We come across many a brands in our day-day life... Each brand attempts to position itself in the mind of the consumer. Jack Trout
coined this term positioning...
But what does it mean to a common man?
When marketers try to position their products they are actually trying to create an image or personality about the brand.The purpose of positioning is differentiate the brand from competition. Volvo stands for safe cars, Walmart for lowest prices...While the definition is simple, it is certainly an arduous task for the marketers given the fact that the human mind is very complex to decipher their opinions,interests, needs, prejudices.
The intent of this blog is not to detail out the process or the steps taken by the marketers to position their products.. On the other hand, I have a different take on Positioning based on some of the assumptions made by marketers. To explain that , lets go back to the definition... Positioning is the process of creating an image in the mind of the consumer.. It is important to own a position in the mind of consumers that provides differentiation for the brand.
It is at this stage marketers make a big mistake. Marketers tend to look only at the consumers side to come up with their positioning statement so as to appeal to them. But the primal mistake is to not realize the company's fabric.What is the company all about? Its values systems, employee opinions etc. Why is this important? Marketer cannot afford to create an image about the company in certain direction and have values, employees opinions in the opposite direction. This mismatch will eventually show up in day-day interaction for the consumers and will eventually lead to dissonance between the image created and the service delivered. For ex: Lets say the marketers have positioned its product as a sophisticated brand keeping in mind the target audience's opinions and needs. On the other hand the employees who act as touch points with consumers are conservative middle class people. Their opinions based on their background will dominate and will show during customer interactions. To avoid this embarrassing situation, its important to take it in account not just the consumers side by the company's basic fabric before finalizing the positioning.
Be what you are in front of a customer is far more easier that the desire to be somebody which you are actually not...
Keep it simple..
coined this term positioning... |
| Brand Positioning - Be what you are... |
When marketers try to position their products they are actually trying to create an image or personality about the brand.The purpose of positioning is differentiate the brand from competition. Volvo stands for safe cars, Walmart for lowest prices...While the definition is simple, it is certainly an arduous task for the marketers given the fact that the human mind is very complex to decipher their opinions,interests, needs, prejudices.
The intent of this blog is not to detail out the process or the steps taken by the marketers to position their products.. On the other hand, I have a different take on Positioning based on some of the assumptions made by marketers. To explain that , lets go back to the definition... Positioning is the process of creating an image in the mind of the consumer.. It is important to own a position in the mind of consumers that provides differentiation for the brand.
It is at this stage marketers make a big mistake. Marketers tend to look only at the consumers side to come up with their positioning statement so as to appeal to them. But the primal mistake is to not realize the company's fabric.What is the company all about? Its values systems, employee opinions etc. Why is this important? Marketer cannot afford to create an image about the company in certain direction and have values, employees opinions in the opposite direction. This mismatch will eventually show up in day-day interaction for the consumers and will eventually lead to dissonance between the image created and the service delivered. For ex: Lets say the marketers have positioned its product as a sophisticated brand keeping in mind the target audience's opinions and needs. On the other hand the employees who act as touch points with consumers are conservative middle class people. Their opinions based on their background will dominate and will show during customer interactions. To avoid this embarrassing situation, its important to take it in account not just the consumers side by the company's basic fabric before finalizing the positioning.
Be what you are in front of a customer is far more easier that the desire to be somebody which you are actually not...
Keep it simple..
1 comment:
Good one, Rajesh. Indeed "integrated marketing communication" needs to cover every touchpoint - not enough having great service inside the store but an untrained security guard/ parking attendant...Such kind of attention to detail is rare, though.
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