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For instance: kotak-mahindra positions itself in the customer’s mind as one entity-‘kotak’,which provide customized solutions to all the financial services needs.The positioning of the brand will be influenced by the competitive stance one wants to adopt.
Various Positioning Errors;
UNDER POSITIONING: Here the customer’s have a blurred and unclear idea of the brand.
OVER POSITIONING: Here the customer’s have too limited awareness of the brand.
CONFUSED POSITIONING: Here the customer’s have confused opinion of the brand.
DOUBLE POSITIONING: Here the customer’s do not accept the claims of the brand.
POSITIONING BY PRICE/COST LEADERSIP
When it comes to marketing the business, there are three generic strategies you can use: focus, differentiation and cost leadership. This means that you need to minimize your costs and pass the savings on to your customers.
WAL-MART
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been successful using its strategy of everyday low prices to attract customers. The idea of everyday low prices is to offer products at a cheaper rate than competitors on a consistent basis, rather than relying on sales. Wal-Mart is able to achieve this due to its large scale and efficient supply chain. They source products from cheap domestic suppliers and from low-wage foreign markets. This allows the company to sell their items at low prices and to profit off thin margins at a high volume.
MCDONALD’S
The restaurant industry is known for yielding low margins that can make it difficult to compete with a cost leadership marketing strategy. McDonald’s has been extremely successful with this strategy by offering basic fast-food meals at low prices. They are able to keep prices low through a division of labor that allows it to hire and train inexperienced employees rather than trained cooks. It also relies on few managers who typically earn higher wages. These staff savings allow the company to offer its foods for bargain prices.
POSITIONING BY LIFESTYLE
Brand position in car-MAZDA
MAZDA’s Brand Positioning Strategy
There are similar products throughout the automotive industry. Mazda considers it vitally important to strengthen its emotional bonds with consumers. In order to create an excellent brand image through strong emotional ties with consumers, Mazda did not initially concentrate on brand strategy schemes, but rather sought to define a brand DNA.
Target customers
Mazda’s target customers are those individuals who stay young, have a good capability to express themselves, are always passionate and are self-confident in their choices.
Mazda’s Brand DNA
Mazda’s brand DNA is divided into two concepts of Personality and Product. In order to gain pathos from the target customers, Mazda tried to create an image where Personality is defined as Stylish, Insightful and Spirited, and to guide Mazda’s craftsmanship, Product is defined as Distinctive Design, and Responsive Drive.
POSITIONING BY ATTRIBUTES
Brand positioning is designed to develop a sustainable competitive edge on product attributes in the minds of the consumers.
The consumer choice depends upon the attributes of the brand and the utility thus derived.brand attributes also known as core values,represent the essence of the brand.
FEW STRONG BRAND ATTRIBUTES:
Sustainability: A strong brand makes business competitive.A sustainable brand drives an organization towards innovation and success.Example:Marks and spencer’s.
Inspirational: A strong brand should transcend/inspire the cateogary it is famous for.Example: NIKE transcendent jersey.
Appealing: A strong brand should be attractive. Customers should be attracted by the promise one makes and by the value one delivers. Example:life insurance companies.
Sometimes a product can be positioned in terms of two or more attributes simultaneously. The price and quality attribute dimension is commonly used for positioning the products. The product is associated with attributes it possess.
Ariel 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 QUALITY
Another way is to communicate a specific image or position for a brand is to associate it with a specific use or application-‘Quality It Possess’
Surf Excel is positioned as stain remover ‘ Surf Excel hena!’
Clinic All Clear – “Dare to wear Black”.
POSITIONING ON THE BASIS OF 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 CD’s 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 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 ACCORDING TO THE PRODUCT USER
Clinique, for example, has a strong image of being fresh, clean, and pure, with a white-coat clinical approach to skin care and cosmetics. The typical user is perceived to be a young woman with oily skin. The challenge for Clinique is to maintain its current image strengths but to soften the youthful image (to make the brand accessible to mature women) and to reach out beyond the specialized focus on oily, problem skin to a broader audience. For instance, Clinique would like to inject elements of elegance into the line, not to compete with the “elegant” position of competitors but to expand beyond their strong clinical position.
POSITIONING BY OCCASION
Recognizing the market potential, Cadbury decided to add the Diwali twist to Celebrations. With the 1999 campaign that surprised families with `Diwali Ki Meethi Shubhkaamnaaye’ and the `Har Pal Bane Ek Utsav’campaign in 2000, people were now reveling in the Diwali festivities with a box of Cadbury Celebrations. In 2002, with the tagline `Rishtey Pakne Do’ the Rich Dry Fruit Collection was introduced in the market that got families together in festive times. Delving beyond families, the 2004 Celebrations commercials starring Amitabh Bachchan cemented the spirit of friendship with the tagline `Aisi Mithaas Jo Dosti Banaye Khaas’. In 2009, Celebrations took the brand thought deeper into the meaning of Diwali; it was now a symbol of new friendship, spreading happiness, and taking a moment to thank all those who remain unappreciated for most part of the year. Tapping into the festive mood of togetherness, Celebrations started asking people `Iss Diwali Aap Kisse Khush Karenge?’
