MODULE 3 BRAND POSITIONING

21.1 PRODUCT/BRAND POSITIONING

It is essential to understand the relationship between product & brand positioning.
Though apparently it sounds similar & interchangeable, technically they are
different. Prod positioning denotes the specific product category/class in which the
given product is opting to compete. And brand positioning denotes the positioning of
the brand vis--vis the competing brands in the chosen product category.

Example of Maruti Omni

In the 1980s, when Maruti Udyog decided to launch one more vehicle in
addition to the Maruti 800, it came out with a vehicle, much more
spacious than the Maruti 800. It had the looks of a van; it could
comfortably seat 6 passengers; it had 5 doors, substantial luggage space
& taller roof.

Product (category) positioning of Omni

The initial question to be answered was: As what should this vehicle be
positioned? A car? A multi-purpose van? In which category, this vehicle
was to be positioned? If positioned as a car, this vehicle would be
competing with the then existing brands like ambassador & Fiat, in
addition to its own Maruti 800. If positioned as a van, it would be
competing with the other brands like Matador & Tempo. Maruti
decided to position the new vehicle as a van & was named Maruti Omni.

Brand positioning of Omni

Once the product category positioning was decided, the next question was how
should the brand positioning of Maruti van be done vis--vis the competing brands.
The new van had to seek its position on its distinctive advantages. In the van
market, Maruti van had to compete with other brands. All those attributes, which
the consumer considers important & looks for in a van had to be analyzed & the
consumers perception of the exiting brands on those attributes had to be analyzed.

One analysis by the company taking 2 major attributes, passenger space

& price, that mattered much in this category showed that Maruti van
could be positioned as the high spacelow price brand in the market.
This is brand positioning.
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21.2 REPOSITIONING OF MARUTI OMNI
Omni positioned as the low priced, spacious brand in Vans
Though the Omni was properly positioned, it could not acquire a
dominant position against the competition. Thus Maruti decided to take
a fresh look at the positioning of Omni.

Repositioning of Omni
Maruti found that many people had started using it as a good substitute
for car. For middle class, it ideally served as a family car. The firm
repositioned Omni as the most spacious family car at the lowest price &
in this position, Omni had to compete with van/car segments. In the new
ad campaign, Maruti stresses as the value proposition the most
spacious car for the family. The value proposition was supported &
justified by the product attributes, as detailed hereunder:
The 5th door acts as a point of entry.
Space, styling, performance, fuel-efficiency & driving pleasure
together make it a total car & no wonder it is called the OMNI.
There is 7.5 cubic meters of space in the car.
Remove the rear seat & the Omni doubles up as a cargo carrier.
It combines the benefits of a car & the advantage of more space.
The instrument panel is sleek & thus driving it is a pleasure.
Technically, it is described as a 3-cylinder, 4-stroke, 800 cc engine.
What it means is a fuel-efficient, hi-performance engine.
Designed for over 150K kms of trouble-free operation, after which it
can be re-bored.
Features found in expensive cars are incorporated in Omni.
Alignment of wheels contributes to safe, stable cornering & tight
tuning ability.
The paint used ensures non-corrosion of the cars framework.
A coolant system incorporated eliminates the daily chore of filling
water in the radiator.
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21.3 REPOSITIONING OF MARUTI OMNI

Issues in Product (category) & Brand Positioning

It is evident that for any product, before entering the market, it has to
sequentially carry out the 2 exercises product (category) & brand
positioning. In the 1st step, the new entrant should know the product
category, to compete. In the 2nd step, the entrant has to monitor the
brands in the category. These are 2 different aspects.

Issues in Product Positioning

Where is the new offer going to compete? As what?
Which product function/customer need is it trying to meet?
What other product categories serve this need? In other words, what
are the substitute products that serve the same need?
Where is the real gap, where is such a new offer most welcome &
wanted by the market?
What are the firms competencies to fight here?
In fact, these are the issues the firm agitates in target market selection
too. The linkage is only natural because in product positioning, the firm
is actually bridging the product offer with the right target market.

