Session 7

Positioning
Marketing Management
What Is Positioning?
 What Is Positioning?
• Positioning is the act of designing a
company’s offering and image to occupy a
distinctive place in the minds of the target
market.
• The goal is to locate the brand in the minds
of consumers to maximize the potential
benefit to the firm.
 What Is Positioning?
• A good brand positioning helps guide
marketing strategy by clarifying the brand’s
essence, identifying the goals it helps the
consumer achieve, and showing how it does
so in a unique way.
 Illustration
• Moov, the pain relieving ointment from
Paras Pharmaceuticals, succeeded in a
market dominated by established brands
that promised relief from headache, body
ache and sprains by positioning itself as the
backache specialist.
A few definitions of positioning.
Only for understanding different
points of view; not getting it by
heart
 Positioning
• Positioning starts with a product. A piece of
merchandise, a service, a company, an
institution, or even a person …. But
positioning is not what you do to a product.
Positioning is what you do to the mind of
the prospect. That is, you position the
product in the mind of the prospect.
Al Ries & Jack Trout, 1969
 Positioning
• The differentiation of brands by studying
the ways in which their consumers differ as
well as how consumer perceptions of
various brands differ is termed ‘product
positioning’.
Lewis Alpert & Roland Gatty
Journal of Marketing, 1969
 Positioning
• Once a target market has been selected, the
new product marketers must differentiate
their item from products already offered to
that target group. This differentiating is
called positioning the product and is now in
widespread use.
Merle C. Crawford
New Products Management, Irwin, 1987
 Positioning
• Product positioning refers to the customer’s
perception of the place a product or brand
occupies in a given market
George G. Day / Strategic Mgmt Journal
• Market positioning is “arranging for a product to
occupy a clear, distinctive and desirable place in
the market and in the minds of the target
consumers” Philip Kotler /
Marketing Essentials
 Positioning
• Positioning is the activity of trying to get
customers to perceive a company’s product
differently from the way they perceive what
competitors are offering. The customer’s
viewpoint is the crucial aspect of product
positioning.
David J. Reibstein
Marketing, PH, 1985
 Positioning
• Positioning refers to the place a brand
occupies in the mind in relation to a given
product class. This place was originally a
product related concept …. Concerning
market structure … The concept now refers
to the place that the brand holds in the
consumer’s mind relative to perceptions and
preferences
Michael Rothschild
 Positioning
• The product (brand) positioning should be
assessed by measuring consumer’s or
organisational buyer’s perceptions and
preference for the product in relation to its
competitors (both branded and generic)
Yoram J. Wind
Product Policy, Addison - Wesley, 1982
 Comprehensive Definition
1.The position of a brand is the perception it
brings about in the mind of a target
consumer
2.This perception reflects the essence of the
brand in terms of its functional and non -
functional benefits in the judgement of that
consumer
 Comprehensive Definition
3.It is relative to the perception, held by that
consumer, of competing brands, all of
which can be represented as points or
positions in his / her perceptual space and
together, make up a product class
Subroto Sengupta
Brand Positioning
 Perceptual Mapping
• Perceptual mapping techniques identify the
underlying dimensions that differentiates
(similar) consumer perceptions of products
and the positions of existing products on the
dimensions (to be determined)
• Factor analysis, MDS, Hierarchical Cluster
analysis, conjoint analysis etc. are normally
used to develop perceptual maps
Value Propositions

9-17
Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Ltd. Authorized adaptation from
the United States edition of Marketing Management, 14e.
Competitive Frame of Reference

▪ Identifying Competitors
▪ Analyzing Competitors

9-18
Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Ltd. Authorized adaptation from
the United States edition of Marketing Management, 14e.
Table 9.2 Customer Ratings
of Competitors

9-19
Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Ltd. Authorized adaptation from
the United States edition of Marketing Management, 14e.
 Defining Associations
Points-of-difference Points-of-parity
Attributes or benefits Associations that are
consumers strongly not necessarily unique
associate with a to the brand but may
brand, positively be shared with other
evaluate, and believe brands
they could not find to
the same extent with a
competitive brand

9-20
Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Ltd. Authorized adaptation from
the United States edition of Marketing Management, 14e.
Point-of-Difference Criteria

Desirable to consumer

Deliverable by company

Differentiating from competitors

9-21
Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Ltd. Authorized adaptation from
the United States edition of Marketing Management, 14e.
 Positioning
• How many differences to
promote
• which differences to promote
POP versus POD

9-23
Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Ltd. Authorized adaptation from
the United States edition of Marketing Management, 14e.
Figure 9.1a Perceptual Map:
Current Perceptions

9-24
Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Ltd. Authorized adaptation from
the United States edition of Marketing Management, 14e.
Figure 9.1b Perceptual Map:
Possibilities

9-25
Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Ltd. Authorized adaptation from
the United States edition of Marketing Management, 14e.
 Some Examples
• Milkmaid condensed milk
– First it was introduced as a whitener for tea and
coffee
– Then it was introduced as the tastiest milk made
when milk was in short supply in some parts of
the country
– Third time milkmaid was positioned as a table
topper
– Finally, milkmaid as a desert recipe
Brand Mantras
Designing a Brand Mantra

Communicate

Simplify

Inspire
 Conveying Category
Membership

• Announcing category benefits

• Comparing to exemplars
• Relying on the product descriptor
 Constructing a
Brand Positioning Bull’s-Eye
 Examples of Negatively Correlated Attributes
and Benefits
• Low-price vs. High • Powerful vs. Safe
quality • Strong vs. Refined
• Taste vs. Low • Ubiquitous vs.
calories Exclusive
• Nutritious vs. Good • Varied vs. Simple
tasting
• Efficacious vs.
Mild
 Developing a positioning
statement
• For whom, for when, for where?
– Explicit target segment description
• What is the value?
– What is the unique value that the brand claims
• Why and how?
– Providing evidence for the value proposition
claim
– Logical argument, scientific data, testimonials
etc.
 Developing a positioning
statement
• Relative to whom?
– Explicit description of the competition set
– Helps establish a benchmark / frame of
reference for the consumer
 A Positioning Statement
• It should typically do the following
– Identify the customer
– Define the product or service
– Identify the benefit / value
– Provide evidence (if possible)
– Communicate why the benefit is differentiated
from the competition
 A framework
• One possible framework is as follows:
– For (target customer)
– Who (statement of need / opportunity)
– Product is (product /service category)
– That (statement of benefit)
– Unlike (primary competitive alternatives)
– Statement of primary differentiation
 Example
• For moms who want to preserve memories,
PicDeck is a simple cellphone feature that
easily and automatically transfers phone
photos to your desktop / laptop computer
unlike traditional USB cord, Bluetooth or
MMS services. Now your cellphone photos
won’t accumulate for months on your
telephone
 Example
• For upscale consumers looking to make a
design statement with their choice of water,
Voss is the only brand among all bottled
waters that offers the purest and most
distinctive drinking experience because it
derives from an artesian source in southern
Norway and it is packaged in a stylish,
iconic glass bottle
 Three Cs brand positioning
model

Consumer Competitor Company

Analysis Analysis Analysis
• Relevant • Distinctive • Feasible
• Resonant • Defensible • Favourable
• Realistic • Durable • Faithful