POSITIONING â€“ GUIDING PRINCIPLES:Uniqueness, Credibility, Fit

<< POSITIONING:Clarity about target market, Clarity about point of difference

POSITIONING â€“ GUIDING PRINCIPLES:Communicating the actual positioning, Evaluation criteria, Coining the message >>

Brand Management (MKT624)

Lesson 19

POSITIONING GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Introduction

This lecture is devoted to the guiding principles, as Scot Davis puts them, relating how to

reposition and maintain an established position1. Five principles are discussed hereunder:

1. Update your position as necessary

Before updating positioning, one must take a look at the present position to see if it is still

relevant to the target audience, fulfills needs, customer shifts, market dynamics, and company

goals. Generally speaking, the moment you realize that there are unmet needs, you must start

thinking about re-positioning the brand.

According to Davis, it takes about three to five years to change the position. There are five

different criteria to judge if there is need for updating2. The criteria are illustrated graphically

with the help of figure 23 on the next page.

Value

Does the target market value our positioning? If it does, then there is no need to change the

positioning. If it does not, then there should be a cause for concern about changing the

positioning of our brand. To realistically assess the situation, we need to ask ourselves the

following questions:

· Do customers feel motivated to buy? Any drop in the level of sales should indicate a

corresponding drop in motivation. However, before waiting for that eventuality, we

should conduct research from time to time to assess the level of customers' motivation to

buy.

· Do they really prefer over competition? Continued preference of our brand is an

indication that we do not change the positioning. Our research about how our brand stacks

up against competition is a fair guide to gauge if a shift in positioning is required.

· Do they really feel getting benefits? Should there be a change in customers' perception

about getting the expected benefits; the time is then ripe for studying the evolving

changes and acting on keeping the brand current and contemporary.

· Do they feel their needs are being met? This is an extension of the preceding question and

requires finding out any unmet needs that may have arisen due to evolving changes. Does

the market allow us to charge a premium? If our brand is enjoying the pinnacle, then it

should enjoy price premium with indication of not causing a shift in positioning.

However, continual research should send us signals about the need to cause desired shifts

in a way that we maintain product credibility and the pinnacle.

· Does the positioning cut across segments? A strong position should take us into a multi-

segmental situation. If it does not, then we may look into the reasons for weak positioning

and the need to cause a shift.

Uniqueness

Does the position make our brand unique and exclude competition? The moment customers

stop considering our brand as unique, we should have a cause for managing a shift in

positioning. We should consider the following questions:

· Do customers consider our brand positioning as something really unique, different from

others?

Brand Management (MKT624)

Figure 23

Five Criteria

Update Brand Position

Fit

Does it fit

our organizational

goals?

Value

Focus on the benefits

customers value

Sustainability

How long can we

sustain the

position?

Uniqueness

Competitors

absent

Credibility

Is the position

credible?

Source: Scot M. Davis, "Brand Asset Management"

Does our brand really offer a unique value proposition? We should not leave anything to

our judgment. Research should be carried out to determine if customers still perceive our

offering carrying the USP we created.

Do customers immediately recall our brand when we tell them the position? If they do

not, then our brand has lost uniqueness and desires a shift in positioning.

Credibility

Is our brand positioning credible in the marketplace? Credibility comes with keeping the brand

contract while we go through innovations to stay current. A consistent customer perception that

our brand is credible is one factor that sustains our brand's position. If the case is otherwise,

then we must ask ourselves the following questions:

· What must be done to make our positioning credible? An analysis of promises made and

delivered, that is, brand contract must be carried out to determine how we can make our

position credible.

· Are there competitive brands that are as much credible? If others also are as much

credible as our brand, then it calls for an effort to offer customers even higher value not

necessarily through the physical aspects of the product, but through other variables of the

marketing mix.

· Is the positioning credible enough to let management commit financial resources? An

exceptionally strong positioning should allow management to commit more resources. If

company XYZ is successful in achieving the target volumes by delivering free, then it

Brand Management (MKT624)

should have the confidence to start investing into restaurants to expand its business and

determine the shift in positioning expansion and growth will cause.

