THE PROCESS
2. Specific positioning
Good segmentation (see Chapter 10) will give you a deep understanding of your customer’s needs, atti- tudes and behaviours. Matching these with your own capabilities (see Chapter 5) will help you select the specific benefits that make up your offer. This will be your specific positioning – the value given to the customer, the representation of your leading
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‘Assaulting’ or
‘enveloping’ the customer?
A sign of the brand’s maturity and emotional charge
capabilities, and your basis for competitive advantage.
To some degree the number of benefits identified will depend on the number of segments that the brand is targeting. In general, the greater the number of benefits argued the more diffused the brand definition becomes. While this might allow the brand to work across many segments it will also tend to leave it open to competition that might take a more single-minded approach.
Aquafresh
Some brands focus on just one benefit, so maximizing their impact and their credibility. Others manage a range of benefits.
The Aquafresh brand of toothpaste selects three – protection, whiteness and fresh breath. The red white and blue bands in the toothpaste help it to communicate these benefits even at the point of use – a valuable customer interaction.
Potential sources for specific positioning
Each of the definitions of a brand discussed in Part I can provide the basis for a specific brand positioning:
• the emotional charge of the brand, whether that rests in authenticity, performance, satisfaction in use or social expression;
• the personalityof the brand, whether it is male or female, young or old, cool or dynamic, hip or hop;
• the level of loyaltyto be expected, whether it will be promiscuous, passive or passionate;
• the unique match forged between the company capabilities and the needs of the customer – a
Colour-coded benefits
particularly fruitful area for the B2B and service brand, and closely related to the last of these sources;
• the evidence of appropriate performance – matching the value drivers.
Value drivers – in the eye of the beholder
In a B2B or service industry it may be useful to look again at a model already used in establishing the brand’s broad positioning – Treacy and Weirsema’s value drivers. This time it will be viewed from the customer’s perspective – what is their leading driver and so what type of brand response is required? In effect, we are using this model to find a match between the supplier’s strategy and the customer’s strategy.
If the customer is driven by operational excellence then issues such as consistency and reliability, cost reduction, process re-engineering and the like will come to the fore. If they are driven by product lead- ershipthen they might be looking for innovation, the ability to help with and speed new product devel- opment, and an entrepreneurial attitude to risk. The customers led by intimacywith their own customers may seek suppliers that will help them achieve the flexibility required of such an approach.
It will be seen that the lead drivers of supplier and customer do not have to be the same; indeed a customer driven by operational excellence might be best served working with a supplier driven by product leadership, if that product leadership was in areas that would help increase the customer’s own efficiencies. Similarly, a customer driven by product leadership might seek out a supplier with an abun- dance of customer intimacy in order to gain the necessary responsiveness and flexibility.
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Matching the customer’s value drivers – a fertile source of positioning ideas for the B2B brand
Narrowing the benefits field…
As the specific positioning emerges from these sources it can be fine-tuned by looking for particular benefits in the following sources:
• Particular attributes– specific claims about the brand, such as the Australian fruit juice Berri that makes much of the fact that it is ‘100%
Australian owned’. This might also include claims to a particular heritage – the oldest brand, the most traditional brand, the brand still using the original methods (an approach beloved of malt whiskies).
Of course, such attributes are essentially features of the product and as such could be thought of as rather weak, but features can be turned into benefits provided they can be linked to a distinct customer need – does the malt whisky drinker feel better for thinking his dram is ‘traditional’ rather than modern?
• Specific user benefits– the safety of a Volvo, the ease of a Flymo, the versatility of a Black &
Decker Workmate.
• Focus on specific users – the AppleMac for graphic designers, Peoplesoft for HR managers, the Xai brand of football boots – it makes no other sports footwear, so marking itself out as a specialist, not a fashion icon (though of course it hopes to become just that among footballers).
• Benefits of heritage – the Hovis brand reassures us with ‘it’s as good for you today as it’s always been’.
• Reference to the competition– Avis ‘tries harder’, Duracell ‘lasts longer’, the Pepsi taste challenge.
• Status in the category– Kodak isfilm, Xerox is copiers, or the AA as the ‘fourth emergency service’.
An interesting twist on this is the ‘No FT, no comment’ campaign, a clear statement of the news- paper’s status in the category, but also a clever reference to a common feeling of guilt among its target audience – another kind of emotional charge.
Perceptual mapping – occupying a space in the customer’s mind
A valuable tool in identifying the brand’s specific positioning is the perceptual map. An example is shown at Figure 11.2.
Such maps seek to position the brand by using two (or more) factors considered to be important in the purchasing process. As the tool’s name suggests, it is the customer’s real perceptions that count, not your own beliefs or assertions. Using this tool calls for a high degree of honesty and detachment on the brand manager’s part. The tool can be used in a number of ways.
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A simple perceptual map for brands of motor car Mercedes
Porsche Jaguar
VW
BMW
performance
price
Rover Ford Lada
Figure 11.2 A perceptual map for brands of motor car
Firstly, through research, to understand where target customers place your proposition in their mind, and relative to other offers, and to compare that with your intended proposition and positioning.
A second use might be to plot the competition against various mixes of factors and to look for any
‘gaps’ in the map. Such gaps may be opportunities for you to establish a unique position. BMW was arguably the first manufacturer to position a middle price, mid-sized, high-performance car, exploiting a gap that had stood open between the likes of Ford on the one hand and Porsche or Ferrari on the other.
Ford’s attempts to compete in earnest in this newly identified segment had to wait for its purchase of the Jaguar brand.
A third, and perhaps most significant use in terms of specific positioning, is to assess the wide variety of factors that impact on the purchase decision and to see which particular combinations will allow your brand the most competitive advantage, while being of genuine importance to the customer. If these factors can be effectively communicated to the customer (in essence telling them what they really want), then the brand’s positioning on this basis will have a high chance of succeeding. Such an approach does however require great subtlety. Customers, and particularly professional buyers, have an ever- increasing ability to see where the ‘what you really need’ message is a put-up job to shout your brand’s benefits to your own best advantage. The critical test of any such positioning is that the factors chosen are of genuine importance to the customer. If they don’t care about price then bragging about your supreme value for money is of little help, indeed, more likely to be a turn off.
Taking the customer’s view…
Hunting for gaps…
Finding competitive advantage…