Brand positioning: meme's the word
Paul Marsden
Keywords
Brands, Positioning
Abstract
This paper illustrates how
memetics, the Darwinian science
of culture and creativity, can be
used to enhance brand
positioning. Using a simple but
powerful technique of memetic
analysis, it is shown how
marketers can unpack how brands
are actually positioned in the
minds of consumers in terms of
their component memes, that is,
their ``genes of meaning''. A
demonstration of the validity and
reliability of memetic analysis is
given through an investigation of
how the notion of ``healthy living''
is positioned in the minds of
consumers. The practical utility of
memetic analysis in brand
positioning is discussed, and the
possibility is raised of using the
analytical tool to increase
profitability by ``memetically
modifying'' brands with true,
unique and compelling consumer
values.
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning
20/5 [2002] 307±312
# MCB UP Limited
[ISSN 0263-4503]
[DOI 10.1108/02634500210441558]
University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Introduction: positioning and how
it works
In today's over-communicated and product
saturated consumer world, effective
positioning can be critical to brand success.
``Positioning'' may be simply defined in terms
of how a brand is positioned in the mind of
the consumer with respect to the values with
which it is differentially associated or which
it ``owns'' (Ries and Trout, 1982; Marsden,
2000a). For example, the association of
``safety'' with Volvo may describe a de facto
positioning in the mind of many consumers
that has the capacity to render Volvo more or
less attractive. In this way, the commercial
utility of positioning lies in how the imbuing
of trademarks with unique, true and
compelling values can influence purchasing
decisions and impact upon sales. Indeed, the
entire enterprise of branding itself can be
understood as an exercise in positioning;
using product experience and marketing
initiatives to increase profitability by
associating trademarks with compelling
consumer values.
Although the craft of positioning is a
defining function of modern branding, the
idea of positioning dates back to Classical
Greece, with Plato's assertion that memories
evoke related memories, thus colouring
interpretation (cf. Warren, 1916). In the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the
British empiricists elaborated the
Aristotelian notion that ideas are stored in
memory by association, developing the three
``Laws of Association''; similarity, contrast
and contiguity. In this view, the positioning
of a concept in the associative structure of
memory defines the meaning of that concept,
allowing complex concepts to be constructed
out of associative combinations of simpler
concepts. Indeed, modern psychology makes
much of this insight into the associative
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structure of human memory and this
distributed understanding of meaning, using
associative techniques to identify how an
idea is positioned in the mind in order to
unpack its subjective meaning (Galton, 1880;
Freud, 1924; Deese, 1965; Anderson and
Bower, 1973; Szalay and Deese, 1978; Wagner
et al., 1996; Marsden, 2000b).
In sum, how an idea is positioned in the
associative networks of memory may be seen
as describing the meaning of that idea for its
holder. For example, the associative ``mind
map'' in Figure 1 can be seen as unpacking a
subjective meaning of ``healthy living''
through its neighbouring associations. These
neighbouring associations are effectively
what the linguist George Zipf called ``genes of
meaning'' (Zipf, 1965), known today as
``memes'' (pronounced so as to rhyme with
``genes''). Memes, as coined by Richard
Dawkins to denote units of memory,
culturally analogous to genes (Dawkins,
1976[1]; Dennett, 1991; Plotkin, 1994; Marsden,
2000b), can be simply understood here as
nodes in the associative networks of memory.
Like a kind of semantic DNA, clusters of
memes in the semantic networks of memory
provide a recipe of meaning, allowing us to
imbue objects, including trademarks, with
meaning (Bollen, 1996; Bollen and Heylighen,
1998; Marsden and Bollen, 1999; Marsden,
2000a; cf. Collins and Loftus, 1975; Berkowitz
and Rogers, 1986; Sowa, 1991; Jo and
Berkowitz, 1994; Law and Lodge, 1984).
The relevance of memes to marketers is
that they can be mapped and used to audit
how brands are positioned in the minds of
consumers, providing valuable insight that
can inform marketing initiatives. To take a
simple example, if a category leader, such as
Federal Express, is found to ``own'' by
association the meme ``overnight'' with
customers, then a competitor will know that
success will depend on positioning their
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[ 307 ]
Paul Marsden Figure 1
Brand positioning: meme's Associative networks as ``semantic DNA''
the word
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning
20/5 [2002] 307±312
alternative brand against ``overnight'',
offering something unique and compelling.
This task could be helped by unpacking the
meaning of ``overnight'' into its own
component memes in order to provide an
understanding into what ``overnight''
actually means to customers. One non-
negligible advantage of this memetic
approach is that it is quick and succinct. For
instance, simple associative techniques in
research could identify and unpack Volvo's
dominant defining meme of ``safety'',
capturing the essence of what many hours of
alternative investigation and lengthy
research reports may take to uncover.
If there has been a problem with using
memetic analysis to inform brand
positioning, it is the methodological issue of
integrating the associative chains of memes
made by individuals, often quite
idiosyncratic, into some coherent map that
reflects the dominant mindset of a whole
target population. Fortunately, the daunting
prospect of having to sift through hundreds
of discrepant and idiosyncratic association
chains made by individual consumers can be
simply obviated by elementary database
technology and the helping hand of a friendly
IT department. By feeding individual chains
of associations made by consumers around a
brand-related concept into a database pre-
programmed to automatically create or
reinforce links between associations, the
database can ``learn'' and build a blueprint,
iteratively and ground up, of the dominant
and representative associative chains made
by that population. The result is a ``meme
map'' that captures and unpacks the meaning
of a brand-related concept as it exists within
a population's collective mindset (Marsden,
2000b; cf. Zerubavel, 1997). Methodologically
speaking, the generation of such meme maps
is simply an automated application of
``grounded theory''; an established
qualitative research approach designed to
generate models of meaning through
[ 308 ]
iterative loops of data integration and
analysis (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Becker,
1993; Pidgeon, 1996; Pidgeon and Henwood,
1996). A simple conceptual specification for
the production of meme maps designed to
capture and unpack the positioning of brands
in some target population is provided in
Figure 2.
Memetic analysis: how ``healthy
living'' is positioned in the mind of
the consumer
Sponsored by the research-based creative
consultancy Brand Genetics, a meme map
was generated at the University of Sussex in
August 2000 that sequenced the meaningful
positioning of the idea of ``healthy living''
within a research population. UK and US
adult consumers were invited by chain
e-mail to play a simple online word
association game (Figure 3), and after two
weeks 142 people had completed the game,
with each participant having made nine
associations. By linking the online word
association game directly to a database, the
meme map automatically evolved through
some 1,278 iterative evolutions. The resulting
meme map can be seen in Figure 4.
The ``core'' central concept (healthy living)
lies at the centre of the meme map and is
linked to a hierarchy of associative chains
that progressively unpacks the meaning of
the concept into its component memes. In
this way, each node unpacks into a ranked
list of its dominant defining memes (most
commonly made associations). Additionally,
each meme listed is followed by a polarity
rating in brackets, which is simply the
average rating respondents gave that
association in terms of the degree to which it
evoked positive or negative feelings (+3 to ±3).
Conceptually, the meme map can be thought
of as a blueprint of the semantic DNA that
progressively unpacks the dominant
meaning of ``healthy living'' in the mindset of
participating consumers. For example, the
meme map shows that the dominant meme in
``healthy living'' is ``natural'' whose own
genes of meaning can be unpacked, in the
context of ``healthy living'', into ``fresh'',
``pure'' and ``organic''. Overall, ``healthy
living'' was found to be meaningfully
positioned by the memes of ``natural'',
``balanced diet'', ``being well'', ``keeping fit''
and ``eating well''; concepts that the meme
map then unpacks into their own defining
memes.
The reliability of this meme sequencing,
that is, the degree to which it produces
consistent results, was investigated by
Paul Marsden Figure 2
Brand positioning: meme's Specification for meme mapping a collective mindset
the word
Marketing Intelligence &
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20/5 [2002] 307±312

