What We Bought, Why We Bought …. Lessons for Branding 2012
Why We Bought, What We Bought… Lessons for Positioning and Branding Everything in 2012
It was long held (up until the early 1900’s) that we bought for very rational reasons. So if we bought a car, we would want to know the engine displacement, the interior comforts like air-conditioning and leather seats, automatic vs. manual transmission etc. Then came the understanding of psychology and the role of emotions in consumer behavior. We began to understand that buying was not only part rational but also part emotional. Emotions include some of the following that you might consider as you analyze your firm or product(s): nostalgia; love; peer pressure and how we want to be perceived by others; sex and how we are perceived by those we wish to attract; addictions (both mental and physical); fear of everything from social exclusion to death; panic; guilt; celebrity attachment; among many others. As you consider how products are now marketed in your category, also consider how products could be marketed in your category!
As you consider how you want to be perceived in the marketplace through a brand, it is also a good exercise to think about the answers to the following questions: Who are we? What do we do or make? Why do we do it? How are we different? How do we do it?
With these answer clearly in hand, with the knowledge of the market place and the current and potential drivers of consumer behavior well thought out….now we can consider our own brand and the positioning of our competitors. Much of brand positioning comes down to one or more of the following five elements: VALUE …. The perception of what we get vs. what we pay for something. Values…. What the company and item might stand for. Attributes … what the product is. Benefits … what the attributes do for us. Persona … ascribing human characteristics to the item.
For example, we care for our families greatly and want to be perceived as good parents. There is great fear in letting down the family and great potential guilt should something happen to them. This is played out by certain companies to take this as an important VALUE to some people. The positioning of Volvo automobiles has long been about safety as has Michelin tires. So it is not only about safety but about being a good parent.
Great brands, including yours, use this process to gain a strong position in the hearts and minds of customers. From new product positioning to repositioning a brand in decline, the process is clear. Now it just takes some imagination, some research, and sometimes a bit of courage!
Happy 2012
Jeffrey Heilbrunn
December 30, 2011
The 5-4-3 of Marketing
The 5-4-3 of Marketing
In the wake of the success of the 9-9-9 campaign of candidate Cain, I propose a new formula for my marketing students to remember, the 5-4-3 concept. There is no doubt that there is an ease to remember ideas placed in such a format…and I am often asked about the basics of marketing from people with little understanding of the field. Hence, the 5-4-3 concept may be of use to you.
FIVE…. Branding helps us to differentiate our offerings in the marketplace. This is known as positioning for the hearts and minds of potential customers. And there are five foundational ideas useful in considering how to brand a product, service, candidate or what have you. The five elements can be used individually or in combination. They are: 1) Value, building a brand based upon a feeling you are getting more for less. Dunkin Donuts provides a great cup of coffee for far less then their chief competitor. Value = Benefits received minus costs incurred. 2) VALUES, these are what we stand for, our beliefs. At Starbucks, the firm stands for taking care of people, who in turn take care of the customer. 3) Attribute, what a product is, such as Gatorade and the electrolytes in the drink 4) Benefits, what the attributes do for you, such as the electrolytes giving you the ability to exercise more (Gatorade). 5) Persona, the personality of the brand, the idea that the brand has human characteristics like Brawny, or Ford Tough. Virtually every brand can be decomposed into these five elements and as you might imagine, most brands can be composed from considering these five.
Four … The Famous Four P’s of Marketing. 1) Product, the item that actually satisfies the needs of the consumer. This covers physical products, services, as well as the use of services to enhance physical products. 2) Price, the way we assign a cost to the consumer in light of the idea of perceived value, competitiveness, and other issues. 3) Promotion, or marketing communications to include advertising, sales promotion, public relations, internet marketing, etc. And finally, 4) Place, which is the concept of distribution, and logistics, getting the product from manufacturing to the customer.
Three … Marketing is a process that starts with Segmentation, works through Targeting, and continues with Position. 1) We first look at all the possible segments or groups of potential customers. Who are they? What are the characteristics that define the segments? Next 2) we consider which of the segments we will go after first. We use a variety of criteria that might include the size of the market, the inclination of the segment to want to purchase, the ability of the segment to purchase, the accessibility of the target and our ability to communicate effectively our message. And once we have chosen the targets, we then 3) position using the branding process discussed above. Segment—Target—Position is the process of marketing that gets us to our intended target with the right message.
5-4-3 …. Committing this to memory should be as easy as 9-9-9 ….. and with this information, you can perform marketing tasks and be able to conduct a great cocktail conversation about marketing. For more, check out the Library of Articles on each of these subjects at www.mktgsensei.com
Jeff Heilbrunn, October 21, 2011