1. CHAPTER 5
Positioning
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2. Chapter Objectives After 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.
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5–2

3. Introduction: Brand 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
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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
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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
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6. The Thumbs-Up Sign Figure 5.1
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7. The Meaning of Meaning Meanings Perceptual Fields
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
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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
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9. V8 Advertisements Illustrating Contextual Meaning
Figure 5.2
V8 Advertisements Illustrating Contextual Meaning
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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
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11. Outcomes of Proposed Positioning
Figure 5.3
Outcomes of Proposed Positioning
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12. Proposed Positioning Outcomes
Promote Competitors
Position does not reflect competitive advantage
Position represents important reason for brand selection decisions
Any effort would serve other brand selection decisions in same category
Winner
Positioned on a product feature or benefit that has an advantage over competitors
Positioning gives consumers a persuasive reason for trying the brand
Loser
Brand possesses no competitive advantage
Positioning basis does not motivate consumers to want the brand
SUTR
Position represents a competitive advantage for a trivial product feature or benefit
Position does not give compelling reasons to want the brand
Any effort will be hard work with little progress
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13. A Framework for Brand Positioning
Figure 5.4
A Framework for Brand Positioning
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14. Appealing to Consumer Needs
Benefit Positioning
Functional Needs
Symbolic Needs
Experiential Needs
Appealing to Consumer Needs
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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
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16. Croc Advertisement Illustrating Appeal to Functional Needs
Figure 5.5
Croc Advertisement Illustrating Appeal to Functional Needs
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17. Dove Advertisement Illustrating Appeal to Experiential Needs
Figure 5.6
Dove Advertisement Illustrating Appeal to Experiential Needs
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18. Attribute Positioning
Product-Related
Non-Product Related: Usage and User Imagery
Attribute Positioning
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19. Figure 5.8
Ralph Lauren Advertisement Illustrating Positioning Based on User Imagery
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20. Figure 5.7
Highlander Advertisement Illustrating Product-Related Attribute Positioning
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21. Repositioning a Brand Why Reposition a Brand? Increase competitiveness
Refresh brand image
Extend product life cycle
Enter new market segments
Why Reposition a Brand?
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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
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23. Comparison of the CPM and HEM Models
Figure 5.9
Comparison of the CPM and HEM Models
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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
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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
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26. Humorous Illustration of Selective Perception
Figure 5.10
Humorous Illustration of Selective Perception
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27. Miscomprehension Reasons for Miscomprehension
Misleading or Unclear Messages
Biased Preconceptions
Time Pressures and Noise
Reasons for Miscomprehension
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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.
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29. Short-Term Memory (STM) Long-Term Memory (LTM)
Elements of Memory
Sensory Receptors
Sensory Stores (SS)
The marketer’s job is to provide positively valued information that consumers will store in LTM
Short-Term Memory (STM)
Long-Term Memory (LTM)
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30. Consumer’s Knowledge Structure for the Volkswagen Beetle
Figure 5.11
Consumer’s Knowledge Structure for the Volkswagen Beetle
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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
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32. Figure 5.12
Illustration of an Effort to Strengthen a Linkage between a Brand and Its Benefits
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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
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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
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35. Illustration of an HEM-Oriented Advertisement
Figure 5.13
Illustration of an HEM-Oriented Advertisement
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