Module 3 Flashcards
Positioning means
identifying and establishing ‘points of parity’ and ‘points of difference’ to establish the right brand identity and brand image.
__ __ is at the heart of marketing strategy.
Brand Positioning
Who said: “act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target customer’s minds.”
Philip Kotler
finding the proper “location” in the minds of a group of consumers or market segment, so that they think about a product or service in the “right” or desired way to maximize potential benefit to the firm.
positioning
According to the CBBE model, deciding on a positioning requires
determining a frame of reference (by identifying the target market and the nature of competition) and the ideal points of parity and points of difference brand associations.
Marketers need to know:
- Who the target consumer is
- Who the main competitors are
- How the brand is similar to these competitors
- How the brand is different from them
market
the set of all actual and potential buyers who have sufficient interest in, income for, and access to a product.
Market segmentation
divides the market into distinct groups of homogeneous consumers who have similar needs and consumer behavior, and who thus require similar marketing mixes.
Market segmentation requires making
tradeoffs between costs and benefits.
Segment Bases for Consumer Markets
Psychographic
Behavioral
Demographic
Geographic
Psychographic
Values Opinions Attitudes Activities Lifestyle
Behavioral
Brand Loyalty Benefits Sought Usage Occasion Usage Rate User Status
Demographic
Income Age Sex Race Family
Geographic
Regional
International
The ’conversion model’ segments users of a brand into
four groups based on strength of psychological commitment between brands and consumers and their openness to change
’conversion model’ segments
- Convertible
- Shallow
- Average
- Entrenched
Convertible:
On the threshold of change; highly likely to switch brands
Shallow:
Not ready to switch, but may be considering alternatives
Average:
Comfortable with their choice; unlikely to switch in the future
Entrenched:
Staunchly loyal; unlikely to change in the foreseeable future
The ’conversion model’ model also classifies nonusers of a brand into four other groups based on
Their openness to trying the brand, from low to high
The ’conversion model’ model classifications on openess from low to high
- Strongly Unavailable
- Weakly Unavailable
- Ambivalent
- Available
Strongly Unavailable:
Strongly prefer their current brand
Weakly Unavailable:
Prefer their current brand, although not strongly
Ambivalent:
As attracted to the “other” brand as to their current choice
Available:
Prefer the “other” brand but have not yet switched
Criteria for Segmentation
Identifiability
Size
Accessibility
Responsiveness
Identifiability
Can we easily identify the segment?
Size
Is there adequate sales potential in the segment?
Accessibility
Are specialized distribution outlets and communication media available to reach the segment?
Responsiveness
How favorably will the segment respond to a tailored marketing program?
__ __ is changing the consumer
electronics industry
Digital Convergence
Deciding to target a certain type of consumer often defines the nature of competition, because
other firms have also decided to target that segment in the past or plan to do so in the future, or because consumers in that segment already may look to other brands in their purchase decisions.
Do not define competition too narrowly. Unfortunately, many firms narrowly define competition and fail to recognize
the most compelling threats and opportunities.
Eg: a luxury good with a strong hedonic benefit like stereo equipment may compete as much with a vacation as with other durable goods like furniture.
Points-of-difference (PODs)
attributes or benefits that consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate, and believe that they could not find to the same extent with a competitive brand.
The concept of PODs has much in common with other well-known marketing concepts.
It is similar to the notion of
unique selling proposition (USP).
sustainable competitive advantage (SCA), which relates, in part, to a firm’s ability to
achieve an advantage in delivering superior value in the marketplace for a prolonged period of time.
Points-of-Parity associations (POPs)
not necessarily unique to the brand but may in fact be shared with other brands. There are two types: Category and Competitive.
Category Points of Parity
represent necessary- but not necessarily sufficient- conditions for brand choice
Competitive Points of Parity
those associations designed to negate competitors’ points of difference.
Mille Lite Example
The initial advertising strategy for Miller Lite was to assure parity with a necessary and important consideration in the category by stating that it “tastes great”, while at the same time creating a ‘point of difference’ with the fact that it contained one-third less calories (96 calories versus 150 calories for conventional 12-ounce full-strength beer) and was thus “less filling”.
