Crafting the brand positioning chap9

Developing and establishing a brand positioning

• All marketing strategies are build on STP.
• Positioning is the act of desiging a company’s
offering and image to occupy a distinctive
place in the mind of the target market.
• The real trick in positioning is to strike just the
right balance between what the brand is and
what it could be
• Positioning requires the marketers define and
communicate similarities and differences between their
brands and competitors
• Specifically deciding on a positioning requires
• Determining the frame of reference by identifying the
target market and relevant competition
• Identifying point of parity and difeerence
• Creating a brand mantra
• Positioning of uniliver life buoy. Has chapioned the
message of health trough hygeine for more than a century
 1. Determining the competitive frame of
reference
• It defines which other brand a brand
competes with and therefore which brand
should be the focus of competitive analysis.
• The decision about competitive frame of
reference is closely associated with target
market , identifying competitors and analyzing
competitors
• Identifying competitors:
• A good starting point in defining a competitive
frame of references is category membership. Its
after target market decision
• Category membership : the products or set of
products with which a brand competes and which
function as close substitute.
• Pepsi and coca cola. :
• Question : who are the competitors?
• Analyzing competitirs
• Swot analysis
 2. Identifying optimal point of parity and
difference
• Point of differences: are attributes and
benefits that consumers strongly associate
with a brand and believe they could not find
to the same extent with a competitive brand.
•  are the attributes that make your brand
unique. It is your competitive advantage. It is
what your brand slogan should reflect.
• Apple : design, ease of use.
• Points of parity are those elements that are
considered mandatory for a brand to be
considered a legitimate competitor in its specific
category. It is what makes consumer consider
your brand, along with your competitors. So
before you work on identifying your competitive
advantage, you want to make sure you identify
what it takes to be a player in your category, and
have all these points covered.
•  will use a personal example to illustrate this concept.
• I am currently in the market for a new car for my growing family. When
comparing various offers, I consider the following aspects of buying and owning
a car points of parity:
• – a showroom located within reasonable proximity, where I can see the models
• -a demo model that I can test-drive
• -a 3 year comprehensive warranty
• -available financing
• I am not considering any car brand that is not able to meet these four criteria.
Those elements will not bring any benefit to a brand if advertised because the
consumer considers them as a given. (Nobody expects to buy a car with less than
3-year warranty).
• On the other hand you cannot launch a new brand without making sure you
meet the points of parity.
 Choosing POD and POP
• For choosing specific benefits as POD and POP
to position a brand perceptual maps may be
useful
• Perceptual maps are visual representation of
consumer perceptions and preferences
 Brand mantra
• Are short three to five word phrases that capture the
spirit of the brand postioning
• These are powerful devices
• They can provide guidance about what products to
introduce under the brand
• What ad campaigns to run
• And where and how to sell the brand
• Brand mantras are typically designed to capture the
brand’s point of difference that is what is unique in the
brand.