The document discusses the concept of positioning and branding. It defines positioning as how a brand is perceived in the mind of a customer rather than what marketing activities are done. An effective positioning statement identifies the target market, unique value proposition, and reasons to believe. It also outlines the essential elements of a positioning statement and provides an exercise to write one for a sample brand. Additionally, it covers the concepts of unique selling proposition, the positioning story, and different positioning strategies brands can employ.

2. “Positioning is not what
you do to a product.
Positioning is what you
do to the mind of a
prospect.”
Ries & Trout

3. Positioning Statement
•An internal company
statement of how the brand is
wished to be perceived.
•Company then creates a
marketing and branding
program around the
positioning statement to
create consumer perception.

4. Essential Elements of Positioning Statement
For whom, for when, for
where?
a particular type of person, a
particular usage situation, a
particular usage location
What value?
Economic, Functional,
Experiential, Social values
Why and how?
Reasons to believe
Relative to whom?
An explicit description of the
competitive set in which the
brand classifies itself.

5. Exercise
Write Positioning Statement of the Following
Lux Dove
Use the template: For [target market], Brand
X is the only brand among all [competitive
set] that [unique value claim] because
[reasons to believe].

6. Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Type of value claim that offers a
prospective customer a specific,
unique, and superior reason to
purchase a product.
FedEx : When it absolutely,
positively has to be there
overnight
Dominos: You get fresh, hot
pizza delivered to your door in
30 minutes or less or it’s free.
Pampers: The driest diapers.

7. The Positioning Story

8. Three Cs Model of Brand Positioning
Jill Avery and Sunil Gupta, Core Reading: Brand Positioning, HBP No. 8197 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2015).

9. Source: Jill Avery and Sunil Gupta,
Core Reading: Brand Positioning, HBP
No. 8197 (Boston: Harvard Business
School Publishing, 2015). .

10. The
Positioning
Story

12. Being Distinctive
• Product Attributes: Unique attributes,
Shared attributes, and Irrelevant attributes.
• Points of Parity are those product or brand
attributes, benefits, or values that are shared
across competitors.
• Points of Difference are those product or
brand attributes, benefits, or values that are
unique to a particular competitor.
• Vertical Positioning highlights attributes that
are shared among brands, but stresses a
particular brand’s superior performance on
those attributes, using words such as smaller,
faster, and cheaper to delineate a natural
pecking order.
• Horizontal Positioning involves adding new
attributes, benefits, or values to attract
customers.

13. Three Kinds of POPs
• Legitimisers
Category
• Potentially –ve associations, eg. Strength vs flavor in tea
Correlational
• To counter competitive PODs
Competitive

16. Perceptual Map for Choosing POD and POPs

19. • Analysing a Perceptual Map

20. Nielsen’s Brand Association
Mapping (BAM)

21. Multiple Frames of Reference
•BMW- Ultimate Driving
Machine
•Subway – Healthy Fast Food
Straddle positioning

22. Exercise
• Write Points of Parity (POP) and
Points of Difference (POD)
between
• Colgate Vedhshakti
• Patanjali Toothpaste

23. Some Important Points
Brand Positioning
should be
• Defensible
• Durable

24. Feasible
Favourable
Faithful

25. Brand Story

26. Brand Repositioning

27. Brand Repositioning
• For whom, for when, for where?
viz. Arm & Hammer
• What value? viz. Colgate
• Why and how? – Product
Innovation
• Relative to whom? – New
market, new competitors

28. Repositioning An Identity Brand

29. Reverse Positioning

30. Breakaway Positioning

31. Stealth
Positioning