‘Points of Parity’ versus ‘Points of Difference’
For the brand to achieve a point of parity on a particular attribute or benefit, a sufficient number of consumers must believe that the brand is “good enough” on that dimension.
There is a “zone” or “range of tolerance or acceptance” with POPs.
The brand does not have to be seen as literally equal to competitors, but consumers must feel that it does sufficiently well on that particular attribute or benefit so that they do not consider
it to be a negative or a problem.
T/F
Points of Parity are usually easier to achieve than Points of Difference
T
Two key issues in arriving at the optimal competitive brand positioning
- Defining and communicating the competitive frame of reference
- Choosing and establishing ‘Points-of-Parity’ and ‘Points-of-Difference’
A starting point in defining a competitive frame of reference for a brand positioning is to determine
category membership.
There are many situations, however, in which it is important to inform consumers of a brand’s category membership.
Perhaps the most obvious is
the introduction of new products, where the category membership is not always apparent, especially for high-tech products.
When personal digital assistants (PDA) were first introduced, they could have been positioned as
either a computer accessory or as a replacement for an appointment book.
Sometimes consumers know a brand’s category membership but may not be convinced that…
…the brand is a true, valid member of the category.
Eg, consumers may be aware that Sony produces computers, but they may not be certain whether Sony computers are in the
same “class” as Dell, HP, etc.
Brands are sometimes affiliated with categories in which…
…they do not hold membership rather than with the one in which they do. This is a viable way to highlight a brand’s point of difference from competitors, provided that consumers know the brand’s actual membership.
Zima was launched in 1994 by Adolph Coors Company in the midst of the New Age beverage craze. Zima was defined almost entirely by
what it was not: not a beer and not a wine cooler.
The preferred approach to positioning is to
inform consumers of a brand’s membership before stating its Point of Difference in relationship to other category members.
Occasionally, a company will undertake to straddle two…
…frames of reference.
BMW Example
When BMW first made a strong competitive push into the U.S. market in the early 1980s, it positioned the brand as being the only automobile that offered both luxury and performance.
The BMW Concept Coupé Mille Miglia 2006 pays homage to the skills, successes and the visions of the motor sports pioneers of the past, created by its modern successors.
T/F
Although a positioning that straddles two categories often is attractive as a means of reconciling potentially conflicting consumer goals, it carries an extra burden
T
Three main ways to convey a brand’s category membership:
Communicating category benefits
Comparing to exemplars
Relying on the product descriptor
Communicating category benefits
To reassure consumers that a brand will deliver
on the fundamental reason for using a category
Marketers frequently use benefits to announce
category membership.
Comparing to exemplars
Exemplars- well known, noteworthy brands in a
category- can also be used to specify a brand’s
category membership.
Relying on the product descriptor
The product descriptor that follows the brand
name is often a very compact means of
conveying category origin (eg: USAirways).
The product descriptor is often critical with…
…new technology products.
Establishing a brand’s category membership is usually not sufficient for effective brand positioning.
Two most important considerations in choosing PODs
- Desirability criteria (consumer perspective)
2. Deliverability criteria (firm perspective)
Desirability criteria (consumer perspective)
Relevance
Distinctiveness
Believability
Deliverability criteria (firm perspective)
Feasibility
Communicability
Sustainability
One challenge for marketers is that many of the attributes or benefits that make up the POPs or PODs are…
…negatively correlated.
Unfortunately, consumers typically want to maximize both the negatively correlated attributes and benefits.
The challenge is that competitors often are trying to achieve their POD on an attribute that is negatively correlated with the POD of the target brand.
Examples of Negatively Correlated Attributes & Benefits
Low price vs. High quality
Taste vs. Low calories
Nutritious vs. Good tasting
Efficacious vs. Mild
Powerful vs. Safe
Strong vs. Refined
Ubiquitous vs. Exclusive
Varied vs. Simple
Three ways to address the problem of negatively correlated POPs and PODS
Separate the Attributes
Leverage Equity of Another Entity
Redefine the Relationship
Separate the Attributes
An expensive but sometimes effective approach is to launch two different marketing campaigns, each devoted to a different brand attribute or benefit.
