Chapter 3: BRAND POSITIONING

Mateeullah Khan

BUITEMS
E-mail: [email protected]

Strategic Brand Management – Building, Measuring, and Managing

Brand Equity 3rd Edition – Kevin Lane Keller
 Objective Outline

• Identifying and Establishing Brand Positioning

• Positioning Guidelines

• Defining and Establishing Brand Mantras

• Internal Branding

• Brand Audits
 Identifying & Establishing Brand Positioning:
Basic Concepts
• Brand Positioning is at the heart of Marketing Strategy.

– It is the “act of designing the company’s offer and image so

that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target
customer’s minds”.
• According to CBBE Model, deciding on positioning requires
determining a Frame of Reference.
• In other words, Marketers need to know;
1. Who the target consumer is (Target Market)
2. Who the main competitors are (Nature of Competition)
3. How the brand is similar to these competitors (point of parity)
4. How the brand is different from them (point of difference)
 Identifying & Establishing Brand Positioning:
Basic Concepts
• Target Market: Identifying the consumer target is important
because different consumers may have different brand
knowledge structures and thus different perceptions and
preferences for the brand.

– A Market is the set of all actual and potential buyers who

have sufficient interest in, income for, and access to a product.
 Identifying & Establishing Brand Positioning:
Basic Concepts
• Market Segmentation: It divides the market into distinct groups
of homogeneous consumers who have similar needs and
consumer behavior, and who thus require similar marketing
mixes.

– Figure 3-1 and 3-2 display some possible segmentation bases

for consumer and industrial markets, respectively.
 Identifying & Establishing Brand Positioning:
Basic Concepts
• Market Segmentation: Cont’d

Take the example of Toothpaste market, Four main segments are

uncovered;

1. The Sensory Segment: Seeking flavor and product appearance

2. The Sociables: Seeking brightness of teeth

3. The Worriers: Seeking Decay prevention

4. The Independent Segment: Seeking Low price

 • Figure 3-2: B-2-B Segmentation
Figure 3-1: Consumer Segmentation
Bases
Bases
 Identifying & Establishing Brand Positioning:
Basic Concepts

Criteria For Segmentation:

•Identifiability: Can we easily identify the segment?

•Size: Is there adequate sales potential in the segment?

•Accessibility: Are specialized distribution outlets and

communication media available to reach the segment?

•Responsiveness: How favorably will the segment respond to a

tailored marketing program?
 Identifying & Establishing Brand Positioning:
Basic Concepts

Nature of Competition:
•Deciding to target a certain type of consumer often defines the
nature of competition, because other firms have also decided to
target that segment in the past or plan to do so in the future.

•Do not define competition too narrowly;

– Example: a luxury good with a strong hedonic benefit like stereo
equipment may compete as much with a vacation as with other durable
goods like furniture

•Recognizing the nature of different levels of competition has

important implications for the desired Brand Associations.
 Identifying & Establishing Brand Positioning:
Basic Concepts

Points of Parity and Points of Difference:

•Arriving at the proper positioning requires establishing the correct
points of difference and points of parity associations.

•Points-of-difference Associations (PODs) are attributes or benefits

that consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate,
and believe that they could not find to the same extent with a
competitive brand.

•Points-of-parity Associations (POPs), on the other hand, are not

necessarily unique to the brand but may in fact be shared with
other brands.
 Identifying & Establishing Brand Positioning:
Basic Concepts

Points of Parity Vs Points of Difference:

•For the brand to achieve a point of parity on a particular attribute
or benefit, a sufficient number of customers must believe that
brand is “good enough” on that dimension.
– There is a “zone” or “range of tolerance or acceptance” with
POPs.

•Points of Parity are thus easier to achieve than points of difference,

where the brand must demonstrate clear superiority.
 Positioning Guidelines:
• Two key issues in arriving at the optimal competitive brand
positioning are:

1. Defining and Communicating the competitive frame of

reference

2. Choosing and Establishing Points-of-Parity and Points-of-

Difference
 Positioning Guidelines:
1. Defining & Communicating the Competitive Frame of Reference
• Defining a Competitive Frame of Reference for a Brand
Positioning is to determine category membership.
– With which products or sets of products does the Brand
compete?

• Choosing to compete in different categories often result in

different Competitive Frames of Reference and thus different
POPs and PODs.

