Marcom Positioning

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.
 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.
 Positioning In Theory: Creating
Meaning
A brands positioning represents the
key feature, benefit, or image that it
stands for in the target audiences
collective mind.
 Positioning Statement

A positioning statement for a brand

is the central idea that
encapsulates a brands meaning
and distinctiveness compared to
other brands.
 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.
Signs are stimuli that are used to evoke an
intended meaning in another person
Meanings are internal responses people hold for
external stimuli
The Use of Signs and Symbols
in Marketing

Sign
Something physical and
perceivable that signifies
something to somebody in
some context.
An example of a sign is the
thumbs-up gesture, which
has vastly different cultural
connotations.
 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
 The Meaning of Meaning

Perceptual Field

The sum total of a persons experiences

during his or her lifetime.
 The Meaning of Meaning

Communication is effective when signs are

common to both the senders and the receivers
fields of experience

The larger the overlap in their perceptual fields,

the greater the likelihood that signs will be
decoded by the receiver in the manner intended
by the sender
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.
Meaning Transfer: From Culture to
Object to Consumer

The consumer approaches all

advertisements as texts to be
interpreted.
Advertisements
Illustrating
Contextual
Meaning
The consumer
infers that this
product will
help him or
her get
in shape and
maintain a
healthy
regimen.
 Positioning in Practice: The Nuts
and Bolts
Brand positioning is essential to a
successful Marcom program.
A good positioning statement should:
Reflect a brands competitive advantage
Motivate customers to action
Outcomes of Proposed Positioning
 Loser

Characterizes a proposed positioning

where the brand possesses no
competitive advantage and the basis for
the positioning is not enough to motivate
consumers to want the brand.
 Swimming Up
the River
(SUTR)

A proposed positioning represents a competitive

advantage for a trivial product feature or benefit,
and does not give the consumer compelling
reasons to want the brand.
Any effort will be hard work with little progress
 Promote
Competitors

Does not reflect a competitive advantage but

does represent an important reason for making
brand selection decisions in the product
category.
Any effort would basically serve other brand
selection decisions in the same category.
 Winner

Brand is positioned on a product feature

or benefit for which the product has an
advantage over competitors and which
gives consumers a persuasive reason for
trying the brand.
Consumer-Based Brand Equity Framework
Advertisement
Illustrating Both
Product and
Non-Product
Features
 Benefit Positioning
Positioning with
respect to brand
benefits can be
accomplished by
appealing to any of
three categories of
needs.

Functional Needs Symbolic Needs Experiential Needs

An Appeal to
Functional
Needs
Products that
attempt
to fulfill the
consumers
consumption-
related
problems
An Appeal to Symbolic Needs

Products that potentially

fulfill a consumers
desire for self-enhancement, group
membership, affiliation, altruism,
and belongingness
Positioning
Based on
Symbolic
Needs
 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.
An Example
of
Product-
Related
Positioning
 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.
Positioning
Via Attributes:
Non- Product-
Related
Usage Imagery
Examples of Repositioning a Brand

Flame-
Broiled
Vs.
Fire-
Grilled Oil of Olay
to
Olay
 Implementing Positioning
Consumer Processing Hedonic, Experiential
Model (CPM): Model (HEM): views
information and consumers
choice are seen as a processing of marcom
rational, cognitive, messages and
systematic and behavior as driven by
reasoned process. emotions in pursuit of
fun, fantasies and
feeling.
Comparison of the CPM and HEM
Models
CPM The Consumer Processing Model
(CPM)
 Stage 1: Consumer Information
Processing
Exposure to information

Consumers come in contact with the marketers

message
Gaining exposure is a necessary but insufficient
for communication success
The truth effect: repeated exposure to a
message increases the likelihood that the
receiver will believe it to be true.
A function of key managerial decisions regarding
the size of the budget and the choice of media
and vehicles
CPM The 8 Stages of Consumer
Information Processing
 Stage 2: Paying Attention

Focus on and consider a message to

which one has been exposed
Highly selective
 Stage 2: Paying Attention

To attract consumers attention and

avoid selectivity:

Create messages that truly appeal to

their needs for product-relevant
information
 Stage 2:
Paying
Attention

Illustration of an
ad likely to
encounter
selective
attention
CPM The 8 Stages of Consumer
Information Processing
 Stage 3: Comprehension

Understand and create meaning out of

stimuli and symbols
Interpreting stimuli involves perceptual
encoding
 Perceptual Encoding

1. Feature analysis: 2. Active synthesis:

Initial stage whereby a Beyond examining

receiver examines the physical features, the
basic features of a context or situation
plays a major role in
stimulus what meaning is
acquired
Selective Perception:
Each individual is
likely to perceive
images in different
ways
 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.
CPM The 8 Stages of Consumer
Information Processing
 Stage 4: Agreement

Comprehension by itself does not ensure

that the message influences consumers
behavior
Agreement depends on
whether the message is credible
whether the information is compatible with the
values that are important to the consumer.
CPM The 8 Stages of Consumer
Information Processing
CPM The 8 Stages of Consumer
Information Processing
Retention and Search/Retrieval of Stored
Information
These two information processing stages,
retention and information search and
retrieval, both involve memory factors
related to consumer choice
 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
 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
 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 marketers job is to provide positively valued
information that consumers will store in LTM
A Consumers Knowledge Structure
for the VW Beetle
 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 products
features
Establishing entirely new linkages
An Effort to
Strengthen a
Brand Linkage
Using a
Concrete
Illustration
Search and Retrieval of Information
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.
CPM The 8 Stages of Consumer
Information Processing
The 8 Stages of Consumer
Information Processing
 A CPM Wrap-Up
The rational consumer processing model
(CPM) and the hedonic, experiential
model (HEM) are not mutually exclusive.
 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
 CPM vs.
HEM

An advertisement
exemplifying
the HEM approach
 Assignment
List you favorite brands and discuss how
these brands are positioned