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288 PART 4 BUILDING STRONG BRANDS
brand’s actual membership. DiGiorno’s frozen pizza has adopted such a positioning
strategy—instead of putting it in the frozen pizza category, the marketers have
positioned it in the delivered pizza category with ads that claim, “It’s Not Delivery,
It’s DiGiorno!”
With this approach, however, it’s important not to be trapped between
categories. Consumers should understand what the brand stands for, and not
just what it’s not. The Konica e-mini M digital camera and MP3 player was mar-
keted as the “four-in-one entertainment solution,” but it suffered from functional
deficiencies in each of its product applications and languished in the marketplace
as a result. 19
The typical approach to positioning is to inform consumers of a brand’s member-
ship before stating its point-of-difference. Presumably, consumers need to know what
a product is and what function it serves before deciding whether it is superior to the
brands against which it competes. For new products, initial advertising often concen-
trates on creating brand awareness, and subsequent advertising attempts to create the
brand image.
DiGiorno has cleverly positioned
COMMUNICATING CATEGORY MEMBERSHIP There are three main ways to convey a
itself as a convenient, tasty alter-
brand’s category membership:
native to home-delivered pizza.
1. Announcing category benefits. To reassure consumers that a brand will deliver on the funda-
mental reason for using a category, marketers frequently use benefits to announce category
membership. Thus, industrial tools might claim to have durability, and antacids might announce
their efficacy. A brownie mix might attain membership in the baked desserts category by claim-
ing the benefit of great taste and support this claim by including high-quality ingredients (per-
formance) or by showing users delighting in its consumption (imagery).
2. Comparing to exemplars. Well-known, noteworthy brands in a category can also help a
brand specify its category membership. When Tommy Hilfiger was an unknown, advertis-
ing announced his membership as a great U.S. designer by associating him with Geoffrey
Beene, Stanley Blacker, Calvin Klein, and Perry Ellis, who were recognized members of
that category.
3. Relying on the product descriptor. The product descriptor that follows the brand name is often a
concise means of conveying category origin. Ford Motor Co. invested more than $1 billion on a
radical new 2004 model called the X-Trainer, which combined the attributes of an SUV, a mini-
van, and a station wagon. To communicate its unique position—and to avoid association with its
Explorer and Country Squire models—the vehicle, eventually called Freestyle, was designated a
“sports wagon.” 20
COMMUNICATING POPs AND PODs One common difficulty in creating a strong,
competitive brand positioning is that many of the attributes or benefits that make up the points-of-
parity and points-of-difference are negatively correlated. For example, it might be difficult to position
a brand as “inexpensive” and at the same time assert that it is “of the highest quality.” ConAgra must
convince consumers that Healthy Choice frozen foods both taste good and are good for you. Consider
these examples of negatively correlated attributes and benefits:
Low price vs. High quality Powerful vs. Safe
Taste vs. Low calories Strong vs. Refined
Nutritious vs. Good tasting Ubiquitous vs. Exclusive
Efficacious vs. Mild Varied vs. Simple
Moreover, individual attributes and benefits often have positive and negative aspects. For exam-
ple, consider a long-lived brand such as La-Z-Boy recliners, Burberry outerwear, or the New York
Times. The brand’s heritage could suggest experience, wisdom, and expertise. On the other hand, it
could also imply being old-fashioned and not up-to-date. 21