Positioning Strategies

Market position refers to the process of establishing the image or identity of a brand so that customers perceive it a certain way. The brand positioning is a process of creating its own image, distinctive properties, positive associations and values in consumers’ mind in order to create a sustainable trademark image and ensure consumers’ attachment to this trademark.

Positioning is the development of the image of a product directly against to the competitor products and other products produced by the company's own. The purpose is management's attention by the recipient to a certain product and to differ that product in favor of the company, compared with similar products.

The purpose of a positioning strategy is that it allows a company to spotlight specific areas where they can outshine and beat their competition.

This is created through the use of the 4 Ps: promotion, price, place and product. The best way to do this is through a positioning strategy. Carefully considered positions provide development directions for the new products, market expansion, communication, pricing, selection of distribution channels.
Positioning Strategies

Brand awareness can influence consumer’s confidence in the purchase decision

Brand means a combination of identification and differentiation that draw strong attention to the product for consumers. The brand brings value to consumers and companies. The customers can become the loyal to the brand due to its uniqueness, its taste, feel easy by using that particular brand and they also have enough knowledge about that brand and feel confident while make a purchase.

In consumers’ point of view, companies try to satisfy their consumers by providing consumers’ desire list of values, where value means benefit. On the other hand, when consumers are satisfied by getting values from companies as well as brands, consumers may provide value to companies and show dependence about their brands.

Brand awareness is the first and prerequisite dimension of the entire brand knowledge system in consumers’ minds, reflecting their ability to identify the brand under different conditions: the likelihood that a brand name will come to mind and the ease with which it does so.

Brand awareness creates a great association in memory about a particular brand. Creating a strong brand image in the consumer’s mind depends on create an optimistic brand assessment, reachable brand approach, and a reliable brand representation. The importance of brand awareness in the mind of the customers can be evaluate at various stages e.g. recognition, recall, top of mind, brand dominance, brand knowledge.

It is now widely acknowledged by companies that strong brand awareness will create a competitive advantage in the marketplace that will enhance their overall reputation and credibility.

Brand awareness can also influence consumers’ perceived risk assessment and their confidence in the purchase decision, due to familiarity with the brand and its characteristics.

The brand awareness is changing the way modern marketing environment focus on comprehensive knowledge about brands. Indeed, currently brand and branding has become a major marketing priority for most of the companies.

Brand awareness can influence consumer’s confidence in the purchase decision

Brand knowledge

Brand means a combination of identification and differentiation that draw strong attention to the product for consumers. The brand brings value to consumers and companies.

Brand knowledge is defined by descriptive and evaluative brand-related information that it is individualistic inference about a brand stored in consumer memory.

It comprises brand related notions, brand awareness, and brand image that correlating diverse information such as awareness, attributes, benefits, images, thoughts, feelings, attitudes and experiences to a brand constitutes brand knowledge and directly affect consumer responses.

Brand helps to differentiate products or services from the others and “embodies every undertaking of the company and represents it to the world as a hologram, plays a part in the formation of relationships, and expresses and contributes group affiliation’. Brands are markers of offerings for companies, and a sign of quality, and an indicator of risk or trust for consumers.

Knowledge is an outcome of apprehension and information within a particular context. Experts described knowledge as “….the whole body of cognitions and skills that individuals use in order to solve problems….”. Knowledge, which enables an individual or organization to appraise and aggregate new ideas and information, is more than a collection of experiences and values.

Brand awareness and brand image are two components of brand knowledge, which are the consumer sides of the brand, therefore they could be controlled by the company so that all over the world international brands present the same image of fashion supported by franchising chains and marketing communication activities.

Brand awareness is “reflected by consumers’ ability to identify the brand under different conditions. In branding literature, the concept of awareness has been widely utilized as a component of brand knowledge.

Brand knowledge

What is brand awareness?

According to studies, the consumer buying behaviour depends on which intentions, attitudes, preferences, effort to commitment, and way of identifying the consumers have. There must be a consideration of brand while making a decision to purchase a product or service, if there is nothing to be considered the probability is that there is nothing to be chosen.

An important dimension of brand equity is brand awareness, very often an undervalued component. Not only that awareness is almost a prerequisite for a brand to be included in the consideration set (the brands that receive consideration for purchase), but it also influences perceptions and attitudes, and can be a driver for brand loyalty.

Brand awareness is the lowest level of brand recall. This is where the brand recall continuum begins, extending from simple brand recognition to having complex cognitive structures constructed on the basis of detailed information concerning the brand. Brand awareness is the probability that consumers recognize the existence and availability of a company’s product or services, creating this awareness by a company are one of the key steps to promote the company’s goods and services.

When making subsequent purchases the consumer focuses on the product’s practical attributes, such as quality, functionality, taste or fragrance.

Brand awareness has a stronger impact on the subsequent purchasing choices, if the product once tried out fulfilled the consumer’s expectations.

Brand awareness can be depicted into brand recognition (consumers’ ability to confirm prior exposure to the brand when given the brand as cue)and brand recall (consumers’ ability to retrieve the brand when given the product category, the needs fulfilled by the category, or some other cues).
What is brand awareness?

Brand image

American Marketing Association (AMA) defined a brand as "a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors". Brand image is the perception of the brand held by the market – what is thought and felt about the brand real and imagined.

The product brand may be linked to the corporate brand as it is for many companies such as Coca-Cola, Virgin, IBM, Cadbury, MacDonald, Microsoft, and Marks and Spencer.

