Page 299 - Marketing Management

276 PART 4 BUILDING STRONG BRANDS

Positioning is the act of designing a company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place
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in the minds of the target market. The goal is to locate the brand in the minds of consumers
to maximize the potential benefit to the firm. A good brand positioning helps guide marketing
strategy by clarifying the brand’s essence, identifying the goals it helps the consumer achieve, and
showing how it does so in a unique way. Everyone in the organization should understand the brand
positioning and use it as context for making decisions.

Entertainment Weekly When publisher Scott Donaton took over
Entertainment Weekly, he repositioned the magazine away from celebrity lifestyles to focus
more directly on entertainment itself and what actually appeared on the screen, page, or
CD. This updated positioning became a filter that guided the content and marketing of the
magazine: “Every event, sales program, marketing initiative gets poured through that
filter—the goal being to keep and enhance the things that are true to who you are; kill the
things that aren’t, necessarily; and create great new things that are even better expres-
sions of who you are.” Out was the glitzy annual Oscar party at Elaine’s restaurant in
New York City; in its place was a week-long Academy Awards program at ArcLight
Theater in Hollywood showcasing all the best-pictures nominees and featuring a panel
discussion with nominated screenwriters. 3

A good positioning has a “foot in the present” and a “foot in the future.” It needs
to be somewhat aspirational so the brand has room to grow and improve.
Positioning on the basis of the current state of the market is not forward-looking
enough, but, at the same time, the positioning cannot be so removed from reality
that it is essentially unobtainable. The real trick in positioning is to strike just the
right balance between what the brand is and what it could be.
The result of positioning is the successful creation of a customer-focused
value proposition, a cogent reason why the target market should buy the product.
Table 10.1 shows how three companies—Perdue, Volvo, and Domino’s—have
defined their value proposition through the years given their target customers,
benefits, and prices. 4
Positioning requires that marketers define and communicate similarities and
differences between their brand and its competitors. Specifically, deciding on a
positioning requires: (1) determining a frame of reference by identifying the
target market and relevant competition, (2) identifying the optimal points of
parity and points of difference brand associations given that frame of reference,
and (3) creating a brand mantra to summarize the positioning and essence of
the brand.
Entertainment Weekly uses its
updated brand positioning to guide Determining a Competitive Frame of Reference
everything it does.
The competitive frame of reference defines which other brands a brand competes with and there-
fore which brands should be the focus of competitive analysis. Decisions about the competitive

TABLE 10.1 Examples of Value Propositions

Company and Product Target Customers Key Benefits Price Value Proposition
Perdue (chicken) Quality-conscious consumers Tenderness 10% premium More tender golden chicken at a
of chicken moderate premium price
Volvo (station wagon) Safety-conscious upscale Durability and safety 20% premium The safest, most durable wagon in
families which your family can ride
Domino’s (pizza) Convenience-minded pizza Delivery speed and 15% premium A good hot pizza, delivered promptly
lovers good quality to your door, at a moderate price