• The Product’s Category Membership tells consumer about the

goals they might achieve by using a product or service.
 Positioning Guidelines:
1. Defining & Communicating the Competitive Frame of Reference
• In many situations it is important to inform consumers of a
Brand’s Category Membership.

• The preferred approach to Positioning is to inform consumers of

a Brand’s membership before stating its point of difference in
relation to other category members.
– Presumably, consumers need to know what a product is and
what function it serves before they can decide whether it
dominates the Brands against which it competes.
 Positioning Guidelines:
1. Defining & Communicating the Competitive Frame of Reference
• There are Three main ways to convey a Brand’s Category
Membership:
1. Communicating category benefits
2. Comparing to exemplars
3. Relying on the product descriptor

• A sound positioning strategy requires marketers to specify not

only the Category but also how the Brand dominates other
members of its category.

• Thus, developing compelling Points of Difference is thus critical

to effective brand positioning.
 Positioning Guidelines:
1. Defining & Communicating the Competitive Frame of Reference

Choosing Points of Difference:

•The Two most important considerations in choosing PODs are

that;
1. Consumers find the PODs Desirable, and
2. They believe the firm has the capabilities to Deliver on it.

•Desirability Criteria (Consumer Perspective): Three key

criteria,
1. Personally relevant
2. Distinctive and superior
3. Believable and credible
 Positioning Guidelines:
1. Defining & Communicating the Competitive Frame of Reference

Choosing Points of Difference: Cont’d

•Deliverability Criteria (Firm Perspective) Three Key

criteria,
– Feasibility
– Communicability
– Sustainability – Pre-emptive, defensible, and
difficult to attack
 Positioning Guidelines:
2. Establishing POP and POD
• One challenge for marketers is that many of the Attributes or Benefits that
make up the POPs or PODs are Negatively Correlated (e.g.
inexpensive/highest quality)

• Figure 3-4 displays some other examples of negatively correlated Attributes

and Benefits.

• Several ways exists to address the problem of negatively correlated POPs and
PODs.
Figure 3-4: Examples of Negatively Correlated
Attributes and Benefits
 Positioning Guidelines:
2. Establishing POP and POD
• The Following Three approaches are listed in increasing order of effectiveness
– but also increasing order of difficulty.

1. Separate the Attributes:

– An expensive but sometimes effective approach is to launch Two different
marketing campaigns, each to develop a different brand attribute or
benefit (E.g. Head & Shoulders – Antidandruff / appearance and beauty
of hair)

2. Leverage Equity of Another Entity: The brand “borrowed” or leveraged the

equity of well-known and well-liked celebrities to lend credibility to one of the
negatively correlated benefits.

– Brands can link themselves to any kind of entity that possesses the right
kind of equity – a person, other brand, event, and so forth – as means to
establish an attribute or benefit as a POP or POD.
 Positioning Guidelines:
2. Establishing POP and POD
3. Redefine the Relationship:

– A potentially powerful but often difficult way to address the negative

relationship between Attributes and Benefits in the minds of consumers is
to convince them that in fact the relationship is positive.

– Marketers can achieve this by providing consumers a different

perspective and suggesting that they may be overlooking or ignoring
certain factors or other consideration.

– Although difficult to achieve, such a strategy can be powerful because the

two associations can become mutually reinforcing.
 Positioning Guidelines:
Updating Positioning Over Time
• With established brands, competitive forces often dictate shifts in positioning
over time.

• Updating positioning raises Two main issues;

1. The first is how to deepen the meaning of the brand to tap into core
Brand Associations or other, more abstract considerations – Laddering

2. The second is how to respond to competitive challenges that threaten an

existing positioning – Reacting

• Laddering – Although identifying PODs to determine competition on benefits

that are important to consumers provides a sound way to build an initial
position, once the target market attains a basic understanding of how the
brand relates to alternatives in the same category, it may be necessary to
deepen the meanings associated with the brand positioning.
 Positioning Guidelines:
Updating Positioning Over Time
• Laddering thus progresses from Attributes to Benefits to more Abstract
Values or Motivations.

• Reacting – When a competitor challenges an existing POD or attempts to

overcome a POP, there are essentially Three main options for a target Brand,
1. Do nothing
2. Go on the Defensive
3. Go on the Offensive

– A Brand Audit can help marketers to assess the severity of the

competitive threat and the appropriate competitive stance.
 Defining & Establishing Brand Mantras
• As brands evolve and expand across categories, marketers will want to define
a set of Core Brand Associations to capture important dimensions of the
Brand meaning and what the Brand represents.

