The act of creating a company’s offerings and image as unique so that they are recognized by its target market is called brand positioning. To maximize the company’s potential benefits, the goal is to position the brand as number one in the market.
A strong brand positioning can guide marketing strategy by clarifying and identifying the brand’s essence, as well as the goals it helps consumers to achieve while using the brand. It also shows how it does this in a unique manner.
Good positioning is both present and future-oriented. The positioning should be aspirational to allow the brand to grow and improve further in the future. It may not be forward-looking enough to position a brand based on current market conditions.
It should explore additional markets outside the current market while brand positioning must be realistic and achievable. It is important to find the perfect balance between what your brand is and what it could be.
Marketers must communicate the similarities and differences between their brand and their competitors through positioning. To be able to decide on brand positioning, you must first identify the target market and the relevant competition.
Then, you need to determine the best points-of-parity or points-of-difference brand associations based on that frame of reference. Finally, you will need to create a brand mantra that summarises the brand’s positioning and essence.
Choosing a Competitive Frame of Reference
The competitive frame is a way to determine which brands a brand competes against. This should be the main focus of competitive analysis. Target market decisions are closely tied to the competitive framework of reference decisions.
Target market decisions decide the nature of competition between brands. Some brands might already served that target market in the past and others are planning to serve that market in the future via their brands or products. Customer knowledge about the brand impact largely to position it in the market.
Identifying Competitors
Category membership is a good place to start when establishing a competitive framework of reference for brand positioning. This refers to the products or sets of products that a brand competes with and which function as close substitutes. It seems like a straightforward task for a company, to identify its competition.
However, the range of potential and actual competitors for a company can go beyond what is obvious. A brand that has growth plans may require a wider or even more ambitious competitive framework in order to enter new markets. It may also be more vulnerable to new technologies or emerging competitors than current competitors.
After identifying its major competitors and their strategies, a company must then ask: What are the market demands of each competitor? What is the driving force behind each competitor’s behavior and strategy?
A competitor’s goals are influenced by many factors, such as their size, financial position, and history. It is important to determine if the competing brand is launched in the market as a subsidiary of a larger business to expand market share, earn a profit, or both.
Marketers must then define the competitive framework of reference that will guide their brand positioning based on this analysis.
It may be easy to identify one, two, or three key competitors in stable markets that are not subject to short-term changes. Multiple frames of reference might be possible in dynamic categories, where there may be competition.
Identifying Points of Difference and Points of Parity
Marketers can establish the competitive framework of reference by defining the customer market and the nature and extent of the competition. Then they can identify the suitable points-of-difference or points-of-parity associations for brand positioning.
Points of Difference (PODs)
PODs are benefits or attributes that consumers strongly associate with a brand and positively evaluate. They also represent the brand’s uniqueness.
Strong brands often have multiple points of difference. Apple (design, ease of use, and irreverent attitude), Nike (“performance, innovative technology and winning”), Southwest Airlines (“value, reliability and fun personality”) are just a few examples.
It is not easy to create strong, positive, and unique associations. However, it is essential for brand positioning. Successful brand positioning of a new product in the established market seems tough and many marketers give up however; few brands prove it can be achievable with proper marketing strategy.
Desirability, deliverability, and differentiability determine whether or not brand associations work as a point of difference.
Points of Parity (POPs)
POPs, on the other side, are benefit or attribute associations that are not always unique to a brand but can be shared with other brands. These associations can be of three types: competitive, correlational, or category.
Category points-of parities are benefits or attributes that consumers consider essential for a credible and legitimate offering in a particular product or service category. They are essential, but not sufficient, conditions for brand selection.
A travel agency might not be considered a true travel agency if it cannot make hotel and flight reservations, offer advice on leisure packages, or offer ticket payment and delivery options. While the category points-of-parity can change as a result of technological advancements, legal developments, or consumer trends over time, they are still the “greens fees” required to play the marketing game.
Correlational points of parity are potentially negative associations that result from positive brand associations. Marketers face a challenge because many of the attributes and benefits they have in common (or POPs) can be inversely related.
This means that if a brand is great at one thing (such as being cheap), consumers won’t be able to see it as being equally good at another. Consumer research can help you understand the trade-offs consumers make when making purchasing decisions.
Competitive points-of-parity care associations are designed to overcome perceived weaknesses of the brand in light of competitors’ points-of-difference. One good way to uncover key competitive points-of-parity is to role-play competitors’ positioning and infer their intended points-of-difference. The brand’s POOs can be derived from the PODs of competitors.
Regardless of the source of perceived weaknesses, if, in the eyes of consumers, a brand can “break-even” in those areas where it appears to be at a disadvantage and achieve advantages in other areas, the brand should be in a strong – and perhaps unbeatable – competitive position.
Brand Mantras
A brand’s positioning is how it can compete with a specific set of competitors in a market. In many cases, however, brands span multiple product categories and therefore may have multiple distinct-yet-related – positioning.
Marketers will need to create a brand mantra that represents the essence of the brand’s “heart and soul”, as brands expand and evolve across product categories.
Marketers often create a brand mantra to help them better define what a brand is. A brand mantra is a three to five-word sentence that sums up the essence or spirit of a brand’s positioning. It is similar to the “brand essence” and “core brand promise.”
It is intended to help employees and marketing partners understand the core brand positioning to enable them to adjust their actions accordingly. McDonald’s brand philosophy, “Food, Folks, and Fun”, captures McDonald’s core brand promise and brand essence.
A brand mantra is a powerful tool. They provide direction on what products and ad campaigns to run and where to sell the brand. Even the most mundane or unrelated decisions can be guided by them, like the design of the reception area or the manner in which employees answer the phones.
Brand mantras act as a mental filter that filters out inappropriate marketing activities and actions that could have a negative impact on the brand’s reputation.
The brand’s mantras are a way to present a consistent image. The brand’s equity can be affected by how a customer interacts with it. Each customer’s encounter with the brand either increases or decreases the brand value in his/her mind, though it is a subtle one.
So many employees are in direct or indirect contact with customers, their words and actions must reinforce the brand’s meaning.
The brand mantra communicates the meaning of the firm’s name and its importance, and the critical role of marketing partners and employees in its management. It is also a memorable summary of key brand considerations that should be remembered and kept top of mind.
Marketers often summarize the brand positioning in just a few sentences that provide positive brand associations and customers keep these associations at the top of their mind. Based on these core brand associations, the company can create POPs, PODs, and brand mantras with the help of its team member. The following factors should be considered when creating the final brand mantra:
- Communicate – A brand mantra should define the business category(s) and explain what makes the brand unique.
- Simplify – A memorable brand mantra is essential. It should be concise, clear, and memorable. It is the most cost-effective way to communicate the brand’s positioning.
- Inspire Ideally, the brand slogan should be as meaningful as possible and as relevant as possible to employees. If the brand values are able to tap into higher-level meanings with both employees and consumers, then they can inspire.
No matter how many words are in the mantra, there will always need to be some level of meaning that is beyond the words. Virtually every word can be interpreted in many ways.
The terms “fun,” “family,” and “entertainment” in Disney’s brand slogan, for example, may all have numerous connotations, prompting Disney to go deeper to establish a more solid foundation for the mantra. To explain each of the three words, two or three brief sentences were added subsequently.