BRAND POSITIONING.
Ans. A brand position is the part of the brand identity and value proposition that is to be actively communicated to the target audience and that demonstrates an advantage over competing brands. Positioning is a concept, which is commonly seen in marketing. “Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offerings and image to occupy a distinctive place in the target market’s mind. The essence of brand positioning is achievement of valued distinction/differentiation in a consumers mind.”
The perceived differentiation takes care of the competitive angle and the value aspect takes care of customer motivation e.g. Perk is positioned as a substitute for a snack, which can be, had anywhere, anytime. A brand must create an association and cling on to it. The bottom line for a position is that it must be valuable, credible, distinctive and suitable for the product in question.
The strategy to differentiate the brand or product is to place it in an appropriate cell of the human mind so that whenever the customer recalls the product, the firm’s brand is the first to be recalled. This strategy is called ‘Positioning’.
‘Positioning is not what you do to a product. But what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect’.
Whether a brand owns a position or not could easily be found by a simple word association or word which immediately springs to mind as and when the brand is thought for when the word is thought of, the brand is recalled immediately.
Some of the well-positioned brands are:
Raymonds: The Complete Man
Fair and lovely: Fairness
Woodland: Tough Shoes
Dettol: Antiseptic
Captain cook: Free Flow Salt
What is Lux? Is it a soap? The interpretation of it as a soap entirely misses the point if it is a soap. How is it different from others in the category? What does Lux manifest- it is beauty. The brand reveals hidden intentions. Without a compelling marketing mission, a brand probably cannot take birth. A Lux customer buys it for its promised delivery of beauty. The Lux brand seeks to satisfy the beauty aspirations in a select target group. It is a loud and clear promise of what it has to offer. Soap is only one way of delivering beauty. A number of products have been discovered with the legitimate territory of Lux.
The positioning essentially deals with a competitive frame of reference. The position differs from the older term image in that it implies a frame of reference the reference point usually being the competition. That is how a brand is to be perceived vis-à-vis others in the category. For instance, ICICI positions itself as a ‘friendly bank’.
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