VOL. 0014 – FLORIDA, MONDAY, APR 03, 2023
Juan F. Arjona Harry
President & CEO Strategee
Each marketing plan -and each branding plan-, have within their fundamental objectives to position their brand in the market, in such a way that the probability of being the chosen brand grows. Positioning a brand brings many benefits to a company since the positioned brand provides a better competitive position. From this privileged position, a brand:
You can innovate within your same market by taking over all segments of this.
It can innovate by entering other related or parallel markets, where its competitive capabilities can find strategic alternatives to grow, it requires additional actions and searches for competitive spaces that go far beyond a simple analysis of breadth by depth in the portfolio, given that this way of innovation is quite resorted and almost always covered. Moreover, there are categories that present on innovation at certain times when it is accessed on the same reference market.
You can obtain a greater attitudinal valuation towards her, through communicational actions that enhance and increase her positioning.
For the greater attitudinal valuation the positioned brand generally has an extra-price in its sale; It is what is commonly called a price premium.
Being a well-positioned brand, it will generally take the first, second or even third place in its predilection by its consumers.
With a great positioning, the brand can afford to grow in other markets -relying on the positioning it has acquired in other markets-.
Likewise, being the brand positioned, this gives you greater degrees of freedom in the face of any potential mistake you make, or in the face of a potential crisis in which you are referred.
The ways to obtain positioning are diverse and also depend on the type of purchase decision in question. The goal is to achieve "Brand Equity"; and for this, there are three perspectives from which to base the construction of Brand Equity:
To achieve Functional Brand Equity: under this perspective, the brand can choose to communicate its functional attributes and the benefits that its consumption brings. What will happen here is that the brand that best communicates its message will be the one that obtains the strongest positioning. Now, although it is real that you get a strong positioning knowing how to communicate, the reality is that the positioning you seek to achieve a Functional Equity is of very short duration in the market, given that when another brand that has functionally better conditions comes out, it immediately knocks down the first positioning of the brand in question, leaving it relegated to a second or third plane.
For the achievement Emotional Brand Equity: under this perspective, the brand considers that it can involve more feelings that revolve around personal values (friendship, generosity, loyalty, humility, among many others). This is naturally a very effective source of Brand Equity generation, especially when it is masterfully executed in its presentation to society, where the consumption of the brand is associated with people who have those values or who practice those values. Thus achieving that the brand is directly and positively associated with these values, especially if in the executions -TV/ Radio/Digital-, scenes of daily life are used, where the values communicated are precisely lived. This way of generating Brand Equity is quite powerful and allows to "shield" the positioning of the brand from a more emotional sphere, where the brand that has chosen this important route is precisely housed. Achieving positioning in this way naturally requires a very well designed communication from the copies to the plans and the visual key that will be created to represent what you want to communicate; and additionally, it requires a greater investment of time always executing in this same way, until reaching the crystallization of positioning [which is the ultimate goal of positioning]; that is, its coherent consolidation, or better, consistency.
For the achievement of Spiritual Brand Equity: under this perspective, the brand decides to choose to deploy advertising communication -in all existing formats, both conventional and digital- that associates it with the universal values of the human being; Some of these values are, for example: motherly love, love between a couple, friendship, survival of the human species, compassion, solidarity, mercy, among others. Achieving Spiritual Equity is a task that requires a lot of criteria in the definition of communication and the choice of values to be highlighted; It also requires an adequate advertising investment to be able to generate in the consumer the effect of "familiarity & Rehearsal" that is the only one way to build positioning. But, additionally, the brand requires maintaining a behavior of total "coherence" with the message it communicates, because otherwise the effect is reversed.
At Strategee we contribute to the formulation of the path to achieving Brand Equity for our clients and their brands, through proven and effective global impact methodologies.