Marketing Communications

142 CHAPTER 4 TARGET GROUPS

z The electric car is designed with elements that are specifically developed for the car, such as hard carbon

materials outside, soft tanned leather for the seats, and hardened plant fibre inside.

z The electric car makes a technically advanced and dynamic impression because of the fluent lines, the large

glass surfaces, the LED headlights, and the remarkable radiator grill that does not serve to cool the engine but

behind which a blue light is installed.

z The electric car is equipped with the latest communications technology. For instance, with your smart phone you

can ask it to turn on the heating or defrost the windows in the morning. When you drive home in the evening,

you can program your oven or TV.

Intellectual

z The electric car allows you to drive into the city centre and park for free. This will no longer be possible with a

car with a combustion engine.

z The electric car has an accounting system. Via your smart phone you can look up the total cost of your car during

the last month.

z The electric car drives silently. Therefore you do not cause any noise pollution.

z The electric car has a clearly visible eco-label with information about its environmental friendliness, so that other

people can easily see that you have chosen an environmentally-friendly way of driving.

Determining the positions of competitors’ brands and products with respect to each of the

relevant attributes is the third step in a positioning development. Consumer research through

in-depth interviews, focus groups or full quantitative assessment should be used in this stage.

Oft en, this analysis leads to a ‘map’ of consumers’ perceptions about the relative position of

each brand, as illustrated in Figure 4.3. It is not just the relative position of each brand that is

important. Each of the targeted segments may have diff erent buying motives or needs and

will fi nd other attributes important. Th erefore, relative preferences of target groups towards

the competing brands have to be studied.

Aft er the fi rst four stages of what is essentially market and consumer research, the company

has to decide which position it is going to defend. Ideally, the company will select a position

on the basis of one or more attributes that are important in the mind of a consumer and

for which the brand is at least as strong as its major competitors. As a positioning decision

should be a brand’s direction for a number of years, a marketer should consider whether the

positioning is appropriate and attainable. Positioning should be based on important attributes,

not on fads, and on attributes for which the company can hope to defend and maintain its

relative strength and reputation. Once a position is chosen, a company has to implement it

by supportive marketing and communications activities. All communications instruments, in

synergy with all other marketing tools, will have to refl ect the selected positioning strategy.

Th e last step in the positioning process is the monitoring stage. Th e image of the brand and

its competitors on important attributes will have to be tracked on a continuous basis to reveal

changes in consumer perceptions and in the competitors’ positions.

As a result of this tracking analysis, a company may have to alter the position of its brands

to keep up with the changing consumer or competitive landscape. Th ere are a number of ways

to change a positioning strategy or to reposition a brand:^69

z A company can introduce a new brand. For instance, aft er major price cuts in its PC branch

IBM introduced a new brand ‘Ambra’ to be competitive in a new context of consumers

expecting cheap computers for daily use. Procter & Gamble reintroduced its old Bonux

brand as a cheaper laundry powder to counter the competition of own-label brands.

z A company can change an existing brand. Compaq used a diff erent strategy to cope with

the changing computer trends. Compaq lowered the prices of its existing brand and made

basic versions of its computers.

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