CHAPTER 3:

BRAND POSITIONING & VALUES

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 Brand Positioning
■ Is at the heart of the marketing strategy

■ “. . . the act of designing the company’s offer and

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Determining a frame of reference
■ What are the ideal points-of-parity and
points-of-difference brand associations vis-à-vis
the competition?
■ Marketers need to know:
■ Who the target consumer is
■ Who the main competitors are
■ How the brand is similar to these competitors
■ How the brand is different from them

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 Target Market
■ A market is the set of all actual and potential
buyers who have sufficient interest in, income
for, and access to a product.
■ Market segmentation divides the market into
distinct groups of homogeneous consumers who
have similar needs and consumer behavior, and
who thus require similar marketing mixes.
■ Market segmentation requires making tradeoffs
between costs and benefits.

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Example of the toothpaste market
■ Four main segments:
1. Sensory: Seeking flavor and product appearance
2. Sociables: Seeking brightness of teeth
3. Worriers: Seeking decay prevention
4. Independent: Seeking low price

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 Criteria for Segmentation
■ Identifiability: Can we easily identify the segment?
■ Size: Is there adequate sales potential in the
segment?
■ Accessibility: Are specialized distribution outlets
and communication media available to reach the
segment?
■ Responsiveness: How favorably will the segment
respond to a tailored marketing program?

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 Nature of Competition
■ Deciding to target a certain type of consumer
often defines the nature of competition
■ Do not define competition too narrowly
■ Ex: a luxury good with a strong hedonic benefit like
stereo equipment may compete as much with a
vacation as with other durable goods like furniture

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 Points-of-Parity
and Points-of-Difference
■ Points-of-difference (PODs) are attributes or
benefits that consumers strongly associate with a
brand, positively evaluate, and believe that they
could not find to the same extent with a
competitive brand.
■ Points-of-parity associations (POPs), on the other
hand, are not necessarily unique to the brand but
may in fact be shared with other brands.

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 Brand Positioning Guidelines
■ Two key issues in arriving at the optimal
competitive brand positioning are:
■ Defining and communicating the competitive
frame of reference
■ Choosing and establishing points-of-parity and
points-of-difference

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 Defining and Communicating the
Competitive Frame of Reference
■ Defining a competitive frame of reference for a
brand positioning is to determine category
membership.
■ The preferred approach to positioning is to
inform consumers of a brand’s membership
before stating its point of difference in
relationship to other category members.

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 Choosing POP’s & POD’s
■ Desirability criteria (consumer perspective)
■ Personally relevant
■ Distinctive and superior
■ Believable and credible
■ Deliverability criteria (firm perspective)
■ Feasible
■ Profitable
■ Pre-emptive, defensible, and difficult to attack

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 Attribute and Benefit Trade-offs
■ Price and quality
■ Convenience and quality
■ Taste and low calories
■ Efficacy and mildness
■ Power and safety
■ Ubiquity and prestige
■ Comprehensiveness (variety) and simplicity
■ Strength and refinement

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 Strategies to Reconcile
Attribute and Benefit Trade-offs
■ Establish separate marketing programs
■ Leverage secondary association (e.g., co-brand)
■ Re-define the relationship from negative to
positive

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 Core Brand Values

■ Set of abstract concepts or phrases that

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 Brand Mantras
■ An articulation of the “heart and soul” of the brand
■ similar to “brand essence” or “core brand promise”
■ Short three- to five-word phrases that capture the
irrefutable essence or spirit of the brand positioning
and brand values
■ Considerations
■ Communicate
■ Simplify
■ Inspire

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 Designing the Brand Mantra
■ The term brand functions describes the nature of
the product or service or the type of experiences
or benefits the brand provides.
■ The descriptive modifier further clarifies its nature.
■ The emotional modifier provides another
qualifier—how exactly does the brand provide
benefits, and in what way?

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 Designing the Brand Mantra

Emotional Descriptive Brand

Authentic Athletic Performance

Fun Family Entertainment

Fun Folks Food

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 Internal Branding
■ Members of the organization are properly aligned
with the brand and what it represents.
■ Crucial for service companies

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 Brand Audit
■ Externally, consumer-focused assessement
■ A comprehensive examination of a brand
involving activities to assess the health of the
brand, uncover its sources of equity, and suggest
ways to improve and leverage that equity
■ It includes brand vision, mission, promise, values,
position, personality, and performance

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 Importance of Brand Audits
■ Understand sources of brand equity
■ Firm perspective
■ Consumer perspective
■ Set strategic direction for the brand
■ Recommend marketing programs to maximize
long-term brand equity

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 Brand Audit Steps

■ Brand inventory (supply side)

■ Brand exploratory (demand side)

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 Brand Inventory
■ A current comprehensive profile of how all the
products and services sold by a company are
branded and marketed:
■ Brand elements
■ Supporting marketing programs
■ Profile of competitive brands
■ POPs and PODs
■ Brand mantra

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 Brand Inventory (Cont.)
■ Suggests the bases for positioning the brand
■ Offers insights to how brand equity may be better
managed
■ Assesses consistency in message among activities,
brand extensions, and sub-brands in order to
avoid redundancies, overlaps, and consumer
confusion

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 Brand Exploratory
■ Provides detailed information as to how
consumers perceive the brand:
■ Awareness
■ Favorability
■ Uniqueness of associations
■ Helps identify sources of customer-based brand
equity
■ Uncovers knowledge structures for the core brand
as well as its competitors
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 Suggested Brand Audit Outline
■ Brand audit objectives, scope, and approach
■ Background about the brand (self-analysis)
■ Background about the industries
■ Consumer analysis (trends, motivation, perceptions, needs,
segmentation, behavior)
■ Brand inventory
■ Elements, current marketing programs, POPs, PODs
■ Branding strategies (extensions, sub-brands, etc.)
■ Brand portfolio analysis
■ Competitors’ brand inventory
■ Strengths and weaknesses
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 Brand Audit Outline (Cont.)
■ Brand exploratory
■ Brand associations
■ Brand positioning analysis
■ Consumer perceptions analysis (vs. competition)
■ Summary of competitor analysis
■ SWOT analysis
■ Brand equity evaluation
■ Strategic brand management recommendations

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