Chapter 8 Marketing Management
Chapter 8: Differentiation and Brand Positioning
Marketing Management A Strategic Decision-Making Approach
Differentiation is a powerful theme in developing business strategies, as well as in marketing. Consumers or organizational customers choose what they buy for one or two reasons: what they choose is better and what they choose is cheaper. In other case, the choice is, in some way, almost always different from others they could have chosen. Most of the time, differentiation is why people buy. The differences are often physical or perceptual. Brand positioning seeks to create both physical and perceptual differences using all the elements of the marketing mix.
Physical Positioning * Technical orientation * Physical characteristics * Objective measures * Data readily available * Physical brand properties * Large number of dimensions * Represents impact of product specs * Direct R&D implications
Perceptual Positioning * Consumer orientation * Perceptual attributes * Perceptual; measures * Need for marketing research * Perceptual brand positions and positioning intensities * Limited number of dimensions * Represents impact of product specs and communication * R&D implications need to be interpreted
Lavers marketers can use to establish brand positioning. Marketing decision makers seek to endow their brand with various kinds of attributes: * Simple physically based attributes. * Complex physically based attributes. * Essentially abstract attributes. * Price.
Perceptual attributes must be considered in positioning most products.
The Brand Positioning Process * Step 1 : Identify a relevant set of competitive products. * A positioning analysis at the product or brand level can be helpful. * Marketers who omit important substitute products or potential competitors risk being blindsided by unforeseen competition. * Step 2: Identify determinant attributes
Marketing Management A Strategic Decision-Making Approach
Differentiation is a powerful theme in developing business strategies, as well as in marketing. Consumers or organizational customers choose what they buy for one or two reasons: what they choose is better and what they choose is cheaper. In other case, the choice is, in some way, almost always different from others they could have chosen. Most of the time, differentiation is why people buy. The differences are often physical or perceptual. Brand positioning seeks to create both physical and perceptual differences using all the elements of the marketing mix.
Physical Positioning * Technical orientation * Physical characteristics * Objective measures * Data readily available * Physical brand properties * Large number of dimensions * Represents impact of product specs * Direct R&D implications
Perceptual Positioning * Consumer orientation * Perceptual attributes * Perceptual; measures * Need for marketing research * Perceptual brand positions and positioning intensities * Limited number of dimensions * Represents impact of product specs and communication * R&D implications need to be interpreted
Lavers marketers can use to establish brand positioning. Marketing decision makers seek to endow their brand with various kinds of attributes: * Simple physically based attributes. * Complex physically based attributes. * Essentially abstract attributes. * Price.
Perceptual attributes must be considered in positioning most products.
The Brand Positioning Process * Step 1 : Identify a relevant set of competitive products. * A positioning analysis at the product or brand level can be helpful. * Marketers who omit important substitute products or potential competitors risk being blindsided by unforeseen competition. * Step 2: Identify determinant attributes