BRAND POSITIONING & VALUES

Identifying & establishing brand positioning

Positioning guidelines
Defining & establishing brand values
Identifying & establishing brand positioning
Basic concepts
Target market
Nature of competition
Points of parity & points of difference

Basic concepts
Target consumer
Main competitors
P.O.P.
P.O.D.
Target market
IDENTIFYING THE CONSUMER TARGET IS
IMPORTANT BECAUSE DIFFERENT
CONSUMERS MAY HAVE DIFFERENT
BRAND KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES &
THUS DIFFERENT PERCEPTION &
PREFERENCES FOR THE BRAND:
Without this understanding, it may be difficult to
state which brand association should be strongly
held, favourable, & unique
We need segmentation & targeting for this

Segmentation bases
Behavioural
Demographic
Psychographic
Geographic
Criteria:
Identifiability
Size
Accountability
Accessibility
Responsiveness
Nature of competition
THE TARGET & COMPETITVE FRAME OF REFERENCE
CHOSEN WILL DICTATE THE BREADTH OF
BRAND AWARENESS & THE SITUATIONS &
TYPES OF CUES THAT SHOULD BECOME
CLOSELY RELATED TO THE BRAND:
Recognising the nature of competition has important
implications for the desired brand association
Arriving at the proper positioning requires establishing the
correct P.O.D. & P.O.P. associations
P.O.D.
PODs are strong, favourable, & unique brand associations:
According to CBBE model, brand associations can be broadly
classified on following consideration:
- functional, or performance related
- abstract, or image related
POD is closely related to:
- USP
- SCA
POD may involve:
- performance attributes/benefits
- imagery associations
- Overall superior quality
- low cost provider

P.O.P.
2 basic forms:
1. Category POP:
Legitimate & credible offering within a certain
product/service category
Specially critical for launches of brand extension into a
new category:
# POD may be clear from brand name, but
what about POP
2. Competitive POP:
Designed to negate competitors POD
Positioning Guidelines
2 key issues in arriving at optimal competitive
positioning:
1. Defining & communicating the competitive frame
of reference
2. Choosing & establishing POP & POD
Defining & communicating the
competitive frame of reference
PREFERRED APPROACH TO POSITIONING IS TO
INFORM CONSUMERS OF A BRANDS MEMBERSHIP
BEFORE STATING ITS P.O.D. IN RELATION TO
OTHER CATEGORY MEMBERS
For new products separate marketing programmes generally
needed
Occasionally, a company may straddle both frames of
reference. For e.g.
- BMW Ultimate Driving Machine spanned POD in
luxury & POP in performance w.r.t. performance cars &
POD on performance & POP on luxury w.r.t. luxury
cars
Brands category membership
1. Category benefits:
* To provide supporting rationale so that consumers
believe that a brand has the benefits that imply
membership in a category, performance & imagery
associations can be used
2. Comparing to Exemplars:
* Well-known, noteworthy brands in a category can be
also used to specify a brands category
membership
3. Product descriptors:
* Product descriptor that follows the brand name is often a
very compact means of conveying category origin. E.g.:
# Leher Namkeen
Choosing POP & POD
IN TERMS OF CHOSING POD, BROADLY, THE TWO MOST
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS ARE THAT CONSUMERS
FIND THE P.O.D. DESIRABLE & BELIEVE THAT THE FIRM
HAS THE CAPABILITIES TO DELIVER ON IT
Desirability:
- Relevance
- Distinctiveness
- Believability
Deliverability:
- Feasibility
- Communicability
- Sustainability

Desirability
Relevance:
- Target consumers must find POD personally relevant &
important
- relevant considerations can easily be overlooked Eg.
Clear cola from Pepsi
Distinctiveness:
- Target consumers must find POD believable & credible
- Challenge is to find a viable basis for differentiation,
when entering category with established brands
Believability:
- Target consumers must find POD believable & credible
- must offer compelling reason for choosing over other
brands



Deliverability
Feasibility:
- Ability of the product to perform at the level stated?
- Easier to convince consumers some facts about the brand they are
unaware of rather than make changes in the product & convince
consumers of these changes
Communicability:
- can a consumer be given a compelling enough reason to
believe that the brand will deliver the desired benefits
Sustainability:
- sustainability of the actual & communicated performance over
time:
# is positioning pre-emptive, defensible, & difficult to
attack?
# is positioning likely to last for years?
Establishing POP & POD
Creating a strong, competitive brand positioning requires establishing the right
POP & POD. The difficulty in doing so, however, is that many of the
attributes that make up the POPs or PODs are negatively correlated.

Following 3 approaches are listed in increasing level of effectiveness but also
increasing level of difficulty:
Separate the attributes:
- launch 2 different ad campaigns for POP & POD: run concurrently or
separately; expenses high
- flip side, consumers may not develop as positive an associations as desired
Leverage equity of another entity:
- used borrowed equity to leverage equity of celebrities or ingredients for
establishing POD or POP
Redefine relationship:
- powerful but difficult way is to convince consumers that the relationship is
positive: develop a credible story consumer will agree. For example:
# Apple computers ad Power to be your best is an attempt to redefine what
a powerful computer meant



Updating positioning over time
Updating positioning involves 2 main issues:
1. Laddering: How to deepen brand meaning to tap into or brand values or other
more abstract considerations:
- involves a progression from attributes to benefits to more abstract values &
motivations, i.e., moving up the Maslows Hierarchy
2. Reacting: How to respond to competitive challenges that threaten an existing
positioning:
- When competitor challenges an existing POD or attempts to overcome a
POP, 3 main options:
(i) Do nothing: continue brand building
(ii) Go on defensive: if it has potential to disrupt market, add some reassurance
in product or advertising to strengthen POPs & PODs
(iii) Go on the offensive: if it seems potentially quite damaging may be
necessary to reposition brand - one approach is to launch product extension or
ad campaign changing meaning of the brand