Brand image plays an important role in the development of a brand because the brand image associated with the reputation and credibility of the brand which later become the ‘guideline’ for the consumer audience to try and use a product or service then creating a particular experience that will determine whether the consumer will be into brand loyalist, or simply an opportunist.

European countries such as Italy, Spain, and France dictate the fashion trends of the European footwear market thus creating specific shoe brand image for consumers. It is the key of how consumers maketheir choices after gathering information about the particular brand and the alternatives. The main buyers in the European footwear market are the teens, young people and young professionals/graduates both men and women.
Brand image

Brand equity

It is a concept born in the 1980s, has aroused intense interest among marketing managers and business strategies from a wide variety of industries.

Brand equity is a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm’s customers.

For assets or liabilities to underlie brand equity they just be linked to the name and/or symbol of the brand.

Brand equity describes the way that the differential attributes of a brand give increased value to a firm’s balance sheet. It has been argued that brand equity can be nurtured over time.

If a consumer has high degree do association with the brand it leads to high level of brand equity. Highly trusted brands like Samsung, LG, Tata, enjoy high degree of brand association.
Brand equity

Brand positioning

Positioning may be defined as the act of placing the product in the mind of the prospect. Brand positioning refers as the act of designing the branding element resides in the mind of the consumer.

It is the point where the relationship between a brand and consumers become apparent. Positioning is competition-oriented: it specifies the best way to attack competitor’s market share. Brand positioning involves the placement of a brand and all its associations (including characteristics, attributes, personality, and image) in a distinct in the mind of the consumer.

Brand positioning is based on one fundamental principle: all choices are comparative. Positioning is competitive when it comes to brands, consumers make a choice, but with products they make comparisons.

The importance of string brand positioning cannot be underestimated, An organization’s brand positioning is the major way in which it can gain a competitive advantage over rivals and detract criticism, and a definitive identify can provide internal benefits such as the ability to attract quality personnel and breed employee motivation.

A successful positioning requires a strong positive perception from the consumers. For this to happen, the brands positioning should be unique in a way that is different from others.
Brand positioning

Market positioning

Positioning involves figuring out what meaningful and available niche in the market. It is refer to the development of the marketing mix to yield a distinctive appeal to the target segment.

Different from brand positioning which emphasizes the connection between a brand and the consumer’s mind and emotions, market positioning refers to the competitive position of a company in terms of size and market share.

It is how the consumer views or perceives the product in relation to other similar products.

There are three steps for positioning strategy:
*Identifying a set possible competitive advantages which to build a position
*Selecting the right competitive advantages
*Effectively communicating and levering the chosen position carefully

Market positioning based on price, product differentiation and service position, is central the competitive strategy.
Market positioning

Definition of Brands

Brands can be defined as identifiable product, service, person or place augmented in such way that the buyer or user perceives relevant unique added values which match their needs most closely.

The essence in creating brand is to choose a name, logo, symbol, package design or other characteristics that gives a product its own identity and distinguishes it from others.

Brands act as efficient differentiating devices. Brands differ from their core commodity form because they have ‘added values’.

Customer equity is the preamble of financial equity. Brands have financial value because they have created assets in the minds and hearts of customers, distributors, prescribers, opinion leaders.

These assets are brand awareness beliefs of exclusively and superiority of some valued benefit and emotional bonding.

A good name helps; that is, one that is easily pronounceable around the world and spontaneously evokes desirable associations. But what really makes a name become a brand is the fact that this name commands trust, respect, passion and even engagement.

Brands are particularly common in product sectors with Interbrand in 2013 recoding Apple as the most valuable global product at $98.3 bn. While Google in 2013 was the second most value global brand, valued at $93.2 bn.
Definition of Brands

Global brand of Nescafe

Nestle is very clearly emphasizing a corporate name much more than historically. It is trying to retain its decentralized culture and yet do so in a way that permits it to rationalize its brand portfolio without losing equity and sales at the local level.

One of the most well known brands is Nescafe. Nescafe was named one of the top global brands. Like many brand innovators.

Nescafe was a result of intensive research – seven years of research to be precise, taking place in Swiss laboratories in the 1930s.

Nescafe has had to work hard at maintaining its position with successful advertising aimed at specific markets.

Nestle have apparently consolidated the position of Nescafe over the years, through careful attention to its physical attributes and by enriching the brand with strong, non-functional values which add up to its reputation and image.

Innovation and advertising are the two pillars of the long-lasting success of this brand. This incremental process never ends. Nescafe coffees are available to suit all tastes and in a wide range of packaging.
Global brand of Nescafe

Benefits of brands

Brands benefits producers, distributers and consumers. Brands such as Polo, Kit Kat and Quality Street has been nurture to generate healthy long term cash flow.

A brand is grounded in its fundamental elements – name, trademark, trade dress, taglines, slogans and so on and is the rightful property of the organization or person who own it.

Well known brands generally are priced at a premium, resulting in higher margins to the companies that sell them.

Strong brands create value for their shareholders by yielding higher returns than the overall market.

A powerful brands has a strong reputation in consumers’ minds, which acts as a barrier, protecting the brand against competitors.

Brand producers benefit from brands because they provide legal protection against imitators. A brand, properly registered and trademark, has a legal defense against another organization copying or infringing on its name, design, trade dress or other identifying elements.

Consumers value brands because they make personality statements about themselves. For conspicuous branded goods, for example cars and clothing, consumers value brands because they help project either an actual or an inspirational aspect of their personality.

A strong retail brand can make consumers life easier. It offers the consumer trust and reassures customers that they will get what they are looking for.
Benefits of brands