Brand Positioning Strategies

A product can be positioned based on 2 main platforms: The Consumer and The Competitor. When the positioning is on the basis of CONSUMER, the campaigns and messages are always targeted to the consumer himself (the user of the product)

Peter England always campaigns their product concentrating on the consumer, the user of its product.
Louis Philip also concentrates on this kind of campaigns.

The other kind of positioning is on basis of COMPETITION. These campaigns are targeted towards competing with other players in the market.

Dettol television commercials always concentrate on advertisements, which show that this product would give you more protection, then the others.

A number of positioning strategies might be employed in developing a promotional program. The 7 such strategies are discussed below:
POSITIONING BY PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES AND BENEFITS

Associating a product with an attribute, a product feature or a consumer feature. Sometimes a product can be positioned in terms of two or more attributes simultaneously. The price/ quality attribute dimension is commonly used for positioning the products.

A common approach is setting the brand apart from competitors on the basis of the specific characteristics or benefits offered. Sometimes a product may be positioned on more than one product benefit. Marketers attempt to identify salient attributes (those that are important to consumers and are the basis for making a purchase decision)



* Consider the example of Ariel that offers a specific benefit of cleaning even the dirtiest of clothes because of the micro cleaning system in the product.
* Colgate offers benefits of preventing cavity and fresh breath.
* Promise, Balsara’s toothpaste, could break Colgate’s stronghold by being the first to claim that it contained clove, which differentiated it from the leader.
* Nirma offered the benefit of low price over Hindustan Lever’s Surf to become a success.
* Maruti Suzuki offers benefits of maximum fuel efficiency and safety over its competitors. This strategy helped it to get 60% of the Indian automobile market.

POSITIONING BY PRICE/ QUALITY

Marketers often use price/ quality characteristics to position their brands. One way they do it is with ads that reflect the image of a high-quality brand where cost, while not irrelevant, is considered secondary to the quality benefits derived from using the brand. Premium brands positioned at the high end of the market use this approach to positioning.
Another way to use price/ quality characteristics for positioning is to focus on the quality or value offered by the brand at a very competitive price. Although price is an important consideration, the product quality must be comparable to, or even better than, competing brands for the positioning strategy to be effective.

Parle Bisleri – “Bada Bisleri, same price” ad campaign.

POSITIONING BY USE OR APPLICATION
Another way is to communicate a specific image or position for a brand is to associate it with a specific use or application.

Surf Excel is positioned as stain remover ‘ Surf Excel hena!’

Also, Clinic All Clear – “Dare to wear Black”.



POSITIONING BY PRODUCT CLASS

Often the competition for a particular product comes from outside the product class. For example, airlines know that while they compete with other airlines, trains and buses are also viable alternatives. Manufacturers of music CDs must compete with the cassettes industry. The product is positioned against others that, while not exactly the same, provide the same class of benefits.

POSITIONING BY PRODUCT USER

Positioning a product by associating it with a particular user or group of users is yet another approach.

Motography Motorola Mobile Ad.n this ad the persona of the user of the product is been positioned.


POSITIONING BY COMPETITOR

Competitors may be as important to positioning strategy as a firm’s own product or services. In today’s market, an effective positioning strategy for a product or brand may focus on specific competitors. This approach is similar to positioning by product class, although in this case the competition is within the same product category.

Onida was positioned against the giants in the television industry through this strategy, ONIDA colour TV was launched with the message that all others were clones and only Onida was the leader. “neighbour’s Envy, Owners Pride”.

POSITIONING BY CULTURAL SYMBOLS

An additional positioning strategy where in the cultural symbols are used to differentiate the brands. Examples would be Humara Bajaj, Tata Tea, Ronald McDonald. Each of these symbols has successfully differentiated the product it represents from competitors.