Notes

[MUSIC].
So in this section I want to finish with
the, where we
talked about STP, we talked about
segmentation, we talked about targeting
and now
I want to talk about about positioning
that's the key, but in thinking
about positioning I really want you to
think about what is a brand?
Because one of the most important aspects
of a brand, is brand positioning.
It's also the positioning in the STP
framework, but
it's really the essence of the brand, the
brand positioning.
So, let's start with what is a brand,
and then we'll get into this notion of
positioning.
But, just to anticipate where I'm going,
positioning is positioning
your product to meet the needs of the
target segment.
That's the basic definition.
But, one of the ways I'm, I'm going to
focus on
is a way to do that is to brand that
positioning.
And so I really want to get to this notion
of what is a brand.
Formally a brand is just a trademark.
If you have a brand you want to
legally protect your brand and trademark
it.
and that's if you talk to lawyers about
a brand they'll talk about it as a
trademark.
But we as marketers know that a brand is
way more than just a tren, trademark.
People have in the past talked about
brands as a relationship or a contract.
A promise of the company of certain
specific benefits to the customer.
So some kind of brand relationship, or
branded relationship.
and so it's much more than just a
trademark, it's a promise, it's
consistency, it's benefits, it's, it's
what you come to expect from a brand.
and that's been the traditional definition
of what a brand is.
In today's world, a brand is a little bit
bigger than that.
Because, we mentioned before, this is a
connected
community, and customers are talking to
other customers.
Really, what a brand is, and the
real definition of a brand.
Is whatever the customer thinks it is.
That's what the brand is.
What sits in your customer's heads,
regardless of what you
try to put there, is what your brand
actually is.
So if, if you have a very strong branded
message and it's something
like Disney which is a very strong brand
name and a very clear positioning.
Then hopefully what Disney thinks their
brand is, is what the customers think it
is.
But if your message is not so clear and
you want your
brand to mean something, but what the
customers think is something different.
Guess who wins.
It's the customers.
That's what your brand is, what sits in
the customers head.
And so a lot of what marketing is and
understanding about brands is
to do market research to understand how
customers do think about your brand.
Now when
we're talking about the notion of
positioning.
And so a positioning statement is a
definition or positioning statement for a
particular brand.
I have here two examples of positioning
statements.
For two brands of personal computers.
These are a little bit old, it's when
Apple and IBM were really focusing on
personal computers.
But I want to use these examples because
they're very clear, crisp positioning
statements, and
I think we can learn a
lot by understanding these positioning
statements.
So let's look first at Apple computer's
positioning statement.
And if we read that, it says Apple
Computer offers the best personal
computing experience to
students, educators, creative
professionals and consumers around the
world through its innovative hardware,
software and internet offerings.
That's one positioning statement.
Compare that
to IBM, which was very, very different at
the time.
IBM is for businesses who need computers.
IBM is the company you can trust for all
of your needs.
Very, very different positioning.
That is a really good positioning
statement when one company can be
so differentiated from the other company,
they're going after different target
segments.
and it should be quite clear by the
positioning statement.
Let's break
that positioning statement into its parts,
so that
we can understand what a good positioning
statement has.
And let's focus here on the Apple
Computer.
There's three pieces to the positioning
statement.
There's who is the target segment, what is
the point of difference that they're
offering to that target segment and then
there's what is the frame of reference?
In the frame of references, who are the
other competitors
that they are comparing themselves to?
The target segment here, and it you think
about
Apple, the target segment is students,
educators, creative professionals.
A brand should have a crisp target
segment.
Even if that's not the only people who use
the product.
So nowadays, Apple's so popular that you
know, everybody has an Apple.
Your grandmother has an apple.
You know, somebody who's not a student has
an Apple.
not just creative people anymore.
Yet, even though Apples are ubiquitous and
lots
and lots of people have Apple, Apple
products.
Still it's positioned to creative people.
It's a very designy brand.
So, it still has a very clear target
segment,
even if that doesn't limit who might use
the product.
It has a point of difference.
What's a point of difference for Apple?
It's innovative.
Apple offers state of
the art products.
We look for design innovation from Apple,
so that's its point of view.
And in this case what's the frame of
reference?
In this particular positioning statement
it's other personal computers.
Personal computing experience.
So you have these three pieces to a strong
positioning statement, the target segment,
the point of difference.
And the frame of reference.
And positioning is defining
the value proposition in these three
terms, the target
market, the point of difference, and the
point of parity.
Now you can play around with this and if
you think about this and get into it a
little
bit you may realize that your point of
difference
is going to be relative to the frame of
reference.
So for example let me give you an example
of Crest,
this product isn't on the market anymore
but it's Crest made this
chewing gum.
If the Crest chewing gum was
referred to, the frame of reference was
other toothpaste products, then Creth,
Crest chewing gum's point of difference is
it's a toothpaste product.
That's in gum four, okay?
