By brand positioning, a company tries to design its products and offerings in the market in such a manner that it enjoys a distinct position in the minds of the consumer. The kind of differentiation that the product is able to achieve takes care of the competition and the kind of value proposition that it offers, induces and motivates the customer to try the product of the company. For example, Kitkat is a substitute for a snack and it is something that the consumer can have whenever he feels like having it. It is very important for the brand to stand something and thus be associated with certain values and images. In other words, it must be perceived to be valuable, credible, different from others and be thought suitable for the desired benefit.
To create a sustainable and winning brand strategy, the company must be able to develop a distinct positioning for its brands. Generally, two references are associated with brand positioning, i.e., horizontal and vertical inferences. Horizontal inferences include the association of different qualities and features to the product so as to make it unique in the minds of customers. By vertical inference it is meant that where the brand stands in the list of all competitive brands in the minds of the consumers. The desired competitive position in the target market determines the nature of positioning used for the brand.
Objectives of Brand Positioning
Following points can help understand the objectives or motives of brand positioning in a better way:
To be Recognised: It is essential for the firm to make their products and services available and accessible to people in a way that they begin identifying their brand name by these products and services provided by them. This is required for the firm to make their products or services obtain the class Of brands. Brand positioning helps the brand get famous and publicise itself and make the sales process more smooth and efficient in a precise way.
To help Brand Judgment: Businesses also get assistance to adequately evaluate the way customers gauge its products in relation with other brands giving tough competition and offering products from the same class or line by way of brand positioning. Naturally, firms will face tough competition as even every niche area of the market requires the correct means to market the products. This can be achieved by correct recognition and execution of brand positioning. This will help the brand to achieve that place in the market where it will hardly be influenced by the upcoming hazard of tough competition and resistance.
To be Rebranded: Brand positioning can also be considered for reconditioning or modernising of the products in a manner that will make it distinct and exclusively defined than all other products of the same type or from the same category. Because of this, the product will actually make it under the premier class and it is indeed a huge achievement to make the brand or product a distinguished repute in any marketplace or industry.
To Provide Brand Stealth: Brand positioning will strive hard to help the brand estimate its real potential in the market. This may be regarded as a kind of stock-taking plan that will act as a way to understand the present reach of the business and its exact position in every competitive market. Precise interpretation of current position of business can have considerable effect or influence in aiding it on the requisite actions to be taken for pushing its products and the brand as a whole ahead of where it is today. All this is an attempt to make it famous and publicise it, which it believes well as a possibility for making the brand a leader in the market.
Crafting Brand Positioning: Process of Brand Positioning
Following phases are involved in the brand positioning process:
Competitor’s Identification: Extensive and interdisciplinary thinking is essential at this step of brand positioning, A company may face competition from various brands besides the ones who offer products in the same product class or ones whom we have to directly encounter competition from. Therefore, a competent marketer is one who considers all possible opponents along-with the different impacts of use and conditions on the customers.
Determining how Competitors are perceived and Evaluated: After defining the opponents, next it is required to find out how are they viewed by customers. We also should discover features that customers find significant while assessing a brand and/or product. It is often that we can expect an extensive array of features or product utilities for several products if not all but most of which are crucial. Most of the market research conducted by the company is aimed at making such discernments or confirmations. These market research activities include requesting the customers to participate in focus groups and/or complete surveys exhibiting the significant features while making buying decisions.
Determining the Competitor’s Position: It is necessary to establish the way in which each opponent is placed with regards to each attribute; this is possible once the company decides upon the applicable features/attributes and their respective significance to customers. This determination Will also clarify as to how the competitors are placed corresponding to each other. This evaluation needs consumer research to be conducted.
Analysing Customer’s preferences: There are several factors in market segmentation that are differentiated among set of customers like demographic differences, purchase motivations, lifestyles, etc. There can be distinct feature significance ratings and separate purchase reasons for each of these market segments. These distinctions can be established by taking into account classic product or brand present in the market and elucidated as the most preferred object by the customers over all other players in the market. This object may be a visionary one currently not available in the market. It will be of great help for the marketer to discover different classics among segments or find segments with identical among segments or identical classic points by finding the classic product or brand.
Making the Positioning Decision: The ultimate brand positioning decision is to be made once we are done with the first four steps of positioning process. However, this decision is not every time explicit and apparent. A marketer has to make some instinctive decisions as only finite inputs are obtained by conducting market research. Several questions are brought-up due to these decisions:
- Does the company possess enough resources to communicate in an efficient manner?
- How powerful are the opponents?
- Is the segmentation strategy suitable?
- Is the existing brand positioning strategy functional?
Monitoring the Position: After the company is successful in attaining a certain place in the market, it is very essential for it to check how successful it is in sustaining this rank attained in the market. Gauging the repute of the brand or product over the course of time can be done by tracking studies. It is possible to identify modifications in customer’s discernment With any slippage instantly taken into consideration and responded to. And the influence on rivals can also be ascertained at Once. Formulating a direct, comprehensible brand positioning strategy is essential for the firm alongwith conveying it in an effective manner across the organisation. For example, it is required to name the specific user in case the firm plans for specific user positioning. The company must indicate or convey the quality by selecting those physical indicators that are usually utilised to evaluate quality of product if it is planning to select the quality positioning strategy. The signs Of increased price can be used by the company to convey high quality. Various factors such as promotion, distribution, packaging, etc., also influence a product’s quality impression.