Ch- 10 Crafting the Brand Positioning

Positioning:

Act of designing a company’s offering

and image to occupy a distinctive place in
the minds of the target market.

Domino’s Pizza- A delicious hot pizza

delivered promptly to your door.
Choosing a Competitive Frame of Reference

Which other brands are competing and should be focus of

competitive analysis.

Identify competitors based on category- Banks HDFC and

ICICI.

Potential competitors and sub-categories. (Energy-bars,

chips)
Analyzing Competitors
Identifying potential POD and POP

Points of Difference- Positive attributes that consumers

strongly associate with brand not in competitive brand.

Eg- Apple (Design, ease of use)

Brand association can function as point-of-
difference for 3 criteria:

1. Desirable to consumer- Personally relevant,

reason and rationale for brand to deliver benefit.
Eg- Mountain Dew

2.Deliverable by company- Need resources and

commitment. Product design, offering. Eg- GM
Cadillac- youthful, modern

3.Differentiating from competitors- Brand

association distinctive and superior. Eg- Splenda
sugar substitute
Points of Parity- Attributes or benefits that are not
unique and may be shared with other brands.

1.Category POP- Necessary but not sufficient

conditions for brand choice. Eg- Travel agency-
Reservations, advice, payment. Banks.

2.Correlational POP- Potentially negative

associations from positive ones. Eg- Inexpensive –
Highest quality, Taste-Calories.

3.Competitive POP- Associations to overcome

perceived weakness from competitor’s POD. Eg-
Hyundai gained quality parity to focus on POD. McD.
POP vs POD

For POP on a particular attribute, sufficient number of

consumers must believe it is good enough on that
dimension. In the zone.

Visa vs American Express- Widely available vs prestige.

Multiple Frames of Reference
Identifying more than one competitive frame of reference. Eg- Starbucks

1.Quick-serve restaurants- McD’s, Dunkin Donuts (POD- Quality,

variety POP- Convenience and value)

2. Home and office consumption- Nescafe instant (POD- quality,

freshness, POP- Convenience and value)

3.Local cafes- (POD- convenience and service quality, POP- product

quality, price, variety)
Straddle Positioning

Straddletwo frames of reference with one set

of POP and POD.

The POD for one category becomes POP for

the other and vice versa.

Eg- Subway healthy, good tasting sandwiches.

POP taste and POD health vs McD
POP health and POD taste vs health food café.
BMW luxury performance cars.

BMW (POD- luxury POP- Performance)

against Chevrolet Corvette.

BMW (POD- Performance POP- luxury)

against Cadillac.

PDAs (Personal digital assistants)-

Straddle categories from Pagers to Laptop
computers.
Choosing specific POPs and PODs

Differentiate and gain competitive advantage.

Sustainable competitive advantage.

Leverageable competitive advantage

Brand attributes provide reasons to believe a brand can offer

certain benefits. Eg- Dove
Means of Differentiation:

For consumers, best means of

differentiation are benefits related to
performance. Eg- watches

Changes in marketing environment gives

opportunities to create means of
differentiation.
Eg- Sierra Mist- Natural, organic products
Perceptual Maps

Visual representations of consumer perceptions and

preferences.

They are useful for choosing specific benefits as POPs

and PODs to position a brand.
Establishing a Brand Positioning
Brand positioning strategy should be communicated to
all with Brand Positioning Bull’s Eye.

2-3 POPs and PODs should be analyzed and developed.

Brand Positioning Bull’s Eye.
Communicating Category Membership- For
new products, consumers need to be informed.
For others, they might need convincing. Eg- HP
digital cameras.

1. Announcing category benefits- Brownie

mix- baked desserts category

2.Comparing to Exemplars- Tommy Hilfiger

associated with Calvin Klein

3.Relying on product descriptor- Ford X-

Trainer sports wagon.
Communicating POPs and PODs-

Benefits that make up POPs and PODs are

negatively correlated.

Customers want to maximize both hence a

trade-off. Eg- Philips Sense and Simplicity.
Monitoring Competition-

1. Share of Market- Competitor’s share of

market.

2. Share of Mind- Percentage of customers who

named competitor for- “Name the first
company that comes to mind in this industry”

3. Share of Heart- Percentage of customers who

named competitor for- “Name the company
from which you would prefer to buy the
product”