1. Harvard Publishing Core Curriculum Jill Avery & Sunil Gupta
Brand Positioning
Harvard Publishing Core Curriculum
Jill Avery & Sunil Gupta
This PPT relies heavily on the Harvard Publishing Marketing core curriculum reading, Brand Positioning.

2. Brand positioning stakes out a piece of mental real estate in the consumer’s mind.
Equatorial trade winds purify the water
Supports charity with every purchase
When you visit the grocery store, gas station, or convenience store to search out a bottle of water, what goes through your mind? Do you shop based on price? Do you look for a particular brand that you like? Do you look for water with a few “extras” – flavor, vitamins, caffeine?
Depending on where you shop, there might be a dozen or more choices available to you, of something that you can get for free from any tap in the United States.
The customer will choose the brand that best meets his/her unique needs. The images above demonstrate some of the brand positioning that each brand uses to appeal to those customer needs. Fiji boasts about its purifying origins. Perrier’s bubbles come from a natural source in France. Ethos supports charity. And the big beverage brands like Coke & Pepsi look for ways to mask the fact that they use the public water supply.
In all cases, these firms differentiate their brand by finding a unique piece of real estate in the consumer’s mind. It’s the socially-conscious brand. The upscale brand from France. The freshest, healthiest brand.
Drawn from natural sources in France
Bottled from the public water supply???

3. Even water can be differentiated.
What’s the lesson here?
A brand’s position –and that position’s public articulation via brand elements, slogans, etc. – delivers competitive advantage and helps a firm develop a strong, loyal customer base.
The next few slides will walk through the 3C’s framework for developing a brand position.
Even water can be differentiated.

4. What’s the difference between a position and a positioning statement?
There’s a slight difference between a position and a positioning statement.
Consumers construct mental images of the landscape of options available. The position represents how customers see the brand now, i.e. a brand’s location in relationship to its competitors. The positioning statement expresses how the brand wishes to be perceived. It’s an articulation of where the brand is going vs. where it is in the moment. This is a particularly relevant concept for established firms. Marketers invest time and resources to maintain a favorable brand position with consumers. However, many times, brands lose relevance perhaps as newer companies enter the market, or perhaps they fail to deliver on a key promise and lose consumer trust. These are just a few reasons that an established brand might need to re-position and use a positioning statement to get them there.
In the case of your capstone projects, most of you are developing something completely new, so you don’t have a current position – because nobody knows about you. You’ll start with a positioning statement.
Image source: spottedbynormanncopenhagen.com
Image source: wallpaperwidehd.blogspot.com

5. How is a positioning statement used?
It’s a strategic guide developed for an internal audience to guide the tactical execution of the brand.
Tactical execution includes the brand elements, images, slogans, and campaigns used to promote the brand.
Firms will use the brand positioning statement as an internal guide. It’s a strategic starting point that often guides the marketing messages & other decisions made about promoting the brand externally.

6. It contains four components.
For Whom? For When? For Where?
Describes a specific target segment.
What value?
Straightforward description of the value from the customer’s perspective. Economic – Functional – Experiential– Social
Why & How?
Evidence to support the value statement.
For Whom: This includes an explicit description of the firm’s target market segment. It might outline a particular type of person, a particular usage situation, or a usage location.
What Value: This is a brief, straightforward claim about what the brand offers and it should be written from the customer’s perspective. There are four types of value that a customer will derive from a product:
Economic Value refers to products that deliver a monetary benefit either at purchase or over time. A good example here might be an energy efficient air-conditioner. It could be more slightly more expensive to purchase, but over its lifetime, it will promises energy costs saving that more than make-up for the higher purchase price. As a side note, there are a few projects that seem to align with this type of value for customers.
Customers derive Functional Value when they purchase a product for its unique features. This is often how we purchase technology products. Does the phone have a good camera? How much storage space? Do I like the interface, etc. Depending on preferences, certain consumers are willing to pay more for certain features.
Experiential Value refers to intangible value that a customer derives from a product, i.e. psychological and emotional benefits. Branded apparel might fall into this category. Consider a consumer contemplating the purchase of a black T-shirt, and he has 2 options. Comparatively, all are the same cut and same quality; however, one is plain black with no logo; the other has a luxury brand on the front (say, Prada, Armani, etc). The first is $40, the second is $150. There are many customers who will pay the $150 for the branded T-shirt to derive the emotional/psychological benefit of that product, power, status, perception of wealth, etc.
Social Value occurs when the value of a product or service only happens when others are using that product/service. Social media platforms are great examples of this. Has anyone been on Google+ lately? Vine? Maybe… they seem to have a loyal following of certain users. However, the most popular firms are those that acquire lots and lots of users – like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat. Review sites like Yelp, communication platforms like WhatsApp are also examples of platforms that depend on social value. People derive value from the platform BECAUSE other people use it.
Why & how: This provides a bit of evidence to show the consumer that the brand will deliver on the promise. Why should they believe the value proposition?
Relative to whom: This is a description of the competitive set in which the brand classifies itself. A note on competitors – in the case of products that are innovative & new, it can be tempting to look at the market & claim that there are no competitors because there are no firms doing it your specific way. Try to approach competitor analysis in a different way. Rather than look for firms that do what you plan to do, look for how people are currently solving the problem that you plan to address. That will illuminate your competition and help you position your product/service in a way that shows those customers that your solution is better.
Relative to whom?
A brief description of the firm’s competitive set.

