Brands have over the years succeeded and also failed. The major factor that affects a particular set of "BRAND" these days is its positioning. Now in my opinion every product is characterised by some set of features, firms have adopted various techniques to position these products in a manner such that over the period the product gets converted into a brand.
What differentiates one brand from the other at the time of introduction is not the brand in itself but how it is positioned in the minds of the consumers. The simple the product, harder it is to position it, differently. Consumers look forward to have various advantages out of a product that companies try to bring into their brands but many times fail to do so. Leading consultancy firms and advertisers are minting money for creating differences for various brands.
Here is one of the very circulated images of competing airlines trying to position themselves better than others. The question is, "did it work?"
It is interesting to analyse failures of many brands due to wrong positioning through consumers. But at the same time it becomes hard to find consumers who would have had used such a brand and even if they have not used atleast should have heard of it. The issue is that consumers have a bad memory when it comes to brands that keep shifting shelves unless otherwise they are loyalists to that brand. On the contrary it is hard to find loyalists for such brands that we refer to as failures.
Sticking to the topic that I actually started off with. Now when I talk of positioning it is not restricted to the promotional part but goes beyond it. Many companies spend a big buck on positioning their products as differentiated brands as compared to competing brands. The brands that succeed in getting attention last longer in the minds of consumers and thus can be claimed to be strong brands, many firms cannot or for certain reasons fail to create one, thus end up making a weaker brand viz-a-viz competition.
The other issue that arises is that, to what extent can a firm be blamed or appreciated for its positioning. And what factors should be taken into consideration in terms of positioning, is it bound to the 4 P's or goes beyond. Take the instance of a product like a laptop. Companies have flooded the Indian markets with products ranging from prices as low as Rs.20,000 to prices that reach Rs.300,000. And competition has paved way for the pricing wars. But to add to the note, there are certain brand associations that consumers make to the firms that market those products. This is not necessarily true for products like a laptop atleast till the time you are around people carrying one. As for me, laptops are discussed among students in the college particularly when they are close to buy a piece or a distributor is around with presentations. But then there are a lot factors that anyone takes into consideration at the time of pre purchase decision. What influences this is the image the customers have for the brand of laptop, its configuration, the hardware and some additional features, when analysed its all in the mind of the customer and to a certain extent reflects the way a particular firm did position its laptop.
There are consumers who for various reasons do not value the brand as it is projected along with the company, instead go by the monetary benefits the brand gives them. For the rest it is the value they get from the company at a certain price they pay to acquire a particular brand. And they also count the non product features that come along it.
Positioning is a vast topic and cannot be claimed to be discussed in a short duration with a simple example. Take a look at what firms have done and to the extent they have gone in making their products strong brands, take Indica by the Tatas, Vaio or Cybershot by Sony, Swift by Maruti Suzuki, Razr by Motorola and the list goes on.
Again I would like to bring in the definition of positioning given in marketing management by Kotler & Armstrong, "Arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive, and desirable place relative to competing products in minds of target consumers". Well if we try to see all products in that view, it can be easily realized that brands cannot survive without effective positioning and if they could had then there was no need for companies like Harley Davidson, P&G, Unilever, Ford etc. to keep their products alive and happening.
If carefully noticed a lot of what companies do as part of positioning is reflected in the post purchase evaluation of a consumer and what will grow or kill a brand is the difference in the clear, distinctive, and desirable place relative to competing products pre and post purchase.
Well that's what positioning is all about!
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