Chapter 7: Crafting the Brand Positioning and Competing Effectively

What are the 3 main ways to convey a brand's category membership?

-Announcing category benefits. -Comparing to Exemplars. -Relying on the Product Descriptor.

What basic forms come with points-of-parity associations?

-Category -Correlational -Competitive

Deciding on a positioning requires:

-Choosing a frame of reference by identifying the target market and relevant competition. -Identifying the optimal points-of-parity and points-of-difference brand associations given that frame of reference (including emotional branding) -Creating a brand mantra summarizing the brand's positioning and essence.

A good brand positioning helps guide marketing strategy by:

-Clarifying the brand's essence -Identifying the goals it helps consumers achieve -Showing how it does so in a unique way

What 3 criteria determine whether a brand association can truly function as a point-of-difference?

-Desirable to Consumer. -Deliverable by the Company. -Differentiating from Competitors.

What are the 5 attack strategies for challengers?

-Frontal Attack -Flank Attack -Encirclement Attack -Bypass Attack -Guerrilla Attack

What are other competitive strategies?

-Market-Challenger Strategies -Market-Follower Strategies

What are alternative approaches to positioning?

-Narratives -Storytelling -Cultural Branding

What are the 6 defense strategies?

-Position Defense -Flank Defense -Preemptive Defense -Counteroffensive Defense -Mobile Defense -Contraction Defense

What 3 variables should marketers monitor when analyzing competitors?

-Share of Market -Share of Mind -Share of Heart

Before buying higher market share through acquisition a company should consider what four factors?

-The possibility of provoking antitrust action. -Economic Cost. -Pursuing the wrong marketing activities. -The effect of increased market share on actual and perceived quality.

Responsive

A _________ marketer finds a stated need and fills it.

Creative

A __________ marketer discovers solutions customers did not ask for but to which they enthusiastically respond.

Define Competitive Advantage

A company's ability to perform in one or more ways that competitors cannot or will not match.

Define Industry

A group of firms offering a product or class of products that are close substitutes for one another.

What does preemptive defense do?

A more aggressive maneuver is to attack first, perhaps with guerrilla action across the market - hitting one competitor here, and another there - to keep everyone off balance.

Define Brand Mantra

A three - to five - word articulation of the brand's heart and soul, closely related to other branding concepts like "brand essence" and "core brand promise."

Anticipative

An __________ marketer looks ahead to needs customers nay have in the near future.

Niche

An alternative to being a follower in a large market is to be a leader in a small market, or ________.

Define Competitive Points-of-Parity

Associations designed to overcome perceived weaknesses of the brand in light of competitors' point-of-difference.

Define Encirclement Attack

Attempts to capture a wide slice of territory by launching a grand offensive on several fronts.

Define Points-of-Parity

Attribute or benefit associations that are not necessarily unique to the brand but may in fact be shared with other brands.

Define Points-of-Difference (POD)

Attributes or benefits that consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate, and believe they could not find to the same extent with a competitive brand.

Define Category points-of-parity

Attributes or benefits that consumers view as essential to a legitimate and credible offering within a certain category, although not necessarily sufficient conditions for brand choice.

Define Narrative Branding

Based on deep metaphors that connect to people's memories, associations, and stories.

Consumer Preferences, Brand Perceptions

By overlapping ___________ with _____________, marketers can reveal "openings" that suggest unmet consumer needs and marketing opportunities.

Define Bypass Attack

Bypassing the enemy to attack easier markets offers three lines of approach: -Diversifying into unrelated products -Diversifying into new geographical markets -Leapfrogging into new technologies

What is a good starting point in defining a competitive frame of reference?

Category Membership

A good brand mantra should:

Communicate the category and clarify what is unique about the brand.

Define Competitors

Companies that satisfy the same customer need.

Define Guerrilla Attack

Consist of small, intermittent attacks, conventional and unconventional, including selective price cuts, intense promotional blitzes, and occasional legal action, to harass the opponent and eventually secure permanent footholds.

Define Differentiating from Competitors

Consumers must see the brand association as distinctive and superior to relevant competitors.

Define Desirable to Consumer

Consumers must see the brand association as personally relevant to them.

Define Competitive Frame of Reference

Defines which other brands a brand competes with and which should thus be the focus of competitive analysis.

What does contraction defense do?

Give up weaker markets and reassign resources to stronger ones. "Planned Contraction or Strategic Withdrawal"

Define Flank Attack

Identifying shifts that cause gaps to develop in the market, then rushing to fill the gaps.

What does flank defense do?

Market leader should erect outposts to protect a weak front or support a possible counterattack.

What does position defense do?

Occupies the most desirable position in consumers' minds, making the brand almost impregnable.

Define Correlational points-of-parity

Potentially negative associations that arise from the existence of positive associations for the brand.

Define Positioning

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

Define Frontal Attack

The attacker matches its opponent's product, advertising, price, and distribution.

Define Deliverable by the Company

The company must have the resources and commitment to feasibly and profitably create and maintain the brand association in the minds of consumers. The ideal brand association is preemptive, defensible, and difficult to attack.

Define Share of Market

The competitor's share of the target market.

What does mobile defense do?

The leader stretches its domain over new territories through market broadening and market diversification.

What does counteroffensive defense do?

The market leader can meet the attacker frontally so the rival will have to pull back to defend itself.

Define Share of Heart

The percentage of customers who named the competitor in responding to the statement "Name the company from which you would prefer to buy the product."

Define Share of Mind

The percentage of customers who named the competitor in responding to the statement "Name the first company that comes to mind in this industry."

Define Category Membership

The products or sets of products with which a brand competes and that function as close substitutes.

Membership, Point-of-Difference

The typical approach to positioning is to inform consumers of a brand's _____ before stating its _______.

Define New-Market Segment Strategy

Those who have never used it.

Define Geographical-Expansion Strategy

Those who live elsewhere.

Define Market-Penetration Strategy

Those who might use it but do not.

Define Perceptual Maps

Visual representations of consumer perceptions and preferences.

Industry, Market

We can examine competition from both an _________ and __________ point of view.