Positioning
Positioning is the act of designing the company’s
offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in
the mind of the target market.
What?
Positioning is owning a consumer’s mind.
Positioning is not what you do to a product
It’s what you do to the prospect’s mind.
You position the product into the consumer’s mind.
„It‟s incorrect to call it product positioning‟ – Ries & Trout
Why?
The Assault on our Mind!
The Product Explosion
The Media Explosion
The Advertising Explosion
So Little message gets through that you
ignore the sender and concentrate on
receiver.
How?
The easy way to get into the customer’s mind is to be first!!
If you didn’t get into the mind of the customer’s first; then you have a positioning problem.
Better to be the First than to be the Best!
In the positioning era, you must however, be first to get into the prospect’s mind.
How?
The basic approach is not to create something new
or different but manipulate what is already in the
customer’s mind.
To find a unique position you must ignore
conventional logic.
Conventional logic says, you find concept inside
product.
Not true; Look inside prospect’s mind
Components of Positioning
Product Class
Consumer Segmentation
Perception relative to Competitors
Benefits and Attributes
Product Class
The set of products and brands which are perceived
as substitutes to satisfy some specific consumer needs
Consumer Segmentation
Positioning main focus is on target consumer’s
characteristics, needs and expectations.
Target market and positioning strategies are like
the two sides of a coin. They are inseparable; each
depends on other.
Perceptual Mapping
Perceptual Mapping techniques identify the
underlying dimensions that differentiate consumer
perceptions of products and the position of existing
product on the dimensions.
Oil Brands & Attributes
Brands Attributes
Arnica Keeps Hair Healthy
Cantharidine Makes Hair greasy/oily
Dabur Amla Makes Hair glossy
Jabakusum Helps Hair growth
Keo Karpin Prevents Hair Fall
Mahabhringraj Prevents Dandruff
Parachute Has a pleasant Perfume
Tata’s Modern
Meant for People Like me
Inexpensive
Mean Score obtained 1-5
ArnicaCantharidin
eDaburAmla
JabakusumKeo
KarpinMahabhringraj Parachute Tata’s
Overall a good brand 3.6 3.6 3.7 3.9 4 3.8 4 3.9
Keeps Hair Health 3.5 3.4 3.6 3.8 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.7
Makes hair greasy 2.7 2.7 3.5 3.5 2.3 3.7 2.8 2.6
Makes hair glossy 3.3 3 3.2 3.2 3.5 3.1 3.2 3.4
Helps hair growth 3.7 3 3.4 3.6 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.5
Prevents hair falling 3.5 3 3.1 3.3 3.1 3.3 3 3.1
Prevents dandruff 2.8 2.3 2.6 2.6 2.7 2.3 2.6 2.6
Pleasant perfume 3.2 3.6 3.3 3.9 4 2.3 2.6 3.5
Modern 2.3 1.8 2.3 1.6 4.3 1.7 4.1 2.2
A brand for me 2.8 2.4 2.7 2.6 3.6 2.2 2.9 2.9
Inexpensive 2.8 2.9 3 2.9 3 3 3.3 3.3
Benefits & Attributes – WIIIFM
Solution that brand offers to its target customers.
Must offer a benefit, which is of importance to the
customer.
Differentiation
According to Theodore Levitt:
“The new competition is not between what companies
produce in their factories; but between what they
add to their factory output in the form of
packaging, services, advertising, customer advice,
financing, delivery arrangement, warehousing, and
other things that people value. “
Concerns with the corporate credentials of the brand.
The prospect’s urged to think of the brand in terms of
it origins.
WHO AM I?
Positioning strategies around this
question relate to the product’s
functional capabilities.
WHAT AM I?
….
Category Related Positioning
Benefit Related Positioning
Positioning by Usage Occasion and Time of Use
Price-Quality Positioning
Category Related Positioning
Positioning the existing basic product in another
category, provided the attributes of the product
match consumer expectation from that category.
Benefit Related Positioning
Successful
consumer
products promise
one or at the
most two
benefits.
CEAT Tyres
Different Benefits
Economy: those who low for low prices
Cosmetic: those who want bright teeth
Taste: mint, clove or salt
Medicinal: Prevention of decay
A hypothetical brand – Brownvita
As health Beverage
The health drink that‟s full of taste.
Energy drink emphasizing its carbohydrate contents
The health drink packed with energy.
Drink with natural goodness of malt, milk & cocoa
The health drink full of Natural Goodness.
Positioning by Usage Occasion and
Time of Use - DETTOL
Use with bathing water for a completely germ-free bath
Use with mopping water to disinfect floors completely
Use in washing laundry to disinfect your clothes
Price-Quality Positioning
The price quality approach of Positioning uses the
relation between price and quality such that it
optimally prices a product according to the quality of
the product to keep the product higher in the
customers mind.
The Problem
Spain is the dominant leader in olive oil
production. But Italy is perceived as king.
Spain makes most of the oil while Italy
makes most of the money.
Step Two: Dramatization
“Two thousand years the Roman were our
best customers. Today, They still are.”
Repositioning
An exercise to create a new positioning for an
existing product in the consumers’ mind.
Repositioning is required when
The original Positioning becomes less attractive
It gets Eroded due to longevity
Positioning seized by competition
When competition positions their product positioning too
close.
When the taste and need of the market change