On the other hand, if you take Crest
chewing gum and compare
it as a frame of reference to other
chewing gums, the point
of difference is, this is a chewing gum
that has toothpaste in it.
So, these two things go together and part
of the art of coming up
with a good positioning, is figuring out
who's the right target market to go after.
And also, what's the frame of reference,
and what's going to be your point of
difference,
and playing around with those two pieces
is a lot of the art of positioning.
Very important concept, but you really
need to understand these three ideas,
target marketing, point of difference and
frame of reference or point of parity.
And what you're going to do is, because
once you decide
on your positioning statement, you use all
of the elements of the
marketing mix that we've already talked
about, product, price, promotion and
place,
to position your product to meet the needs
of the target segment.
And positioning should be clear and simple
and focus on a few key benefits.
sometimes people talk about this as a
unique selling proposition.
the position must be defensible, so you
want to take a
positioning that you own and that other
people can't copy very easily.
And the really important thing is you
cannot be everything to everyone.
If you do that you have no position.
You must make choices.
You must focus.
You must choose a target segment.
You must choose a point
of difference.
You must choose a frame of reference to
have a clear positioning.
Because if you try to be everything,
you're going to end up
being lukewarm tea, and that is not a good
brand position.
Positioning, once you have the good brand
positioning, that
should determine what products you
develop, and positioning is
a strategic idea, so you really want to
think about
this in terms of what are, what's your
target
segment, what do customers want, what's
your competition,
what is your position relative to the
competition?
All of that is a big picture strategic
vision.
That is distinct from messaging.
Messaging is tactical.
Once you have your brand positioning, you
can decide things like,
what color should the brand be or what
should the symbol
be or what should the logo be, and we're
going to talk
about those in the third, in the third
section of my.
At my part here but that's very much
tactical and messaging.
Positioning at the level I'm talking about
it
right here, this is very much a strategic
idea.
And a very important piece of this is this
point of parity or frame of reference.
These are, so I want to spend a little bit
more time thinking about this just so that
you understand.
It's a part of the positioning statement,
but it's associations that
are not unique to the brand.
They are these frame of reference, they're
associations that are shared with other
brands.
And you want to think about these point of
parity as things that are necessary for
the category.
So something a brand must have to be
considered in this frame of reference.
So for example, if your frame of reference
is a grocery store,
then people think, in order to be a
grocery store it has
to have produce or it has to have fresh
product, that's what a grocery store is.
And if it doesn't have that it's not a
grocery store.
So, one of the things you think about in
terms of these points of parity.
Are what are the conditions that your
brand must have, that
they share with the competition to be part
of that set?
And then you want to think about points of
parity
sometimes is ways to negate, a, a, a
competitor's
point of difference.
So, for example, in toothpaste, when one
of the brands, and I can't
remember which one, first came out with
fluoride and as a cav, cavity preventer.
And that was a differentiator.
All of the other brands copied and put
fluoride in their toothpaste.
Suddenly it's a frame of reference, it's a
point of parity.
All toothpaste now has fluoride.
So what I've done is negated the point of
difference
of the first innovator, who came out with
fluoride toothpaste.
I have this slide up here.
On January 9th, 2007, a few years ago when
Steve Jobs was still here, he used to
go out in January and come up with
some big innovation every year, an
announcement about Apple.
On January 9th of 2007, one of the big
announcements at the
time was that he changed the name from
Apple Computer to just Apple.
And now it's been a while, and so people
are so used to thinking about it as Apple,
and
probably you, many of you probably don't
remember it
used to be Apple Computer, but what I, the
point
I'm making here is, when he changed the
name
of the company, think about just for a
second and
see if you can get this idea, which one of
the three aspects of the brand positioning
did he change?
Did he change the target segment?
Did he change his point of difference?
Or did he change his frame of reference?
It should be clear he changed his frame of
reference.
Target segment, still creative young
people.
Point of difference, still innovation.
But now the frame of reference is not
computers but it's
consumer electronics, and I believe when
he made this change was
the same time he introduced the iPhone or,
and he really
was in consumer electronics, and it was no
longer the frame of
reference comparing to other personal
computers.
The point of difference, I think is more
clear to people what that is.
It's strong, favorable, unique brand
associations.
Some people talk about this as a unique
selling proposition.
It's a similar concept.
And what you want it to do is to have it
be sustainable.
You want a competitive advantage, a point
of difference that
you can hold, and that it's difficult for
competition to copy.
and it can, it can be a lot of different
things;
it can be product attributes, performance
attributes, it can be imagery,
it can be benefits, it can be design, it
can be
anything that you can own and that really
differentiates your brand.
When you're choosing a point of
difference, you
want to make sure that it's desirable to
the customer.
Is it relevant, is it distinctive?
You also want to make sure that you can
deliver these
things, don't over promise, don't say
something that's not feasible,
that's not sustainable.
So in choosing a point of difference it's
very, very critical,
it's probably going to be the reason
people choose your brand.
But you've gotta make sure it's important
and that you can deliver on that criteria.
[MUSIC].