exemplar is preferred for easy brand association. For example if we are launching a softdrink then by associating it with coke and Pepsi we can get into the mind of consumers.

Consumer knowledge: If a brand is targeting the less knowledgeable customer then exemplar based positioning is preferred .this is because by positioning our brand against established brand such customers are able to recognize the product.if the product is targeting the high knowledgeable customer then abstraction based poisoning is preferred because they will go for each and every detail before making decision

The main premise of the article is that this selection should be driven by a knowledge of how consumers categorize (i.e., identify and evaluate) brands.

Brand positioning under lexicographic choice rules5

In this article we see what factor particularly decides the buying habit of consumer. we are going to evaluate the product in a price quality space .  the assumption is that the consumer will determine the highest quality product within his reservation price and purchase it, provided the product is not of very inferior quality. The main motive is to optimally redesign the product. there are two types of brand positioning models vertical and horizontal . Vertical differentiation involves finding a quality/price mix that will differentiate the brand from its competitors, that appeals to enough consumers and can be profitably implemented. with horizontal differentiation the good-better-best options are not easily identifiable, and brand choices are made based on individual beliefs.the model in this study belongs to the class of vertical brand positioning. We will try to find out that how the lexicographic choice rules be used to determine consumer behavior.

The model Assumption considered

The model: Two brands locate in price quality space with coincidental location prohibited.

The customers: Customers have perfect information regarding prices and quality, and they apply a lexicographic decision rule for choosing a brand.

The demand: The total demand is normalized to one and the demand density function r(p) is positive on its domain and twice continuously differential.

The producers: Both producers maximize their respective profit. The cost functions are identical for both producers and the variable and fixed cost functions V(q)† and F(q)† are both increasing functions of q and twice continuously differentiable.

The feasible set: The feasible set S is bounded by the LAQ (which all consumers agree upon and which is increasing in p and twice continuously differentiable.

Consider the graph as below

the lowest acceptable quality function models the concerns of the consumers

the maximum possible quality function models the interests of the producers

Juxtaposing both interests, if we let pmax represent the highest price at which MPQ(p)>=PLAQ(p)†, we obtain a feasible set S ˆ

                                                     

Competitive behavior: consider the graph as below If B locates strictly to the northeast of A, i.e., not including the axes, then brands A and B are not comparable: B has a higher price, but also a higher quality than A. The reverse is true should B locate to the southwest of A (not including the axes). Again, A and B are not comparable. In area (quadrant) II, i.e., the northwest of A including the axes, B has the same or a lower price than A but a higher or the same quality than A. This means that brand A is dominated by brand B

      

Similarly, if B locates to the southeast of A in area IV (including the axes), A dominates B and B will have a zero market share. Hence, for any given location of brand A, competitor B will locate in one of the areas I, II, or III

Nash equilibriumA locational Nash equilibrium is a pair of locations where neither duopolist has an incentive to relocate given that his competitor does not move. if the two duopolists are restricted to two different quality levels, the brand with higher quality can afford to ignore the price completion and can charge the monopolist's price and enjoy monopolistic profits. The lower quality brand charges a lower price than the other brand. Thus at equilibrium, the market has two differentiated products; one that serves the higher end of the market by selling a high quality and a higher price and another that serves the lower end by producing a cheaper product with a lower quality.

The Stakelberg solutionIn Stakelberg method there are two competitors.one is the follower and other is the market leader. Consider A is market leader and B is follower. B will take decision based on A’s move while A will anticipate B’s capability depending upon reaction function. this could be applied for the cost function but not for quality because for changing quality lots of changes need to be done and thus cost factor needs to be considered.

Brand Positioning Through Memes6

Positioning may be defined as how a brand is positioned in the mind of the consumer with respect to values. The importance of memes to marketers is that they can be mapped and used to audit how brands are positioned in the minds of the consumers. One advantage of this memetic approach is that it is quick. If there has been a problem in using memetic analysis to inform brand positioning, it is the methodological issue of integrating the associative chains of memes made by individuals into some coherent map that reflects the mindset of target population. By feeding individual chains of associations made by consumers around a brand related concept into a database pre-programmed to automatically create a link between associations, the database can learn and build a blueprint with the help of IT department. A simple conceptual specification for the production of meme maps is that it is designed to capture and unpack the positioning of brands in some target population.

Example – Meme Marketing

How healthy living is positioned in the mind of the consumer?The core central concept of healthy living lies at the center of the meme map and is linked to a hierarchy of associative chains. Conceptually, a meme map can be thought of as a blueprint of semantic DNA that progressively unpacks the dominant living of healthy living in the mindset of participative consumers. Marketers have the possibility of memetically modifying their brands in order to engineer a better positive fit with the consumer mindset into which they are positioned. Memetic analysis could be used to identify brand stretching opportunities by mapping not only dominant memes but also latent recessive memes lying in second or third order associations. Meme mapping could also be used to identify value gaps in the market. However, the most exciting role for memetic analysis is the provision through meme maps of a rich and insightful creative stimulus for customer focused new product development which will be the essence of new generation innovation brands.

