MODULE III

BRAND POSITIONING & BRAND BUILDING

Poonam Ranjan,
Asst. Professor,
Dept. of BBA
 Brand positioning
• Brand positioning is the unique space a brand occupies in
the brains of the customers.
• It makes customers view a specific brand in a unique way by
associating emotions, traits, feelings, and sentiments with it.
These associations make it stand out from the competition.
• Positioning is usually the reason why customers buy a
specific brand whose product doesn’t necessarily differ from
the competitors.
• Effective brand positioning enables a firm’s brand to be
readily distinguishable from competing brands in the
marketplace. Distinguishing the brand from other
brands can be in terms of associated brand attributes,
benefits to users, and/or market segment emphasis
 Characteristics Of A Good Brand Positioning Strategy

• Relevant
• Clear
• Unique
• Desirable
• Deliverable
• Point of difference
• Validated by the customer
 Importance of Brand Positioning

• Market differentiation

• Justifies the pricing strategy

• Competitive advantage

• Makes the brand more creative

 Types of brand positioning strategies
• Value-based Brand positioning
Using product characteristics or benefits as a
positioning strategy associates your brand with a
certain characteristic that is beneficial to customers.
For example, in the automobile industry, Toyota’s
position in the market is reliability, Porsche’s position
is performance and Volvo’s position is safety. Brands
consistently communicate the most unique benefit or
characteristic of the product with consumers.
• Features-Based Positioning
When the competition is huge and the products
are similar, companies usually position their
products by focusing more on product-specific
features like price, quality, or other micro
features depending on the product sold. This
type of positioning strategy is also called USP-
focused positioning and is often seen in the
mobile industry eg. Durability in furniture.
• Competitor based positioning
• Since the competition has increased companies are
taking this strategy to demonstrate the superiority
amongst all other available competitors in the market.
Right from insurance companies to mobile phones
every company establishes its supremacy by
comparing their products or services to other
companies or direct competitors.

• The messages are usually straight, clear and address

the competition directly.
• Problem and solution positioning
Many brands present themselves as a solution
provider to the problems of the customers. The
ideology behind such positioning is to
demonstrate that this particular brand can help
you solve your problems.

Banks, Insurances, loan sanctioning companies

often use this strategy. Advertised as ‘Need a
loan? Contact us and we will get the loan
Approved within Minutes or Seconds with
minimum documentation’ is what they claim.
• Celebrity-driven positioning
Using celebrities as a spokesperson to endorse a
particular category of product or services has been a
popular way for a long time. The aim of celebrity-driven
positioning is to get the attention of people and increase 
brand awareness and recognition by associating the
product or a brand with the glamorous personality of the
particular celebrity. This is often an expensive affair for
the companies but they knowingly choose this method
because of the fact of familiarity and popularity of the
celebrity. This association of celebrity with the brand
inspires many buyers who follow the celebrity to buy the
same brand and make them feel psychologically
associated with the celebrity.
• Positioning based on price
Usually, with pricing positioning strategy, a brand
aims to be the cheapest or one of the cheapest in
the market. For example, Supermarket chains
often have a house brand with very low-price
products in many product categories. Their lower
logistical and distribution costs allow them to
price their products lower than the competitors, so
price-sensitive buyers will often purchase them
without knowing the price because they know it is
often the cheapest option.
• Positioning based on quality
Often the price and quality of a product align,
certainly in the mind of the consumer, as the high
price is often associated with high quality. But
positioning a product based on its high quality or
‘luxury’ is different from positioning based on
price. Often these brands do not communicate
their price point, but instead high quality or
prestige is the focal point of communication, to
create a desire so customers want the product
regardless of the price.
 Market positioning errors
• Under positioning: this occurs when the buyers know
much less about the brand or do not know anything special
about the brand.
• Over positioning: when the buyers have too narrow a view
of the firm, the product or brand, for example, buyers may
perceive Ram Maica as offering only quality decorative
laminates, when in reality it offered decorative glass and
flush door too.
• Confused positioning: buyers may have a confused image
of the brand, this may occur as a result of the frequent
changes in the positioning statement.
• Doubtful positioning: it occurs when buyers doubt the
veracity of the claims made by the firm.
Brand Knowledge
• Brand knowledge refers to the thoughts, feelings,
experiences, become associated of a customer with a
business’s brand or a company. Brand knowledge is
developed due to interactions in the form of
advertisements, communication etc which the
company develops, its logo and has an ambassador
for representation but is truly identified by its
consumers only. The consumer will develop their
own interpretation of the company’s brand based on
their thoughts that they go through and what they
experience in dealing with the company along with
their feelings about the company’s products.
 Brand Portfolio/Umbrella/Family Branding
• Brand Portfolio refers to an umbrella under which all the brands or
brand lines of a particular firm functions to serve the needs of
different market segments.
• The advantage of having the Brand Portfolio is that management can
keep a check on all the brands as a whole and frame the policies with
a broader perspective. Also, the resources can be allocated to the
brand that needs the most.
• Hindustan Unilever Company (HUL) is the brand portfolio name of
several other brands owned by the company like Pears, Lux, Dove, 
Lifebuoy, Liril, Vaseline, Close Up, Lakme, Bru, Taj mahal, Kisan,
Broke Bond, Lipton, Sunsilk, Comfort, Wheel, Pepsodent, Clinic
Plus, and several other brands. 
• Under the Apple brand, a customer can find IPhone, IPad, Mac Book,
Mac Air, Apple watch, etc.