Sustainability

Can we sustain the position for a long time? Uniqueness of the selling proposition brings

sustainability to positioning. A famous tea brand may have the confidence to sustain its

position on the ground that its exceptionally attractive color, aroma, and taste owe to a special

variety of tea crop along with blending expertise of the company. Also knowing that it is hard

for others to follow them may double their confidence that position can be sustained. Should

there be questions about sustainability, may those look like the following:

· Is it that we can no longer sustain the position? Knowing that others are catching up with

us, we should consider introducing newer features and a shift in position with credibility.

· Is it that the needs and wants will remain the same for quite sometime? Knowledge of a

change of needs and wants should make us work on improvements and management of

shifts in positioning. Japanese cars that were mostly positioned on their fuel efficiency

and provision of services have gone past such positions and successfully managed shifts

to positions of newer environment friendly technologies. Hybrid models (that run on

gasoline and battery generated power) by Toyota and Honda are excellent examples of

sustaining positions with credibility while they address to changing needs of customers

needs to have cars that are innovated and yet fuel efficient.

· Is it that the position might be copied quickly by the competition? The shift in positioning

should be caused either by increasing value to the customer or repositioning the

competition by communicating what your product is not, virtually meaning what

competition is. The ice cream clash between Yummy and Wall's centered on Yummy's

advertising claim that its ice cream was not a non-dairy ice cream, meaning that Wall's

was.

· Why do we need to sustain the position internally and externally? A company must be

clear about the level of internal mobilization of resources human and material and be

sensitive to the need for effective customer-driven marketing. One without the other may

disturb sustainability.

Fit

Does it have a perfect fit with the organization? No matter how attractive and logical a

positioning may be, it is not worthy of creating and maintaining if it does not have a fit with the

organization. We must consider the following questions to ensure that there is fit of positioning

with the organization.

· Does it promise fulfilling our goals? If the position cannot help the company fulfill its

goals, it needs to be changed. Positioning stems out of the understanding of the category

followed by segmentation and differentiation. It therefore has to flow out of the strategic

vision for the business, meaning it must be able to create a level of business that fulfills

goals.

· Does it have the potential to fill the growth gap? An extension of the above explanation,

god positioning must contribute toward filling the growth gap.

· Will it really enhance value and profitability of the company? Good positioning must

offer value to the company and add to profitability. If it does not, then it requires changes.

All the variables of the above-discussed criteria will guide us to decide whether or not we

should change our positioning.

Brand Management (MKT624)

2. Brand positioning should drive all brand strategies

Our discussion early with regard to changing goals for the fast food restaurant was clear

enough to suggest how strategies are driven by positioning. As long as the company has thrust

on free delivery, its strategy will be to have a credible delivery system in place.

The moment growth starts necessitating branching out into restaurants the strategy will be

different. The strategy will be to highlight presence through utility restaurants for attracting

customers there while simultaneously supplement the existing delivery system. A changed

position in response to growth and expansion causes changes in strategies. The job of managers

is to ensure that change takes place with credibility and no disturbances at all.

3. Senior management must lead the charge

Total commitment on part of the management is essential. They have to prove that their support

is based on sincerity to the brand; it is going to set an example for the rest of the company. In

other words, their support to strategies will mark their commitment to those strategies and

goals. Others will follow.

4. Employees bring positioning to life

Despite being externally driven, positioning has to be internally sold to all employees. Internal

and interactive marketing is required to bring everyone on the same wavelength. All employees

have to become brand ambassadors and work for bringing the positioning to life internally first

and externally later.

Scot Davis puts the requisite internal marketing in an effective and easy-to-understand way by

coining the acronym AUDIENCE. It stands for awareness, understanding, direction,

inspiration, engagement, naturalness, criteria, and education. The following has to be achieved

through AUDIENCE for maximizing positioning:

AUDIENCE

· A:

Awareness: All in the company should be able to clearly state brand positioning.

· U:

Understanding: Thy must understand why the particular brand positioning was

chosen and how that affects their daily operational routines. If positioning is about

consumer-friendly pricing, the all must be sensitive to achieving cost efficiencies. If

positioning is about high quality, then all must pay attention to creating it eight from

purchasing to production to logistics, and inventory management.

· D:

Direction: Provides a sense of direction in standardizing the operations and

service standards. The standards make it easy to deliver the promise and also lay

foundation for quality management.

Bibliography:

1. Scot M. Davis: "Brand Asset Management Driving Profitable Growth through

Your Brands"; Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint (115-127)

Table of Contents: