Part-4

BUILDING STRONG BRANDS

Chapter-10

CRAFTING THE BRAND POSITIONING

Positioning is the act of designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target market

• The competitive frame of reference defines which other brands a brand competes with

• A starting point is to determine category membership—the products or sets of products with which a brand competes and which function as close substitutes.

• We can examine competition from both an industry and a market point of view. • An industry is a group of firms offering a product or class

of products that are close substitutes for one another. • Using the market approach, we define competitors as

companies that satisfy the same customer need.

Competitive Frame of Reference

Points-of-difference Points-of-Difference are attributes or benefits consumer strongly associate with a brand, positively, and believe they could not find to same extent with a competitive brand. Apple (design)

Points-of-Parity

-Points-of-Parity are association that are not necessarily unique to the brand but may in fact be shared with other brands.

-Category-Travel Agency-Competitive – Miller Lite Beer. “Everything You’ve

Always Wanted in a Beer….and Less”

Points-of-Difference VS Points-of-Parity

Widely Available Prestige

Increasing Availability

Point-of-Difference Criteria

Desirable

Deliverable

Differentiating

Conveying Category Membership

• Announcing category benefits• Comparing to exemplars• Relying on the product descriptor

Communicating POPs and PODs

Competitive advantage is a company’s ability to perform in one or more ways that competitors cannot or will not match.

• Employee Differentiation-SG Airlines, GE

• Channel Differentiation-iPhone for Operators, Nokia for Open Channel

• Image Differentiation-Marlboro’s “macho cowboy”

• Services Differentiation-Zappos, SG Airlines

Differentiation Strategies

Chapter-11

COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS

Competitive Strategies for Market Leaders

• Expanding the Total Market- Leader gain most• New Customers• More Usage- Gillette

• Defending Current Market Share- continuous innovation• Position Defense• Flank Defense• Preemptive Defense-preannouncements• Counteroffensive Defense• Mobile Defense• Contraction Defense

ATTACKER

(2) Flank

(5) Mobile

(1)Position

DEFENDER

(6)Contraction(3)Preemptive

(6)Counteroffensive

Competitive Strategies for Market Leaders

• Increase Current Market Share- buying share is costly• Antitrust actions• Economic Cost• Wrong Marketing Activities• The effect of increased market share on actual perceived quality

Competitive Strategies for Market Challengers

• Defining the Strategic Objective and Opponents• It can attack the market leader• It can attack firms of its own size • It can attack small local and regional firms

• Choosing a General Attack Strategy• Frontal Attack• Flank Attack• Encirclement Attack• Bypass attack• Guerrilla Warfare

• Choosing a Specific Attack Strategy

Competitive Strategies for Market Followers

• Counterfeiter• Cloner• Imitator• Adaptor

Competitive Strategies for Market-Nicher

• Creating Niche• Expanding Niche• Protecting Niche

Balancing Customer and Competitor Orientations

Product Life-Cycle Marketing Strategies

1.Introduction2.Growth3.Maturity4.Decline

Product Life-Cycle- Patterns

1.Growth-Slump-Maturity Pattern- Kitchen Appliance, Mosquito bat???

2.Cycle-Recycle Pattern-New Drag3.Scalloped Pattern- Nylon

Product Life-Cycle

Style, Fashion, and Fad Life Cycle-Style is a basic and distinctive mode of expression appearing in a field of human endeavor. -Clothing ( Formal, casual, funky), Art ( realistic, Abstract)-Fashion is a currently accepted or popular style in a given field-Fads are fashions that come quickly into public view, are adopted with great zeal, peak early and decline very fast.

Marketing Strategies: Introduction Stage and the Pioneer Advantage

- Lead time of New Product development- Channel Fulfillment- Consumer acceptance- High Cost - Low sales - Low Profit

Consider the Pros and Cons of first mover

Marketing Strategies: Growth Stage

- Rapid Climb in sales- Low cost due to economy of scale- High profit

Points to focus

• Improve Product quality , add new feature• Add new models, flanker products• Enter new market segment• Increase distribution coverage• Product awareness to product-performance communication• Lower price for next layer consumers

Marketing Strategies: Mature Stage- Rate of Sales growth will slow- Normally last longer than previous stages- Most products are in this stage

The Maturity Stage divides into three phases

• Growth• Growth rate start to decline• Competition emerge

• Stable• Sales flatten• Sales growth depend on population growth

• Decaying maturity • Absolute level of sales starts to decline• Overcapacity in the industry thus price war

Cigarettes

Marketing Strategies: Mature Stage. Continue..

- “Big three” with high volume and low cost - Niche player with low volume high margin

Three ways to change the course1. Market Modification

• Number of Brand users• Usages rate per users

2. Product Modification• Quality Improvement• Feature Improvement• Style Improvement

3. Marketing Program Modification• 4 Ps

Marketing Strategies: Decline Stage.

- Technological Advance- Shifts in consumer taste- Price cutting , profit erosion

-Exit Barriers-Relative Attractiveness of Industry-Company's Competitive Strength

• Harvesting• Divesting