Leverage Equity of Another Entity
Brand can link themselves to any kind of entity that possesses the right
kind of equity-a person, other brand, event, and so forth- as a means to
establish an attribute or benefit as a POP or POD.
Redefine the Relationship
Another potentially powerful but often difficult way to address the negative relationship between attributes and benefits in the minds of consumers is to convince them that in fact the relationship is positive.
Apple sells products that combine…
…‘ease of use’ and ‘power and performance’.
Two issues raised by updating positioning over time
Laddering
Reacting
Laddering Definition
how to deepen the meaning of the brand to tap into core brand associations or other, more abstract considerations
Laddering Features
- Physiological needs (food, water, air, shelter, sex)
- Safety and security needs (protection, order, stability)
- Social needs (affection, friendship, belonging)
- Ego needs( prestige, status, self-respect)
- Self-actualization( self-fulfillment)
Reacting Definition
how to respond to competitive
challenges that threaten an existing positioning
Reacting Features
- Do nothing if the competitive actions seem unlikely to recapture a POD or create a new POD
- Go to the defensive side if the competitive actions appear to have the potential to disrupt the market some
- Go to the offensive side if the competitive actions seem potentially quite damaging
Core brand associations are
those abstract associations that characterize the 5 to 10 most important aspects or dimensions of a brand. They can serve as the basis of brand positioning in terms of how they create points of parity and points of difference.
How do marketers identify core brand associations?
- The first step in this structured process is to ask consumers to create a detailed mental map of the brand.
- Next, marketers group brand associations into related categories with descriptive label.
Mental Map
A mental map accurately portrays in detail all salient brand associations and responses for a particular target market.
A brand mantra is
an articulation of the “heart and soul” of the brand, a short, three- to five-word phrase that captures the irrefutable essence or spirit of the brand positioning.
Features of Brand Image
- They can provide guidance about what products to introduce under the brand, what ad campaigns to run, and where and how the brand should be sold.
- They may even guide the most seemingly unrelated or mundane decisions.
- Brand mantras help the brand present a consistent image.
- The brand mantra signals its meaning and importance to the firm, as well as the crucial role of employees and marketing partners in its management.
Brand mantras are similar to
“brand essence” or “core brand promise”
What makes good brand mantras?
Brand Mantras must economically communicate what a brand is and what it is not.
Disney’s brand mantra is
“fun family entertainment”.
Nike’s brand mantra is
“authentic athletic performance.”
The brand function term describes
the nature of the product or service or the type of experiences or benefits the brand provides. It can range from concrete language that reflects the product category itself, to more abstract notions, where the term relates to higher-order experiences or benefits that a variety of different products could deliver.
What further clarifies the brand mantra’s nature?
descriptive and emotional modifier
Emotional modifier
how exactly does the brand provide benefits and in what ways?
Brand mantras should clearly delineate
what the brand is supposed to represent and therefore, at least implicitly, what is not.
Brand mantras derive their power and usefulness from their
collective meaning.
Brand mantras typically are designed to capture the brand’s
PODs, that is, what is unique about the brand.
Brand mantras should be developed at the same time as the
brand positioning.
As we’ve seen, brand positioning typically is a result of
an in-depth examination of the brand through some form of brand audit or other activities.
Marketers can often summarize the brand positioning in a few sentences or a short paragraph that
suggests the ideal core brand associations consumers should hold.
In the final brand mantra, the following considerations should come into
play.
- Communicate: A good brand mantra should both define the category of business to set the brand boundaries and clarify what is unique about the brand.
- Simplify: An effective brand mantra should be memorable. That means that it should be short, crisp, and vivid.
- Inspire: Ideally, the brand mantra should also stake out ground that is personally meaningful and relevant to as many employees as possible.
Brand mantras point out the importance of
internal branding- making sure that members of the organization are properly aligned with the brand and what it represents.
Much of the branding literature has taken an external perspective, focusing on
strategies and tactics that firms should take to build or manage brand equity with customers.