Issues in Brand Positioning

Which are the competing brands in the chosen product category?
What are the USPs of the various brands?
What position do they enjoy in consumers evaluation & perception?
According to the consumer rating of the competing brands, is there a
wide gap in expectation-performance? What kind of a product/new
attributes/new functions will attract the consumer?
What is the most favored positionand yet vacant?
Can the new brand claim the needed distinction & take the position &
satisfy that need?
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21.4 POSITIONING OF TITAN TANISHQ WHAT WENT WRONG
The brand was positioned to appeal to the top 1% of the
urban Indian population.
Designs were western, showrooms very glamorous & ads too
sophisticated.
Product offer was perceived as too elitist.
Naturally, this positioning failed to generate the expected
sales volume.
Titan went to market with 18-carat jewellery, against the
norm of 22-carat; 18-carat could not be effectively positioned
as jewellery.
The fact that the brand was positioned for the rich, elitist
segment aggravated the mismatch. Why should this segment
after all buy 18-carat jewellery?
Obviously, there was confusion about the value proposition
& the product attributes, as well as the target market &
marketing communications. The ads & the marketing
channel took the positioning to an unintended target.
Titan had to totally rework its strategy for the jewellery
business. Titan admitted, In India, the entry card for wider
appeal in jewellery is 22-carat gold, not 18-carat.
Titan changed the major product attributes. It introduced a
new collection in 22-carat jewellery. The design was also
made more Indian.
Titan also changed its advertising & channel strategy to
make Tanishq less elitist. The aim was to make it appeal to a
wider clientele, including the upper middle class.
With the repositioning, the jewellery business now
contributes 20% of Titans corporate turnover.
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21.5 SUCCESSFUL POSITIONING EXERCISES -- COMPLAN
STAGE I
Glaxo, UK, first launched Complan during World War II. It was part of the
ration for the soldiers. Since then, the brand traveled long way.
STAGE II
o In this stage, Glaxo launched Complan for the mass market. It had to find an
appropriate positioning.
o Glaxo positioned it as supplementary nutrition, for adults in convalescence.
o The brand got the image of sick mans source of nutrition.
STAGE III
Glaxo reviewed its positioning & studied the health-drinks market.
Glaxo found the growing child as the big market segment for health-drinks.
Complan took a new positioning. A Complete Planned Food was the theme &
positioned against milk & as a health-builder. Apart from milk protein, it
contained 23 nutrients but this also did not bring success.
2 problems came up: (1) The taste was not agreeable to children & (2) Superior
to milk proposition did not sell because, the Indian mother still held milk as an
essential natural diet for the children.
Despite bringing out many flavors, Complan still did not do well.
STAGE IV
The new positioning was against Horlicks, while the old one was against milk.
A new problem emerged: Price of Complan was double to that of Horlicks.
Search for right positioning continued.
STAGE V

Target user & usage occasion became major considerations in new positioning.
The new positioning: Fulfilling the nourishment needs of different segments of
people who faced different kinds of problems on the diet front. The only health
drink that is complete & suits varied occasions & users. Only Complan, with 23
essential nutrients, is complete for the body & is useful for
The child, the problem eater, The young executive, too busy to eat, The
grandpa, too ill to eat, The young housewife needing extra nourishment for all
the strains at work, Everybody in the family had some use for Complan
The new positioning was a distinct product in its own right. Flavors like
cardamom & strawberry were added; new packaging also came.

COMPLAN FINALLY FOUND A GOOD ORBIT

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21.6 PRODUCT REPOSITIONING

Perceptual Mapping for studying positioning Possibilities

Perceptual mapping is a widely used technique in deciding
positioning. With this technique, the target consumers
perception of the various brands in the given product category
are found & plotted & a perceptual map developed.
It helps understand the position the new brand can take.
Different MR techniques like image profile analysis, factor
analysis & multi-dimensional scaling are used in perceptual
mapping.

Product Repositioning
Products do undergo repositioning as they go along their life
cycle. In some cases, even products that are faring well are
repositioned. This is done mainly to enlarge the reach of the
product offer & to increase the sale of the product by
appealing to a wider target market.
The product is provided with some new features or it is
associated with some new uses & is repositioned for existing as
well as new target segments.
The story of Complan illustrates more comprehensively the issues in
product positioning. Glaxo was going through a trial & error situation
with respect to Complan. It took quite a few years for Glaxo to arrive at
a successful positioning for Complan.

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21.7 PRODUCT REPOSITIONING (CONTD)

EXAMPLE OF MILKMAID
Milkmaid is a good example of repositioning. When the product was
introduced in the 1960s, it was positioned as a convenient form of milk
for use in tea & coffee.
When the sales reached a plateau (flat terrain) in the 1980s, the
company studied the situation in detail & decided to reposition it as a
product for all uses involving milk.
A well-planned advertising campaign was launched, repositioning
milkmaid as an ideal ingredient for a variety of sweets & other
preparations, in addition to daily use in tea/coffee.

EXAMPLE OF TANISHQ
Finding the apt positioning for a product is certainly not easy; a proper
balancing of several issues is involved. Titan-Tanishq is an apt example.
Titan, a firm that has created waves in the Indian watch market with its
quartz watches & has been consistently receiving complements from all
quarters for its marketing excellence, made some crucial mistakes when
it set out to market its Tanishq brand jewellery.
Titan found that the jewellery sales lagged far behind its projections. It
identified wrong positioning as the reason for the poor show. Titan
admitted, Our positioning of Tanishq has not generated the kind of
volumes we expected. The jewellery should have had a much wider appeal
than it enjoyed with the present positioning.