What is brand image positioning?
Brand image positioning is the sum of the information, the impression and the association of the brand that a company conveys to the consumers.
Brand image positioning include two aspects: the first aspect is the tangible content, called ‘brand functionality’, namely the ability of the product or the service to meet the functional demand of the consumer; the second aspect is the intangible content, mainly the unique charm of the brand which is given by the marketing staff and perceived and accepted by the consumer. It reflects the emotional need of the people represent people’s personalized requirements for identity, status and psychology.
What kind of problems can be solved by brand image positioning?
When the consumer buys a product, whether a consumer buys a product or not depends on his/her accumulation of the cognition of the product and his/her distinctive personal characters and brand awareness. So it is important for an enterprise to set a distinctive image of its product in consumers’ mind, which is brand image positioning. Especially under the condition of buyer’s market where there is fierce competition among the alike products, brand image positioning is a more important factor that influences the success of an enterprise.
Brand image positioning can help an enterprise establish its brand core value and brand cultural elements according to its advantage, the characteristics of its product or service, consumers’ demand and market situation. Then guided by brand core value and brand cultural elements, design brand logo, select brand name combination, define brand attributes and make brand transmission plan. By carrying out every function of brand management, let the brand image envisioned by the enterprise enter into consumers’ mind. The purpose of brand image positioning is to set up a unique and valuable position of the product and brand in the target consumers’ mind.
Case:
Whether there is a good and distinctive brand image is an important evaluation index to measure the success of a brand. Looking at those world famous brands, we will have unique brand images of them in our mind. Marlboro came from out of nowhere into a famous brand not because of its better quality than other cigarette but its successful brand image positioning. When Marlboro just entered into the market, its target consumers are female. It used the advertisement words ‘mild as the weather in May’, but the effect turned out contrary to its wish. Though at that time the number of American who was smoking increase every year, Marlboro didn’t obtain a good sales. Though the positioning of the advertisement of female cigarette highlighted the brand individuality of Marlboro and catered to the preference of a certain group of people, it at the same time set an obstacle for the future development which causes the limitation of its consumers. After a large number of consumer surveys, Marlboro decided to remain its product quality while re-positioned its brand image. The advertisement of Marlboro no longer took woman as its target, but man instead. It highlighted machismo of the cigarette in the advertisement, adopted the new technology of flip-top box originated with Marlboro, and used red color as the main color of the packaging which symbolized strength so as to set up a brand image of ‘where there is true man, there is Marlboro’ in people’s mind. Marlboro finally became the leading brand in the cigarette industry.
How to conduct brand image positioning research?