Case – Sona Chandi Chyawanprash7

This case in particular gives an overview as to how the organization really work on their brands and keep the idea flexible enough where they can makes any sort of changes or broaden the horizon of a particular product as and when wished for.

Emami have been associated with ayurvedic products in the personal care category since its inception and wanted to enter into the ayurvedic OTC health care market. After long brainstorming it decided to enter into the chyvanprash market. Emami major competitors were Dabur, Baidyanath and Zandu.

People have a habit of consuming a spoonful chyvanprash twice a day mostly in the north and west region of India. It was an essential tonic in winters for building immunity, protection from cold and cough, activating digestion system and boosting energy and vitality. But Emami wanted to communicate in category of energy, strength, vigor and sharp mind. Thus the tag line became ‘Sona De Surakshit Tan, Chandi De Thej Dimag’. Sona Chandi won the race among many as it’s brings upfront the unique difference between itself and other brands for the consumers. Sona Chandi brought a new refreshing idea in the traditional product category and was able gradually to cover the market.

After some time Emami realized that Sona Chandi Chyvanprash is normally consumed in 4-5 winters month as it was a notion among consumers that chyvanprash produced heat in the body. But consumers do need stamina, immunity and energy in summers also. So, Emami again reposition its chyvanprash as “SONA CHANDI AMRITPRASH”.

Ref: Brand positioning strategies for competitive advantage by Subroto Sengupta

Advantages of Brand Positioning to Small & Medium Enterprises1

1. The positioning tool that SMEs can use as a guide to gain a competitive advantage comprises following sections:

2. Brand Situation Analysis:3. Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the brand and its

competition in terms of appearances, promotion, distribution etc.4. Identification of opportunities and threats to the offering.5. Conclusion of the brand position on the market by using porter model

analysis, SWOT analysis, Focus-groups etc.6. Competitive Advantage Configuration7. Identification of differentiation elements starting from idea to phase one

and then seeing if;8. We offer something that others don’t,9. we do better than others,10.We sell cheaper,11.We offer something extra.

i. We select that thing which is easily understood by the target market, difficult to replicate and specific to our brand.

12.Elaboration of position strategy13.Usage of brand specific elements is very effective as they ensure clear

space in customer’s mind and are difficult to replicate.14.Usage of comparable elements requires continuous monitoring of

competitors. It should be clearly worded and is most suitable for small and adaptable companies.

15.Usage of mixed elements is ideal as it is the mix of both comparable and specific elements. It gains a specific position in the customer’s mind and is valid for a longer duration.

16.Competitive Advantage Communicationa. Mixing strategy with creativity, we must be able to communicate

clearly our positioning statement. It should clearly show the differentiating element, category and emphasis should be on the offering.

17.Competitive Advantage Sustainmenta. The differentiating element should not be changed too often and

continuous efforts are required to gain a competitive advantage.18. Implementation of Positioning Elements

a. The difference product, price, promotion strategy, distribution and marketing services.

19.Positioning Outcomea. A favorable attitude must be created for the brand. It should

have seeped into customers’ brains and they should be able to remember it.

20.The brand position should be changed if the differentiating elements become unclear. Positioning tool must be the starting point of all marketing programs. A strong brand and a good long term position must be what any SME should aspire for. Any one missing and the company will find it difficult to survive.

REFERENCES

1. Brand Positioning - A Marketing Resource and an Effective Tool for Small and Medium Enterprises,     Scientific Papers issue 8 Feb, 2012.

Authors: Tudor EDU, Iliuta Costel Negricea

http://www.scientificpapers.org/wp-content/files/1252_Edu_Negricea_Brand_Positioning-a_marketing_resource_and_an_effective_tool_for_Small_and_Medium_Enterprises.pdf

2. Brand Alliance, a Strategy to Enter New Markets and a Tool for Positioning

Brand Alliance, a Strategy to Enter New Markets and a Tool for Positioning, Scientific Papers, Vol. III, Issue 5, Oct 2015.

Authors: Dr. Salah Elyas and Yacoub Mohamed.

http://www.scientificpapers.org/wp-content/files/1411_Mohamed_Elyas_-Brand_alliance_a_strategy_to_enter_new_markets.pdf

3. Evaluating the effectiveness of brand-positioning strategies from a consumer perspective

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/03090561011079873

4. Positioning option for achieving brand association : a psychological categorization framework

Journal of business researchAuthor : Girish Punj, Junyean moon

5. Brand positioning under lexicographic choice rules

European Journal of Operational research 113 (1999) 1-16 Author : J. Bhadury, H. A Eiselt

6. Brand Positioning: meme’s the word

How healthy living is positioned in the mind of the consumer ?Author : Paul Marsden

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/02634500210441558

7. Sona Chandi Chyawanprash – Brand Positioning strategies for complete advantage Author : Subroto Sengupta

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdf/plus/10.1108/03090561011079873