• They may also synthesize the core brand associations to a core brand promise
or brand mantra that reflects the essential “Heart and Soul” of the brand.

• We will talk about both Core Brand Associations and Brand Mantras next.
 Defining & Establishing Brand Mantras:
Core Brand Associations
• Core Brand Associations are those Abstract associations (attributes &
benefits) that characterize 5 to 10 most important aspects or dimensions of a
brand.

• They can serve as the basis of Brand positioning in terms of how they create
points of parity and points of difference.

• How do marketers identify Core Brand Associations?

• The First step in this structured process is to ask consumers to create a

detailed mental map of the Brand.
– A Mental Map actually portrays in detail all salient Brand Associations and
responses for a particular target market.

– One of the simplest means to get consumers to create a mental map is to ask them
for their top-of-mind brand associations (when you think of this brand, what
comes to mind?)
 Defining & Establishing Brand Mantras:
Core Brand Associations
• Figure 3-5 displays a hypothetical mental map and core brand association for
MTV.

3-5a: Mental Map 3-5b: MTV Core Brand Association

 Defining & Establishing Brand Mantras:
Core Brand Associations
• How do marketers identify Core Brand Associations? – Cont’d

• Next, marketers group Brand Associations into related categories with descriptive
labels.
– The challenges is to include all relevant associations while making sure each is as
distinct as possible

– Figure 3-5 displays a hypothetical mental map and Core Brand Associations for
MTV.
 Defining & Establishing Brand Mantras:
Brand Mantras
• To find out even more about what a Brand represents, marketers will often
define a Brand Mantra.

• Brand Mantra is an articulation of the “heart and soul” of the brand, a short,
three-to-five word phrase that captures the irrefutable essence or spirit of the
brand positioning.

• It’s similar to “Brand Essence” or “Core Brand Promise”, and its purpose is
to ensure that all employees and external marketing partners understand
what the brand most fundamentally is to represent to consumers, so they can
adjust their actions accordingly.

• Brand Mantras can provide guidance about what products to introduce

under the brand, what ad campaigns to run, and where and how the brand
should be sold.

• Brand Mantras help the brand present a consistent image.

 Defining & Establishing Brand Mantras:
Designing A Brand Mantra
• What makes a Brand Mantra? --- Two high-profile and successful examples
of Brand Mantras come from two powerful brands, Nike and Disney. (see
Branding Brief 3-6 and 3-7)
• Both examples are essentially structured the same way, with Three terms, as
follows,

1. The term Brand Function describes the nature of the product or service or the
type of experience or benefits the brand provides

2. The Descriptive Modifier further clarifies its nature.

3. The Emotional Modifier provides another qualifier—how exactly does the brand
provide benefits, and in what way?
 Defining & Establishing Brand Mantras:
Designing A Brand Mantra
• Brand Mantras don’t necessarily have to follow this exact structure, but they
should clearly delineate what the brand is supposed to represent and
therefore, at least implicitly, what it is not.

• Several additional points are worth noting;

– First, Brand Mantras derive their power and usefulness from their
collective meaning. For brand mantras to be effective, no other brand
should singularly excel on all dimensions.

– Second, Brand Mantras typically are designed to capture the Brand’s

Point of Difference, that is, what is unique about the Brand.

– Finally, for brands facing rapid growth, a brand functions term can
provide critical guidance as to appropriate and inappropriate categories
into which to extend.
 Defining & Establishing Brand Mantras:
Implementing a Brand Mantra
• Brand Mantras should be developed at the same time as the Brand
Positioning.

• As we have seen, brand positioning typically is a result of an in-depth

examination of the brand through some forms of Brand Audit or other
activities.

• Brand Mantras may be benefit from the learning gained from these activities
but, at the same time, require more internal examination and involve input
from a wide range of company employees and marketing staff.

• Marketers can often summarize the brand positioning in a few sentences or a

short paragraph that suggests the ideal Core Brand Associations consumers
should hold.
 Internal Branding
• Internal Branding is, making sure that members of the organization are
properly aligned with the brand and what it represents.

• It is particularly important for Service companies.

• It is critical that all employees have an up-to-date and deep understanding of

the brand.

• Companies need to engage in continual open dialogue with their employees.

• Branding should be perceived as participatory.

• In some case, internal branding can both motivate employees and attract
external customers.
THANKS