THE “POSITIONING”

CONCEPT-
5th CLASS
Associate Professor Madalina
Moraru PhD.
 MARKET POSITIONING
1-the art and science of fitting the product or
service to one or more segments of the broad
market in such a way as to set it
meaningfully apart from competition.
2. -the process of designing a brand so that it
can occupy a distinct and valued place in the
target consumer’s mind relative to other
brands and then communicating this
distinctiveness through advertising.
For examples: what comes to mind when you
hear the name of Mercedes, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi
or Volvo?
⦿ Practitioners consider market positioning the
most important factor in establishing a brand
in the marketplace.
⦿ David Aaker and John Meyers note that term
position has recently been used to indicate the
brand’s or product’s image in the marketplace.
⦿ Jack Trout and Al Ries suggest that this brand
image must contrast with competitors’. They
say “In today’s marketplace, the competitors’
image is just as important as your own.
Sometimes more important.”
⦿ Positioning relates to the image of the product
and or brand relative to competing products or
brands.
 DEVELOPING A POSITIONING
STRATEGY
⦿ Trout and Ries suggest that managers should ask the
following 6 questions:
⦿ 1. What position do we already have in the prospect’s
mind? (information provided by the marketplace)
⦿ 2.What position do we want to own?
⦿ 3.What companies must be outgunned if we are to
establish that position?
⦿ 4. Do we have enough marketing money to occupy
and hold the position?
⦿ 5.Do we have the guts to stick with one consistent
positioning strategy?
⦿ 6.Does our creative approach match our positioning
strategy?
 LOCATING THE BRAND POSITION
⦿ Two factors can be used to locate a position for a
brand:
1.Psychological factors-sometimes products are not
positioned by using abstract features. For
psychological positions, consider the following
examples:
⦿ Volvo owns the safety position
⦿ Coke owns the authenticity: It’s the real thing.
2.Consumer decision factors: every consumer has a
map in his or her mind, which is called perceptual
map. According to it, consumers plot all the
competitors on a matrix based on important
decision factors: price, quality, style, durability.
 ⦿ A technique called feature analysis helps
structure an assessment of features relative to
competitors’ products.
⦿ Competitive advantage is found where the
product has a strong feature in an area that is
important for the target and where the
competition is weaker.
Features Important to Product performance
prospect
Yours X Y Z

Price 1 + - - +

Quality 4 - + - +

Style 2 + - + -

Availability 3 - + - -

Durability 5 - + + +
 POSITIONING TYPES-ACCORDING TO
BELCH&BELCH
⦿ 1. Positioning by product attributes and benefits
involves analyzing the advantages and
disadvantages of it.
⦿ Sometimes a product is positioned on more than
one product benefit.
⦿ Marketers identify salient attributes =those that
are the basis for making a purchase decision.
⦿ Apple-first time came up on the market with idea
of a very ease use, considering that people were
afraid of investing in something complicated and
maybe inefficient.
⦿ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ6aiVg2qVk
 2. POSITIONING BY USE OR
APPLICATION
⦿ This strategy is often used to enter a market based
on a particular use or application;
⦿ It is also an effective way to expand the product
usage.
⦿ Product categories: electronic devices, banks,
services, medicines.
⦿ The best features are dynamically presented and
consumer is involved in knowing the product.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elJ6SihoLYQ
3. Positioning by price /quality
⦿ The ads reflect the high quality of the
product and the brand value at the same
time.
⦿ Cost is relevant for mature buyers, who know
to make the difference between the brand in
discussion and the competition.
⦿ Premium brands positioned at the high end of
the market use this approach to positioning.
⦿ Even if positioning focuses on quality, price
cannot be neglected, because there is always
a balance established both of them.
 4. POSITIONING BY PRODUCT CLASS
⦿ The competition for a product comes from
outside the product class.
⦿ Ex. Many margarines position themselves
against butter.
⦿ Rather than positioning against another
brand, an alternative strategy is to position
oneself against another product category.
⦿ This is a way to escape stereotypizing
product image within the same category.
⦿ Positioning by competitor
5.
⦿ Competitors may be as important to
positioning strategy as a firm’s own
product or services.
⦿ A correct differentiation implies
developing a positioning strategy by
competitor.
⦿ Avis-best positioning by competitor:
We are number two, so we try harder.
Many commercials express an indirect
comparison using this kind of words:
“other products”, “similar products”
⦿ 6. Positioning by cultural symbols
Aaker and Myers consider cultural
symbols help a brand to
differentiate on the market.
Ex. Ronald McDonald, Bud Man, Mr.
Peanut.
There are many kind of symbols:
⦿ anthropological symbols;
⦿ Historical personalities;
⦿ Artistic symbols;
⦿ Popular culture symbols (fairy tales)
TROUT AND RIES POSITIONING
1.THE LEADERSHIP POSITIONING
⦿ The brand won the authority on the market for
two reasons: either is the best sold product
belonging to its category, or came up first on
the market and it still maintains this position.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h4Ne4go3F4
⦿ Hertz-The number one way to rent a car.
⦿ Avis-we try harder-they are on the second
place.
⦿ 2.The “against” positioning
⦿ This type leads us, more or less, to the leader.
⦿ It is very similar to positioning by competitor;
⦿ The comparison is based on negation or direct alternatives (like
in USA).
⦿ 7up-The UnCola.

3. Positioning by new category

A product creates a new class, just like
Dove did-the soap-cream.
It’s very difficult to be done, because
new categories are quite
4. THE NICHE POSITIONING

⦿ This is frequent used, because it consists in

associating the product with esthetical and
moral issues. (the subjective dimension of
advertising)
⦿ This type of positioning is recommended to
brands whose product features are either
boring and banal, or too subjective.
⦿ Cigarettes are positioned according to this
type (Marlboro, Camay ), because their
benefits are subjective.
5. Positioning based on consumer
-relyingon consumers’ attitude or behaviour in
different
context.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0D
we8h1m9Y&t=314s
 ASSIGNMENT 3
⦿ Choose 3 brands belonging to the same
product category (coffee, alcoholic drinks,
⦿ soda drinks, banks, mobile phones) and 3 of
their commercials .
⦿ Make a comparison between all of these
brands in terms of similarities and
differentiation points.
⦿ Identify the positioning of all 3 brands.