Marketing Strategy and Branding Positioning
I'm starting on a five part series on understanding marketing. The goal is to give brief notes on the various elements used in Marketing. So people who are new to marketing won’t get lost completely. It's not my goal to create an entire course on teaching marketing.
The five part consist of Branding, Customer Centricity, Facilitate Influence, Pricing and Communication Strategies. In the first part of the series, I'm focusing on marketing strategy and branding positioning.
These are the four stages of the customer purchase process. This list was taken from the book “Global Brand Power: Leveraging Branding for Long-Term Growth, Barbara Kahn”.
Living Stage -- Awareness of a need and brands that fill that need.
Planning Stage -- Creation of interest about considered brands.
Shopping Stage -- Desire for the right branded product.
Experiencing Stage -- Purchase and repurchase.
Marketing 101: Building Strong Brands
Seller’s Market -- Production: Focus on Company.
Buyer’s Market -- Marketing: Focus on Customer and Competition.
3 Principles of Marketing
Principle of Customer Value
Principle of Differentiation
Principle of Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning.
4 P’s of Marketing (Marketing Mix)
Product
Place
Promotion
Price
“Experience” within the 4 P’s
Product: build in experiential features
Marriott; Personal luxury, style, edge, pulse
Design: beauty, elegance (Apple)
Place: design, music, fragrance, type of salespeople
Sephora
Victoria’s Secret
Promotion: noteworthy, experiential “brand personality”.
Price
Strategic Marketing
Market-Driven Principles
Know your Markets.
Customers have the final say.
Commit to being first in the markets you serve.
Deliver total quality to guarantee customer satisfaction.
Strategies for Leadership
Segmentation and Targeting
Positioning process
Segmentation -- Identify variables that allow one to segment the market.
Targeting -- Evaluate the attractiveness of each segment and choose a target segment.
Positioning -- Identify positioning concepts for each target segment, select the best, and communicate it.
What is a Market Segment?
Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into distinct subsets, where any subset may conceivably be selected as a marketing target to be reached with a distinct marketing mix.
Segmentation Methods
Characteristics of the Customer (e.g. man vs women, old vs young, Cohort Analysis)
Benefits Sought (e.g. comfort, technology).
Systematic, Product-Related Behaviors. (e.g. purchasing behavior, by channel).
Select a Target Segment
What makes a segment attractive?
Balancing Segment Attractiveness with our Capability.
Continuously monitoring whether the actual buyers match the target segment.
Segment Selection Criteria
Segment Size
Growth of Segment
Value of Segment ($)
Stability
Current Company position within segment
Ease of entry into segment
Ease of competitive entry into segment
Number and strength of competitors
Brand Positioning
What is a Brand?
Formally… A proprietary trademark for a specific product of service.
Conceptually.. A “contract” from the company to its customers; A promise of specific benefits, quality, and value. A relationship.
“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is - it is what consumers tell each other it is.” -- Scott D. Cook Founder and chairman of the Executive Committee - Intuit Board of Directors - P&G
“It’s not about telling and selling. It’s about bring a relationship mind-set to everything we do.” -- Jim Stegel, CMO - Procter & Gamble
Positioning Statement
Target Segment
Point of Difference
Frame of Reference ( who are the competitors that they are comparing themselves to?)
Positioning
A positioning statement defines the value proposition of product to the target market.
Target Market (for whom).
Point of Difference (Reason to buy).
Points of parity (frame of reference).
Positioning is implemented through all elements of the marketing mix: product, price, promotion, place.
Should focus on a few key benefits (unique selling proposition).
Position must be defensible.
Position requires making choices.
Point of Parity (POP)
Associations that are not unique to the brand; they are shared with other brands.
Category POPs: associations consumer views as necessary to be considered credible
Ex: Grocery stores must have certain products (e.g., milk, eggs) to be truly considered a ‘grocery store’.
Competitive POPs: associations designed to negate competitors’ point of difference
All toothpastes prevent cavities.
Point of Difference (POD)
Strong, favorable, unique brand associations. Similar to the notion of USP (unique selling proposition).
SCA; sustainable competitive advantage (achieve an advantage in the marketplace for a prolonged period of time).
May involve: performance attributes, benefits, imagery associations.
POD Criteria
Are POD desirable to the customer?
Is POD Relevant (ex: consumers didn’t care about clear cola, or “unbreakable chips”).
Is POD Distinctive? (distinctive and superior).
Can you deliver the POD to the customer?
Feasibility (affordable? Possible? E.g., can airlines deliver on-time arrival?)
Communicability (evidence to communicate?)
Sustainability (internal commitment, difficult to attack; must be consistent at any point in time and over time).
Brand Mantra: The Elevator Speech
Mental Map
Portrays brand association and responses for a target market. Shows how it is actually perceived.
Ask consumers “What comes to mind when you think about V8?”
Then brand associations are grouped into categories.
Core Brand Values
Set of abstract concepts or phrases that characterize the five to ten most important dimensions of the mental map of a brand.
Relate to points-of-parity and points-of-difference.
Mental Map --> Core Brand Values --> Brand Mantra
Brand Mantra
An articulation of the “heart and soul” of the brand.
Similar to “brand essence” or “core brand promise”.
Short three to five world phrases that capture the irrefutable essence or spirit of the brand positioning and brand values.
Considerations:
Communicate
Simplify
Inspire
Use internally to guide decisions - what the brand should and should not be associated with.
Brand Mantra Considerations:
Communicate: define the business and boundaries; clarify what is unique about the brand.
Simplify: Memorable, shor, vivid, and crisp.
Inspire: Have higher level meaning from employees and consumers.
Designing the Brand Mantra
The brand function describes the nature of the product or service or the type of experiences or benefits the brand provides.
The descriptive modifier further clarifies its nature.
The emotional modifier provides another qualifier -- how exactly does the brand provide benefits, and in what way?
Experiential Branding
What is an experience?
Experiences are processes that occur as a result of encountering, undergoing or living through situations.
Triggered stimulation to the senses, heart and mind.
They connect the company and brand to the customer’s lifestyle and place individual customer actions and purchase occasions in a broader social context.
Redefining what a brand is
Connecting Experience to the Brand
Experiential Brand Positioning
What does the brand stand for.
Should be a multisensory strategy.
Should be different in some real and valuable way from all competitors.
Experiential Brand value promise
Describes what customers gets in experiential terms
Embrace all channels (experientially).
Experiential Components
Five Senses
Consistent experience across senses; create a sensory experience that extends across channels.
Emotions
Appeal to customers’ inner feelings and emotions; connect mild to strong positive feelings with the brand.
Cognitive
Appeal to the intellect; engage customers creatively, problem solving experiences; use of surprise, intrigue and provocation.
Behave
Affect bodily experiences, lifestyles, enrich customer lives; show them alternative ways of doing things, alternative lifestyles, can be rational, but can be motivational, inspirational and spontaneous.
Social
Create a feeling of community or belonging; the “future ideal” self that consumer wants to relate to; broader social system; culture.
Strong versus Weak Brands
Other characteristics of great brands
Consistency in delivering on their promise
Superior products and processes
Distinctive positioning and customer experience.
Alignment of internal and external commitment to the brand.
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