CRAFTING THE BRAND

POSITIONING
Dr. Shahid Yaqub
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

In this chapter we will address the following

questions:
 1. How can a firm develop and establish an

effective positioning in the market?

 2. How do marketers identify and analyze

competition?
 3. How are brands successfully differentiated?
 4. What are the differences in positioning and

branding with a small business?

 Introduction
 To stand out and succeed, a company's products or
services shouldn't be just like everyone else's.
Instead, each one should stand for something
special and unique in the minds of customers.
 Creating a strong brand means coming up with a
clear, memorable idea that sets your product apart.
This idea should resonate with what your target
customers really want and need, while also
considering what your competitors are doing.
 To do this well, you need to really understand your
customers, what they're capable of, and what other
companies are offering. It takes both careful
planning and creative thinking to come up with a
brand position that's both distinctive and appealing.
 DEVELOPING AND COMMUNICATING A POSITIONING STRATEGY
All marketing strategy is built on STP—Segmentation, Targeting, and
Positioning.
A company discovers different needs and groups in the marketplace,
targets those needs and groups that it can satisfy in a superior way,
and then positions its offering so that the target market recognizes
the company’s distinctive offering and image.
A) Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and
image to occupy a
distinctive place in the mind of the target market.
B) The goal is to locate the brand in the minds of consumers to
maximize the potential
benefit to the firm.
C) 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.
D) A good positioning has a “foot in the present” and a “foot in the
future.” It needs to be somewhat aspirational so the brand has room
F) Positioning requires that marketers define and
communicate similarities and differences between
their brand and its competitors. Specifically,
deciding on a positioning requires:
1- Determining a frame of reference by identifying
the target market and relevant competition
2- Identifying the optimal points-of-parity and
points-of-difference brand associations given that
frame of reference
3- Creating a brand mantra to summarize the
positioning and essence of the brand
 Deciding on positioning requires determining a
frame of reference by identifying target markets
and competition and identifying the ideal points-
of-parity and points-of-difference brand
associations.
 Identifying the competitors
A) A good starting point in defining a competitive frame of reference
for brand
positioning is to determine category membership – the products or
sets of products
with which a brand competes and which function as close substitutes.

B) The range of a company’s actual and potential competitors,

however, can be much broader than the obvious.
C) For a brand with explicit growth intentions to enter new markets, a
broader or maybe even more aspirational competitive frame may be
necessary to reflect possible future competitors. And a company is
more likely to be hurt by emerging competitors or new technologies
than by current competitors.
D) We can examine competition from both an industry and a market
point of view.
E) An industry is a group of firms offering a product or class of
products that are close substitutes for one another.
F) Marketers classify industries according to number of sellers;
degree of product
 Analyzing competitors

Chapter 2 described how to conduct a SWOT

analysis that includes a competitive analysis. A
company needs to gather information about each
competitor’s real and perceived strengths and
weaknesses.
A) Once the competitive frame of reference for
positioning has been fixed by defining the
customer target market and nature of competition,
marketers can define the appropriate points-of-
difference and points-of-associations.
Identifying Optimal Points-of-Difference and Points-of-Parity

Once marketers have fixed the

competitive frame of reference for
positioning by defining the
customer target market and the
nature of the competition, they
can define the appropriate
points-of-difference and points-
of-parity associations.
 Points-of-Difference (PODs)
 Are attributes or benefits consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively
evaluate, and believe that they could not find the same extent with a
competitive brand.
 Three key criteria determine whether a brand association can truly function as a
point-of
difference—desirability, deliverability, and differentiability. Some key
considerations follow.
1. Desirable to consumer. Consumers must see the brand association as personally
relevant to them.
2. Deliverable by the company. The company must have the internal resources and
commitment to feasibly and profitably create and maintain the brand association
in the minds of consumers. The product design and marketing offering must
support the desired association.
3. Differentiating from competitors. Finally, consumers must see the brand
association as distinctive and superior to relevant competitors.
Any attribute or benefit associated with a product or service can function as a
point-of difference for a brand as long as it is sufficiently desirable, deliverable,
and
differentiating.
The brand must demonstrate clear superiority on an attribute or benefit, however,
for it to function as a true point-of-difference.
 Points-of-Parity
 POPs on the other hand are attributes or benefits
associations that are not necessarily unique to the brand
buy may in fact be shared with other brands.
 A) These types of associations come in two basic forms:

category and competitive.

1) Category points-of-parity are associations consumers
view as essential to be a legitimate and credible offering
within a certain product or service category. They represent
necessary conditions but not necessarily sufficient for brand
choice.
2) Category points-of-parity may change over time due to
technological, legal, or consumer trends.
B) Competitive points-of-parity are associations designed to
negate competitors’ points of-difference.
If a brand can “break-even” where the competitors are trying
to find an advantage and can achieve advantages in other
areas, the brand should be in a strong competitive position.
 Points-of-Parity Versus Points-of-Difference
A) To achieve a point-of-parity on a particular attribute
or benefit, a sufficient number of consumers must
believe that the brand is “good enough” on that
dimension.
B) There is a “zone” or “range of tolerance or
acceptance” with points-of-parity.
C) The brand does not literally have to be seen as equal
to competitors, but consumers must feel that the brand
does well enough on that particular attribute or benefit.
D) With points-of-differences, the brand must
demonstrate clear superiority.

E) Often the key to positioning is not so much achieving

a point-of-difference as in achieving points-of-parity.
 Choosing POPs and PODs
A) Marketers typically focus on brand benefits in choosing the
points-of-parity and points-of-difference that make up their
brand positioning.
B) Brand attributes generally play more of a supporting role by
providing “reasons to believe” or “proof points” as to why a
brand can credibly claim it offers certain
benefits.
C) For choosing specific benefits such as POPs and PODs to
position a brand, perceptual maps may be useful.
D) Perceptual maps are visual representations of consumer
perceptions and preferences. They provide quantitative
portrayals of market situations and the way consumers view
different products, services, and brands along various
dimensions.
E) By overlaying consumer preferences with brand perceptions,
marketers can reveal “holes” or “openings” that suggest
unmet consumer needs and marketing opportunities.
 Establishing Brand Positioning

Once they have determined the brand positioning strategy,

marketers should communicate it to everyone in the
organization so it guides their words and actions. One
helpful schematic to do so is a brand-positioning bullseye.
Constructing a bullseye for the brand ensures that no steps
are skipped in its development.
“Marketing Memo: Constructing a Brand Positioning
Bullseye”
outlines one way marketers can formally express brand
positioning.
Points-of-parity are driven by the needs of category
membership (to create category POPs) and the necessity of
negating competitors’ PODs (to create competitive POPs).
Marketers must decide at which level(s) to anchor the
brand’s points-of-differences.
A) At the lowest level are the brand’s attributes.
B) At the next level are the brand’s benefits.
 Differentiation strategies
To build a strong brand and avoid the commodity
trap, marketers must start with the belief that you
can differentiate anything. The obvious means of
differentiation, and often most compelling ones to
consumers, relate to aspects of the product or
service.
A) Competitive advantage is a company’s ability in
one or more ways
B) Leverageable advantage is one that a company
can use as a springboard to new advantages.
C) A company hopes to continuously invent new
advantages.
D) Customers must see any competitive advantage
as a customer advantage.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
ANY QUESTIONS??????