Posts Tagged ‘brand positioning’
What is Brand Loyalty?
Chicken George the Marketing Genius
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Slightly inland along the coast near Faro in Portugal is a desolate and very unassuming square building. The hand painted sign outside reads ‘Chicken George Restaurant’. Once seated in the plastic chairs at the equally sparsely tables, George’s wife arrives to offer English speaking people “chicken or fish” in a very broken translation from Portuguese. George cooks the mouth watering meals in the tiny kitchen viewable from all tables.
This article is no review of Chicken George Restaurant however is written to highlight the marketing genius of Chicken George and his wife. I have no idea whether either of these two Portuguese fish and chicken restaurateurs have marketing education or MBAs however they are doing a few marketing things very well.
First the name. Trout and Ries, the brand positioning gurus, recommend in their book ‘Positioning: the battle for your mind’ that a name positions the product perception of the consumer. ‘Chicken George Restaurant’ gets part way there as it describes one of the products (chicken) and the owners name (George). A customer therefore expects to be able to get chicken, that it is a restaurant and that George will be present.
Second, George and his wife, probably through communication problems with the large number of foreign language speakers in the area, offer two choices only; chicken or fish. Although probably unintentionally they are doing something very right in not offering a large choice; a study by Draganska and Jain concluded that consumers are more likely to purchase if there are fewer choices.
Sometimes circumstance and plain logic leads to effective marketing. When in doubt, keep things simple as this is usually the best option.
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How to Map Brand Positioning
Last week I posted an article explaining the basics of Product and Brand Positioning (a marketing concept). I have received several messages asking for techniques for evaluating positioning. Below therefore is a tutorial of how to map your brand or product against that of a competitor.
In this example we’ll use three well known car brands; BMW, Lexus and Mercedes. These three brands all compete in a similar market segment however target slightly different consumers’ wants.
How to map against competitors Step 1: Select Consumer perceived CategoriesWhat is it that defines the brand (or product)? In this step the key differentiators (from a consumers perspective) are listed. In our example we are analysing the positioning of brands within the premium car market segment. For categories for this market segment I have listed six of the most common customer purchase factors; Cost of Ownership, Exclusivity, Quality, Luxury, Sports Appeal and Reputation.
Step 2: Select CompetitorsSelect those products or brands against which you want to compare your product or brand. For our example the full set of brands are; BMW, Lexus and Mercedes Benz
Step 3: Identify Category PositionOn a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being ‘very low’ and 5 being ‘very high’) what is the consumer perceived value for each category. It is important to research and use objective data to complete this step so as to avoid biases. In our car example my table of brands, categories and scores looks as follows:
CATEGORIES Cost of Ownership Exclusivity Quality Luxury Sports Appeal Reputation BRANDS BMW 4 4 4 4 5 5 Lexus 3 4 5 4 3 5 Mercedes 4 4 4 5 4 5 Step 4: Map and Compare PositionsNext, simply create a graph from the data and analyse the figure.
As can be seen from our quick car brand analysis, the three brands compared have similar customer perceptions however each occupies a unique position; BMW has the highest ‘Sports Appeal’, Lexus is the ‘Quality’ and ‘Cost of Ownership’ leader and Mercedes is perceived as best in ’luxury’. It’s interesting to note that Lexus is deemed as having the least ‘Sports Appeal’; Lexus will be releasing the LFA sports-car soon perhaps in an attempt to boost the brands ‘Sports Appeal’.
Existing versus Required Market PositioningOf course, with minor adjustment, this technique is also very useful for mapping existing positioning versus required positioning (i.e. to create a positioning Gap analysis).
Most popular incoming search terms for this page: Related postsProduct Positioning Explained
Product Positioning is about consistency in consumer perception. It is a marketing concept popularised by Ries and Trout in their 1980s book ‘Positioning: The Battle for your Mind’. Very simply, Positioning is about creating an identity in the mind of the consumer; Consumers have vast choice of products and the overall perception of the product is critical in getting consumers to purchase a specific product. Ries and Trout however suggest that consumers look for consistency in product associations and once an impression has been formed of a product, repositioning a consumers perception of a product is very difficult. Positioning is equally important for brands as for products.
Positioning ExamplesCar brands have very strong Positioning characteristics. When we talk about Volvo, Rolls Royce or Honda we have a preconceived impression. For example, what if Rolls Royce started to market a budget small car to rival the Nissan Micra? Rolls Royce is positioned as a luxurious and exclusive brand which has certain associations such as high cost of ownership and expert workmanship; potential buyers of the budget Rolls Royce will be put off by the impression that servicing will be expensive and, at the same time, traditional Rolls Royce buyers will be concerned that the exclusivity will be compromised.
New market segments can however be successfully entered if Positioning is carefully managed; Aston Martin is set to release a Toyota iQ based car renamed the Cygnet; the Cygnet however will only be sold to existing Aston Martin owners and will be costly (therefore retaining the Aston Martin exclusivity Position). Aston Martin knows that it must maintain its Positioning however is also conscious of the need to diversify its product offerings.
Brand Repositioning – the Burberry ProblemOf course, sometimes it may be extremely difficult for a company to control brand Positioning; the Burberry brand was significantly damaged when football hooligans in the U.K. started to wear Burberry. The Burberry Position as an exclusive and upmarket unisex brand was repositioned as a brand for young and rough males (Chavs). Burberry has since needed to invest significantly in attempting to reposition the brand to its former Position.
All successful Brands and Products have a PositionEverything to do with branding is about Positioning. The colours of a product, the packaging, pricing, the advertising, where the product is sold and so on is all about enforcing Positioning. Positioning is about how products (and brands) are perceived and the message must be consistent. Next time you are in the supermarket take a look at the products on the shelves and where they are Positioned (in the mind of the consumer); Clairol, Pantene and Dove all sell shampoo but are Positioned at different target markets …
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