Equally important, however, is positioning the brand
internally. For service companies especially, it’s critical that all employees have an up-to-date and deep understanding of the brand.
As part of a $200 million global marketing push for its Pedigree dog food in 2005, Mars Inc.’s Masterfoods USA allocated a chunk of its budget for
an internal campaign to turn its 35,000 employees into better ambassadors for the brand.
Internal branding can both
motivate employees and attract external customers.
Internal branding is a critical
management priority.
A brand audit is a
comprehensive examination of a brand to discover its sources of brand equity.
In accounting, a financial audit is a systematic inspection by an outside firm of accounting records including analysis, tests, and confirmations.
The outcome is an assessment of the firm’s financial health in the form of a report.
A marketing audit is (similarly) a
comprehensive, systematic, independent, and periodic examination of a company’s - or business unit’s - marketing environment, objectives, strategies, and activities with a view to determining problem areas and opportunities and recommending a plan of action to improve the company’s marketing performance.
A brand audit consists of 2 steps(parts):
- Brand Inventory
2. Brand Exploratory
The purpose of the brand inventory is to provide a
current, comprehensive profile of how all the products and services sold by a company are marketed and branded. The outcome should be an accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date profile of how all the products and services are branded in terms of which brand elements are employed and how, and the nature of the supporting marketing program.
The brand inventory is a valuable first step for several reasons.
- It helps to suggest what consumers’ current perceptions may be based on.
Consumer associations are typically rooted in the intended meaning of the brand elements attached to them- but not always. - Although the brand inventory is primarily a descriptive exercise, it can supply some useful analysis too, and initial insights into how brand equity may be better managed.
- A brand inventory can reveal a lack of perceived differences among different products sharing the brand name that are designed to differ on one or more key dimensions.
The second step of the brand audit is to
provide detailed information about what consumers think of the brand by means of the brand exploratory.
Several preliminary activities are useful for the brand exploratory
- In many cases, a number of prior research studies may exist and be relevant.
- It is also useful to interview internal personnel to gain an understanding of their beliefs about consumer perceptions for the brand and competitive brands.
- The diversity of opinion that typically emerges from these internal interviews serves several functions, increasing the likelihood that useful insights or ideas will be generated, as well as pointing out any inconsistencies or misconceptions that may exist internally for the brand.
In choosing the range of possible qualitative research techniques to include in the brand exploratory, Gardner and Levy note:
The emphasis in such research must necessarily be given to skill in interpretation and to reaching a coherent picture of the brand.
When interpreting qualitative research, the researchers must allow their respondents sufficient
self expression so that the data are rich in complex evaluations of the brand. In this way, the consumer ‘s thoughts and feelings are given precedence rather than the preconceptions of the researchers, although these are present too in hypotheses and questions.
Levy identifies three criteria by which we can classify and judge a qualitative research program:
direction, depth, and diversity.
Summary of Qualitative Techniques
Free association Adjective ratings and checklists Confessional interviews Projective techniques Photo sorts Archetypal research Bubble drawings Store telling Personification exercises Role playing Metaphor elicitation Day/Behavior reconstruction Photo/Written journal Participatory design Consumer-led problem solving Real-life experimenting Collaging and drawing Consumer shadowing Consumer-product interaction Video observation
Ideally, qualitative research conducted as part of the brand exploratory should
vary in direction and depth as well as in technique. .
The challenge in qualitative research is to
provide accurate interpretation- going beyond what consumers explicitly state to determine what they implicitly mean.
Qualitative research is
suggestive, but a more definitive assessment of the depth the breadth of brand awareness and the strength, favorability, and uniqueness of brand associations often requires a quantitative phase of research.
Marketers should assess all potentially salient association identified by the qualitative research phase according to their
strength, favorability and uniqueness.
The brand exploratory should uncover the
current knowledge structures for the core brand and its competitors, as well as determining the desired brand awareness and brand image and points of parity and points of difference.
A number of different internal management personnel can be part of the planning and positioning process, including
brand, marketing research, and production managers, as can relevant outside marketing partners like ad agency representatives.