7. The four components combined comprise the brand positioning statement.
TO (target segment) , (firm/product)
IS THE (category/competitive set)
THAT (value proposition / what can customer’s expect
BECAUSE (supporting evidence / reasons to believe) .

8. Applied to our water example….
TO millennial consumers who are socially conscious, Ethos
IS THE brand among bottled waters
THAT cares about solving the clean water crisis
BECAUSE it donates 5 cents for every bottle sold to clean water initiatives.

9. Develop positioning statements for Pedialyte’s 2 target segments.
Teams 1 - 4
Teams 5 - 9
In previous classes, I have used this Pedialyte example to show how the same brand can position for two very different target audiences. It’s always funny to hear how groups position the product as a hang-over cure.

10. The 3Cs method can help you develop a brand positioning statement.
Consumer Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Company Analysis
Relevant
Resonant
Realistic
Use the 3C’s model of brand positioning to help you decide on the single most important value claim that you firm/brand makes. It requires you to analyze your customers, your competition, and your company to ensure that the value claim aligns in these 3 areas.
Distinctive
Defensible
Durable
Feasible
Favorable
Faithful

11. Relevant Resonant Realistic
Consumer Analysis
Relevant Resonant Realistic
To conduct this analysis, you must start with a strong understanding of your customer. What defines the customer – whether an individual or business? What does the customer are about? What needs do they have (as relates to your product)? Once you have a strong understanding of this, then assess whether the branding statement meets these criteria.
Relevant: The brand position and value claims need to address a customer need (thinking back to the types of value outlined a few slides ago).
Resonant: The brand position and value claims should be personally meaningful. Strong value claims will address a customer’s deep-seated needs. Think of Michelin tires, “So much is riding on your tires.” That statement promises more than the function that tires perform, but assures safety, reliability, and an implicit promise that Michelin won’t let you down.
Realistic: Don’t exaggerate in the brand claims. It must be believable and brands must deliver on the promises they make.

12. Distinctive Defensible Durable
Competitive Analysis
Distinctive Defensible Durable
Identify competitors – these are firms that solve the same problem that your company/brand proposes to solve. They might not solve it as well as your firm intends to, but it’s another method that customers use to address their needs.
After that, outline the points-of-parity – what the same about you and the competitor. There should be some PoPs, so that customers can accurately put your firm into the same category as what they know. Then, identify the points-of-difference. The PoDs are what makes you distinct and thus, preferable, to certain customer segments.
Use this to develop a perceptual map, which is a visual representation of the decision-making process that occurs in a consumer’s mind. Compare and contrast sets of brands across a set of attributes. The spatial relationship between brands highlights where competition is strong, or where your brand might find a distinctive space to compete. [See the next slide for an example related to the car industry].
To the extent possible (it varies by firm size and industry), the position should be defensible which means that your firm should be able to hold that position over an amount of time. In other words, a competitor wouldn’t have the power to swoop in and take your position – and customers.
Finally, it should be durable. It’s important to identify a brand positioning that will last over time and not lose its relevance within a short period of time.

13. CORE CURRICULUM
Text-Mining and
Perceptual Mapping
of the Car Industry

14. Feasible Favorable Company Analysis
Finally, a company analysis will help you determine whether the brand’s position accurately articulates the company’s values & mission.
Is it feasible? Does the firm have the resources to claim, deliver on, and hold the brand position.
Is it favorable? The position should provide the firm with an opportunity to capture more value in the marketplace. Is it a profitable position?
Is it Faithful? Is it true to the firm’s values and mission? Brands should be authentic and again, deliver on what they promise in all ways.

15. The four components combined comprise the brand positioning statement.
TO (target segment) , (firm/product)
IS THE (category/competitive set)
THAT (value proposition / what can customer’s expect
BECAUSE (supporting evidence / reasons to believe) .
Once you’ve completed that analysis and determined the key value claim that your brand will make, you can finalize the positioning statement for your brand.