Figure 3
Data capture with an online word association game

[ 309 ]
Paul Marsden Figure 4
Brand positioning: meme's Unpacking the genes of meaning of ``healthy living''
the word
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning
20/5 [2002] 307±312

repeating the exercise with 120 new
respondents. In this way, a second meme map
was generated that could be compared to the
first (Figure 5). A comparison of the two
maps shows a good degree of consistency.
Although the specific words selected to
describe the meanings differed, the memes
emerging were thematically very similar,
with ``good diet'', ``health foods'', ``good for
you'' ``active life'' and ``feeling good'', selected
as the most dominant. However, it should be
noted that the hierarchical structure between
specific nodes in the two maps differed
somewhat, implying that the maps should be
interpreted as providing qualitative picture
of meaning, rather than a quantitative
ranking of meaning.
The validity of this meme sequencing
exercise of ``healthy living'', that is, the
degree to which the meme map actually

Figure 5
A replication of the ``healthy living'' meme map with different consumers

[ 310 ]
 describes what the concept means to those
Paul Marsden
Brand positioning: meme's
researched, was assessed by asking
the word
participants in the second study, having made
Marketing Intelligence & their associations, whether they thought the
Planning
20/5 [2002] 307±312 meme map produced by the first study
captured the important associations around
``healthy living''. Of the 76 participants who
replied, 59 (78 per cent) replied ``yes'',
indicating that for the large majority of
participants the collective view represented by
the meme map was seen as providing a valid
meaning of ``healthy living''.
Implications: memetic marketing
and memetically modified brands
Memetic analysis using meme maps allows
marketers to identify and unpack how
brands are positioned in the minds of
consumers. Using this approach to reveal the
dominant positive and negative memes that
coalesce into overall brand meaning, meme
maps identify the adaptive and maladaptive
``genes of meaning'' coding for a brand's
positioning. With this knowledge, 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. By
imbuing trademarks with true, unique and
compelling values, brand value can be
enhanced. Equally, memetic analysis could
be used to identify brand-stretching
opportunities by mapping not only dominant
brand memes but also latent ``recessive''
memes lying out in second-order or third-
order associations. Meme mapping could also
identify value-gaps in the market, that is, to
identify values rewarded by consumers but
not yet ``owned'' by brands of some
competitive set, and thereby usefully
contribute to a competitive positioning
strategy. However, perhaps 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: by unpacking the
semantic DNA of current successful brands,
their memes could be mutated and
recombined to form the essence of innovative
next-generation power brands.
Note
1 Various definitions of the meme neologism
have been proposed, but most share the idea
that memes are units of information in
memory that are transmitted culturally as
received ideas or behaviours. The
understanding adopted here, that of memes as
genes of meaning, is consistent with this. For
a discussion of meme definitions, see Gatherer
(1998) and associated commentaries.
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