1
10
Crafting the
Brand Positioning
Chapter Questions
How can a firm choose and communicate
an effective positioning in the market?
 How are brands differentiated?
 What marketing strategies are appropriate
at each stage of the product life cycle?
 What are the implications of market
evolution for marketing strategies?

10-2
Marketing Strategy
Segmentation
 Targeting
 Positioning

10-3
Positioning
Act of designing
the company’s
offering and image
to occupy
a distinctive place
in the mind of
the target market.
10-4
Positioning: Creating Brand Image and
Personality
10-5
Value Propositions

Perdue Chicken
 More
tender golden chicken at a moderate
premium price

Domino’s
A
good hot pizza, delivered to your door
within 30 minutes of ordering, at a moderate
price
10-6
Writing a Positioning Statement
Mountain Dew: To young, active
soft-drink consumers who have
little time for sleep, Mountain Dew
is the soft drink that gives you
more energy than any other brand
because it has the
highest level of caffeine.
10-7
Defining Associations
Points-of-difference
(PODs)
 Attributes or benefits
consumers strongly
associate with a
brand, positively
evaluate, and believe
they could not find to
the same extent with
a competitive brand
Points-of-parity (POPs)
 Associations that are
not necessarily
unique to the brand
but may be shared
with other brands
10-8
Conveying Category Membership



Announcing category
benefits
Comparing to
exemplars
Relying on the product
descriptor
10-9
There Are Two Positioning Extremes
Performance
Style
10-10
And BMW Satisfies Both
10-11
Choosing POPs and PODs
Relevance
 Distinctiveness
 Believability

Westin-Stamford Singapore: The
World’s Tallest Hotel
10-12
Deliverability Criteria
Feasibility
 Communicability
 Sustainability

10-13
Examples of Negatively Correlated
Attributes and 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
10-14
Addressing Negatively Correlated PODs and POPs



Present separately
Leverage equity of another entity
Redefine the relationship
10-15
Brand Mantras
Designing a Brand Mantra
Communicate
Simplify
Inspire
Constructing a Brand Positioning Bull’s-Eye
Differentiation Strategies




Product
Personnel
Channel
Image
10-19
Identity and Image
Identity:
The way a
company aims to
identify or
position itself
Image:
The way the
public perceives
the company or its
products
10-20
Product Differentiation







Product form
Features
Performance
Conformance
Durability
Reliability
Reparability








Style
Design
Ordering ease
Delivery
Installation
Customer training
Customer consulting
Maintenance
10-21
Image Differentiation
10-22
Personnel Differentiation
10-23
Channel Differentiation
10-24
Brand Positioning


create/maintain a unique representation of the
brand in customers’ mind to stimulate choice of
that brand
positioning = more in the mind than in the
market
 advertising
adds value to a product by changing our
perception, rather than the product itself
 creating added intangible value, without changing the
product
 it is not about laboring, engineering, raw material
Positioning Effect
Pepsi challenge – cola wars
“marketing blunder of the
century”
•
•
Coca cola underestimated the intangible,
symbolic value to the target audience of the
original product
Coca-Cola executives announced the return
of the original formula on July 10, 1985
–
after 79 days (April 23 - July10), the originalrecipe Coke was back on the market as “CocaCola Classic.”
children’s taste test
(3- to 5-year-old)

one-quarter of a McDonald's hamburger



a Chicken McNugget




in a white bag with a McDonald's yellow arches and smile logo on a red background and the
words "We love to see you smile" in blue on yellow along the edge
in a matched plain white bag
3 ounces of 1% fat milk



in a white McDonald's bag with a red arches logo and the phrase Chicken McNuggets in blue
the other in a matched plain white bag
McDonald's french fries


partially wrapped in a white McDonald's wrapper showing the McDonald's logos and the word
Hamburger in brown
the other wrapped identically in a matched plain white wrapper of the same size and material
in a white McDonald's cup with lid and straw
in a matched plain white cup with lid and straw
2 "baby" carrots


placed on top of a McDonald's french fries bag
on top of a matched plain white bag
Robinson, T, Borzekowski, D., Matheson, D., Kraemer, H.(2007). Effects of fast food branding on young children’s taste preferences. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent
Medicine, 161 (8), 792-797
summary

“brands” (intangible attributes) may transform
“products” (tangible attributes)
 brands

have intrinsic product qualities
ABS, high performing engines
 brands
have extrinsic representational qualities
(“badge value”)



fulfilling emotional and psychological needs
wearing a swatch ≠ wearing a rolex
brand positions exist in people’s head/hearts
 marcoms
can greatly influence brand positions
Product Life Cycle




Introduction
Growth
Maturity
Decline
10-31
Facts about Life Cycles
Products have a limited life.
 Product sales pass through distinct
stages.
 Profits rise and fall at different stages.
 Products require different marketing,
financial, manufacturing, purchasing, and
human resource strategies in each stage.

10-32
Marketing Program Modifications
Prices
 Distribution
 Advertising
 Sales promotion
 Services

Panadol’s Ad by Ogilvy
10-33
The Product Life Cycle: Critique



Life-cycle patterns are too variable in shape and
duration.
Marketers can seldom tell what stage the
product is in.
PLC stage should be a dependent variable
which is determined by marketing programs; it is
not an independent variable to which companies
should adapt their marketing programs.
10-34
Market Evolution Stages
(a market-oriented picture of a product/a firm)
Emergence
 Growth
 Maturity
 Decline

10-35
Emerging Markets
Latent
 Single-niche
 Multiple-niche
 Mass-market

10-36
Developing Value Proposition for
Business Markets*)
Customers may
only look at price,
and not listen to
your sales pitch
*) Anderson,
James C., James. A. Narus, and Wouter van
Rossum (2006), “Customer Value Propositions in
Business Markets, HBR, March.
10-37
Types of Value Proposition
1.
ALL BENEFITS
Pitfall: Many or even most of the benefits
may be Points-of-Parity -- with those of
the next best alternatives (competitors) –
diluting the effect of the few genuine
Points-of Difference.
10-38
Types of Value Proposition
2. FAVORABLE POINTS-OF-DIFFERENCE
Answering the question of: “Why should our
firm purchase your offering instead of your
competitor’s?”
 Pitfall: Assuming that favorable points of
difference must be valuable for the customer.

10-39
Types of Value Proposition
3.
RESONATING FOCUS

Value Proposition which contains the critical
issues in customer’s business, is simple yet
powerfully captivating.

Superior on few elements that matter most to
target customers.

Demonstrating and documenting the value of
this superior performance, and communicating it
in a way that conveys a sophisticated
understanding of the customer’s business
priorities.
10-40
Distinctive Value Proposition
(Resonating Value Proposition)



A Point-of-Parity (what customers may
mistakenly presume to be a POD favoring a
competitor’s offering).
Several Points-of-Difference
Also: Points-of-Contention (elements where
supplier and customer disagree how their
performance compares with those of the next
best alternatives).
10-41