2007 Thomson South-Western

Marcom Positioning

Chapter Five

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Chapter Five Objectives

• Introduce the concept and practice of brand positioning

• Explain that positioning involves the creation of meaning and that meaning is a constructive process involving the use of signs and symbols

• Give details about how brand marketers position their brands by drawing meaning from the culturally constructed world.

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Chapter Five Objectives

• Describe how brands are positioned in terms of various types of benefits and attributes.

• Explicate two perspectives that characterize how consumers process information and describe the relevance of each perspective for brand positioning.

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Positioning In Theory: Creating Meaning

• A brand’s positioning represents the key feature, benefit, or image that it stands for in the target audience’s collective mind.

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Positioning Statement

A positioning statement for a brand is the central idea that encapsulates a brand’s meaning and distinctiveness compared to other brands.

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Semiotics

“The study of signs and the analysis of meaning-producing events.”

Meaning is a constructive process that is determined as much by the communicators as by the receivers

of the message.

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The Meaning of Meaning

Meaning

The perceptions (thoughts) and affective

reactions (feelings) to stimuli evoked within

a person when presented with a sign in a

particular context

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The Meaning of Meaning

Perceptual Field

The sum total of a person’s experiences

during his or her lifetime.

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Meaning Transfer: From Culture to Object to Consumer

Through socialization, people learn cultural values, form beliefs, and become familiar with the physical

manifestations, or artifacts, of these values and beliefs.

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Positioning in Practice: The Nuts and Bolts

• Brand positioning is essential to a successful Marcom program.

• A good positioning statement should: – Reflect a brand’s competitive advantage – Motivate customers to action

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Outcomes of Proposed Positioning

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Benefit Positioning

Positioning with respect to brand benefits can be

accomplished by appealing to any of three categories of

needs.

Experiential NeedsSymbolic NeedsFunctional Needs

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An Appeal to Symbolic Needs

Products that potentially

fulfill a consumer’s

desire for self-enhancement, group

membership, affiliation, altruism,

and belongingness

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Attribute Positioning

A brand can be positioned in terms of a particular attribute or feature, provided that the attribute represents a competitive advantage and can motivate customers to purchase that brand rather than a competitive offering.

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Non-Product Related: Usage and User Imagery

• Brands can also be positioned in terms of their unique usage symbolism or with respect to the people who use them.

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Examples of Repositioning a Brand

“Flame-Broiled”

Vs. “Fire-Grilled” “Oil of Olay”

to Olay

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Implementing Positioning

• Consumer Processing Model (CPM): information and choice are seen as a rational, cognitive, systematic and reasoned process.

• Hedonic, Experiential Model (HEM): views consumers’ processing of marcom messages and behavior as driven by emotions in pursuit of fun, fantasies and feeling.

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The Consumer Processing Model (CPM)

CPMCPMCPMCPM

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Perceptual Encoding

1. Feature analysis:

Initial stage whereby a

receiver examines the

basic features of a

stimulus

2. Active synthesis:

Beyond examining physical features, the

context or situation plays a major role in

what meaning is acquired

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Miscomprehension

1. Messages themselves are sometimes misleading or unclear.

2. Consumers are biased by their own preconceptions and thus “see” what they choose to see

3. Processing of advertisements often takes place under time pressures and noisy circumstances.

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Elements of Memory

Memory

Memory involves the related issues of what

consumers remember about marketing

stimuli and how they access and retrieve

information when making consumption

choices

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Elements of Memory• Sensory stores(SS):

– Information is rapidly lost unless attention is allocated to the stimulus

• Short-Term Memory(STM):– Limited processing capacity– Information not thought about or rehearsed will be

lost in 30 seconds or less

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Elements of Memory• Long-Term Memory (LTM):

– A virtual storehouse of unlimited information– Information is organized into coherent and

associated cognitive units called schemata, memory organization packets, or knowledge structures

– The marketer’s job is to provide positively valued information that consumers will store in LTM

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Two Types of Learning

Strengthening of linkages among specific memory concepts

– repeating claims, presenting them in a more concrete fashion and being creative in conveying a product’s features

• Establishing entirely new linkages

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• Information that is learned and stored in memory only impacts consumer choice behavior when it is searched and retrieved

• Retrieval is facilitated when new information is linked with another concept that is well known and easily accessed

• Dual-Coding Theory: Pictures are represented in memory in verbal as well as visual form, whereas words are less likely to have visual representations.

Search and Retrieval of Information

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A CPM Wrap-Up

• The rational consumer processing model (CPM) and the hedonic, experiential model (HEM) are not mutually exclusive.

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The HEM perspective

• People often consume products for the fun of it or in the pursuit of amusement, fantasies, or sensory simulation

• Products are subjective symbols that precipitate feelings and promise fun and the possible realization of fantasies

• The communication of HEM-relevant products emphasizes nonverbal content or emotionally provocative words and is intended to generate images, fantasies, and positive emotions and feelings