Positioning

1. CHAPTER5 Positioning © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage LearningAll rights reserved.

2. Chapter ObjectivesAfter reading this chapter you should be able to: • Appreciate the concept and practice of brand positioning. • Explain that positioning involves the creation of meaning and that meaning is a constructive process involving the use of signs and symbols. • Give details about how brand marketers position their brands by drawing meaning from the culturally constituted world. • Describe how brands are positioned in terms of various types of benefits and attributes. • Explicate two perspectives that characterize how consumers process information and describe the relevance of each perspective for brand positioning. © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. 5–2

3. Introduction: Brand Positioning • Positioning • The key feature, benefit, or image that the brand stands for in the target audience’s collective mind • Positioning Statement • The central idea that encapsulates a brand’s meaning and distinctiveness vis-à-vis competitive brands © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

4. Positioning in Theory: A Matter of Creating Meaning • Semiotics • The study of signs and the analysis of meaning-producing events • Semiotics Perspective • Meaning is a constructive process determined by: • The message source’s choice of communication elements • The receiver’s unique social-cultural background and mind-set at the time of exposure to a message © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

5. Positioning in Theory: A Matter of Creating Meaning (cont’d) • A Sign • Is words, visualizations, tactile objects, and anything else perceivable by the senses • Has a constructed meaning to the receiver (interpreter) that is both idiosyncratic and context dependent • Marcom’s Positioning Goal • To have consumers will interpret messages exactly as they are intended © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

6. Figure 5.1 The Thumbs-Up Sign © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

7. The Meaning of Meaning • Meanings • Are the thoughts and feelings evoked within a person when presented with a sign in a particular context • Are internal responses people hold for external stimuli • Perceptual Fields • Represent the sum total of a person’s experiences that are stored in memory • Facilitate effective marcom when there is commonality in both the sender’s and the receiver’s fields of experience © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

8. Meaning Transfer: From Culture to Object to Consumer • Socialization • The process through which people learn cultural values, form beliefs, and become familiar with the physical manifestations, or artifacts, of these values and beliefs • Advertising in a Culturally Constituted World • Advertisements become texts to be interpreted by consumers from within their socio-cultural context • Marcom attempts to use the meaning of well-known symbols to transfer that meaning to their brand © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

9. Figure 5.2 V8 Advertisements Illustrating Contextual Meaning © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

10. Positioning in Practice: The Nuts and Bolts • Brand Positioning • Is essential to a successful Marcom program • Effective Positioning Statement • Conveys a consistent message • Defines a brand’s competitive advantage • Motivates customers to action • Positioning Concept • “Positioned in” the consumer’s mind • “Positioned against” competing brands © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

11. Figure 5.3 Outcomes of Proposed Positioning © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

12. Proposed Positioning Outcomes © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

13. Figure 5.4 A Framework for Brand Positioning © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

14. Benefit Positioning Appealing to Consumer Needs Functional Needs Symbolic Needs Experiential Needs © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

15. Categories of Consumer Needs Functional Needs Positioning communicates that the brand’s benefits are capable of solving consumers’ consumption-related problems Symbolic Needs Positioning attempts to associate brand ownership with a desired group, role, or self-image Experiential Needs Positioning promotes brand’s extraordinary sensory value or rich potential for cognitive stimulation © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

16. Figure 5.5 Croc AdvertisementIllustrating Appeal toFunctional Needs © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

17. Figure 5.6 Dove AdvertisementIllustrating Appeal toExperiential Needs © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

18. Attribute Positioning Attribute Positioning Product-Related Non-Product Related:Usage and User Imagery © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

19. Figure 5.8 Ralph Lauren AdvertisementIllustrating Positioning Based on User Imagery © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

20. Figure 5.7 Highlander Advertisement Illustrating Product-Related Attribute Positioning © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

21. Repositioning a Brand Why Reposition a Brand? Increase competitiveness Refresh brand image Extend productlife cycle Enter new market segments © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

22. Implementing Positioning: Know Thy Consumer • Consumer Processing Model (CPM) • Information and choice are a rational, cognitive, systematic and reasoned process • Hedonic, Experiential Model (HEM) • Consumers’ processing of marcom messages and behavior are driven by emotions in pursuit of fun, fantasies, and feeling © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

23. Figure 5.9 Comparison of the CPM and HEM Models © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

24. The Consumer Processing Model (CPM) Stage 1: Being exposed to information Stage 2: Paying attention Stage 3: Comprehending attended information Stage 4: Agreeing with comprehended information Stage 5: Retaining accepted information in memory Stage 6: Retrieving information from memory Stage 7: Deciding from alternatives Stage 8: Acting on the basis of the decision © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

25. CPM Model Stages Stage 1:Being Exposed to information • Is a necessary but insufficient for communication success—truth effect” of repeated exposure to a message • Is a function managerial decisions about marcom budget size and choice of media and vehicles Stage 2:Paying Attention • Is a deliberate focus on and consideration of a message • Involves allocating processing capacity in a selective fashion • Is drawn to messages relevant and of interest to current goals Stage 3:Comprehending information • Is understanding and creating meaning out of stimuli and symbols • Involves perceptual encoding (feature analysis and active analysis) to interpret stimuli • May result in an idiosyncratic interpretation or miscomprehension © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

26. Figure 5.10 Humorous Illustration of Selective Perception © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

27. Miscomprehension Reasons for Miscomprehension Misleading or Unclear Messages Biased Preconceptions Time Pressures and Noise © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

28. CPM Model Stages (cont’d) Stage 4:Agreeing with Comprehended Information • Does not ensure that the message influences consumers’ behavior • Depends on credibility of the message • Depends on compatibility of the information with values important to the consumer Stages 5 & 6:Retention and Search and Retrieval of Stored Information • Involves the related issues of what consumers remember (recognize and recall) about marketing stimuli • Shows how consumers access and retrieve information when in the process of choosing among product alternatives. © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

29. Elements of Memory The marketer’s job is to provide positively valued information that consumers will store in LTM Sensory Receptors Short-Term Memory (STM) Sensory Stores (SS) Long-Term Memory (LTM) © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

30. Figure 5.11 Consumer’s KnowledgeStructure for the VolkswagenBeetle © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

31. Types of Learning • Strengthening Memory Concept Linkages • Repeating product claims • Being creative in conveying a product’s features • Presenting claims in a more concrete fashion • Establishing New Linkages • Marcom can build strong, favorable, and unique associations between the brand and its features and benefits © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

32. Figure 5.12 Illustration of an Effort to Strengthen a Linkage between a Brand and ItsBenefits © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

33. Search and Retrieval of Information • Learned Information • Impacts consumer choice behavior when it is searched and retrieved • Retrieval of Stored Information • Is facilitated when new information is linked with another well known concept that is easily accessed • Dual-Coding Theory • Pictures are represented in memory in both verbal and visual form • Words are less likely to have visual representations © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

34. The Hedonic, Experiential Model (HEM) • The HEM Perspective • The CPM and HEM models are not mutually exclusive—consumers can be both rational and self-involved in their decision-making processes • HEM Communications • Generate images, fantasies, and positive emotions and feelings about brands that consumers interpret idiosyncratically • Emphasize nonverbal content or emotionally provocative words to connect consumers to brands © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

35. Figure 5.13 Illustration of an HEM-OrientedAdvertisement © 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.