In the legacy era, the concept of positioning remains at the core of marketing strategy. It articulates the goals consumers will achieve from using a brand that explains why it is superior to others. Each successful product, brand and company has managed to gain a strong and unique position in the minds of customers.
For example, HSBC Bank has a global positioning as a financial services institution adept at understanding the anxieties and desires of the local community it serves. Jollibee Foods Corporation, which operates fast-food restaurants, wants to be perceived as the number one family restaurant chain in the Phillipines.
To its global customers, Samsung wants to be known as one of the leading companies inherently focused on technological innovation.
Of course, in a changing world, brand positoning, as we have known it, is no longer entirely relevant. That is because the act of company-driven positioning is one-way and more dominated by the company, no longer in accordance with the character of thr new customer who wants a more horizontal and parallel relationship.
In the new era, consumers are getting stronger, more communal and do not easily believe in vertical communication from the company.
In an era loaded with sophisticated electronic technology and with the world becoming ever more connected, companies are beginning to have little control over customers' perception of a brand. That perception is not as affected anymore by marketing communications from the company as much as it is shaped by external opinion in customer communities and social media.
The taglines, delivered meticulously through a variety of paid media, will fail to form the desired perceptions in the minds of customers if stories circulating in the customer community are contrarian. This poses a big challenge to the traditional approach to positioning triggered by the digital revolution and changing societal trends.
Larry Light, while serving as the chief marketing officer at McDonald's, once made a controversial statement in public discourse. Speaking at an advertising industry conference in New York, he said the positioning practice of McDonald's had long been buried because identifying one brand position, and communicating it in a repetitive manner was an old-fashioned, out-of-date and out-of-touch method of brand communication. He emphatically called upon "the end of brand positioning as we know it."
Another epitaph for the fall of the positioning concept was written in the April 2, 2005, issue of The Economist. The article, entitled "Power at Last," showed how consumers now buy based on research and personal value, not on companies seeking to "position" their products.
They can read what companies say about products in far greater detail, but also get exposed to how that tallies with the opinions of others, and - most importantly of all - discover what previous buyers have to say. In short, the company-driven massage is no longer the main influencer of today's consumers.
What is clarification? This is actually an evolution of the concept of positioning in a new form, which is more horizontal, inclusive and social. There are three fundamental differences between positioning and clarification strategy.
One is the single message versus the multidimensional message. In positioning, the tagline becomes the main message, and is spread across through advertising, events, sponsorships, publicity activities and other marketing campaigns. The purpose is to help form a strong perception of a product. In clarification, the tagline does not consist only of a message that is delivered repeatedly across media, but rather serves as a "cover story" that gets translated in various forms of content. While MacDonald's has continued to use the "I'm lovin' it" tagline in a variety of media promotion activities for over 10 years, the company has not imposed a single meaning of its use on its customers. The campaign has appeared in over 100 countries in more than 20 languages, but the underlying emotion is love. In Azerbaijan for example, the tagline literally translates to "See, this is love."
Second is company-oriented content versus customer-oriented content. In positioning, the focus of content marketing is all about the product or service of a company. The main objective is to effectively convey the functional and emotional benefits that can be obtained by customers using a particular product or service. But this approach may not be relevant anymore. In an era when customers are highly aware and exposed virtually all the time to a wide range of information, they will ultimately hear and see what they want to and what really matters to them.
The approach that the process of clarification advocates is using content that is more tailored to customer needs. Often, the content is not even directly related to the products on offer, but it could provide real benefits to customers. Clarification can use a variety of other forms of providing users with useful information: pictures, articles, movies, music, e-books, apps and other downloadable content. Despite the many forms, the principle remains the same, it is all about customers, not the company.
Third, one-way versus multiway communication. In the past, positioning was formed through communication controlled by the company while the customer acted as just a passive recipient of the messages. But with the advancement in technology, the interaction has grown into not only a two-way communication between company and customers, but into a multi-way communication between customers themselves. Mobile and digital technology has made it easier for customers to share information with the people around them (friends, families and also followers).
To that end, it is vital for companies to produce customer-oriented content, which is deemed exciting and entertaining enough by customers to be shareable in their networks.
Hermawan Kartajaya is founder and executive chairman of MarkPlus, Inc. Ardhi Ridwansyah is director of EMBA SBM-ITB/MarkPlus Institute.
For example, HSBC Bank has a global positioning as a financial services institution adept at understanding the anxieties and desires of the local community it serves. Jollibee Foods Corporation, which operates fast-food restaurants, wants to be perceived as the number one family restaurant chain in the Phillipines.
To its global customers, Samsung wants to be known as one of the leading companies inherently focused on technological innovation.
Of course, in a changing world, brand positoning, as we have known it, is no longer entirely relevant. That is because the act of company-driven positioning is one-way and more dominated by the company, no longer in accordance with the character of thr new customer who wants a more horizontal and parallel relationship.
In the new era, consumers are getting stronger, more communal and do not easily believe in vertical communication from the company.
In an era loaded with sophisticated electronic technology and with the world becoming ever more connected, companies are beginning to have little control over customers' perception of a brand. That perception is not as affected anymore by marketing communications from the company as much as it is shaped by external opinion in customer communities and social media.
The taglines, delivered meticulously through a variety of paid media, will fail to form the desired perceptions in the minds of customers if stories circulating in the customer community are contrarian. This poses a big challenge to the traditional approach to positioning triggered by the digital revolution and changing societal trends.
Larry Light, while serving as the chief marketing officer at McDonald's, once made a controversial statement in public discourse. Speaking at an advertising industry conference in New York, he said the positioning practice of McDonald's had long been buried because identifying one brand position, and communicating it in a repetitive manner was an old-fashioned, out-of-date and out-of-touch method of brand communication. He emphatically called upon "the end of brand positioning as we know it."
Another epitaph for the fall of the positioning concept was written in the April 2, 2005, issue of The Economist. The article, entitled "Power at Last," showed how consumers now buy based on research and personal value, not on companies seeking to "position" their products.
They can read what companies say about products in far greater detail, but also get exposed to how that tallies with the opinions of others, and - most importantly of all - discover what previous buyers have to say. In short, the company-driven massage is no longer the main influencer of today's consumers.
What is clarification? This is actually an evolution of the concept of positioning in a new form, which is more horizontal, inclusive and social. There are three fundamental differences between positioning and clarification strategy.
One is the single message versus the multidimensional message. In positioning, the tagline becomes the main message, and is spread across through advertising, events, sponsorships, publicity activities and other marketing campaigns. The purpose is to help form a strong perception of a product. In clarification, the tagline does not consist only of a message that is delivered repeatedly across media, but rather serves as a "cover story" that gets translated in various forms of content. While MacDonald's has continued to use the "I'm lovin' it" tagline in a variety of media promotion activities for over 10 years, the company has not imposed a single meaning of its use on its customers. The campaign has appeared in over 100 countries in more than 20 languages, but the underlying emotion is love. In Azerbaijan for example, the tagline literally translates to "See, this is love."
Second is company-oriented content versus customer-oriented content. In positioning, the focus of content marketing is all about the product or service of a company. The main objective is to effectively convey the functional and emotional benefits that can be obtained by customers using a particular product or service. But this approach may not be relevant anymore. In an era when customers are highly aware and exposed virtually all the time to a wide range of information, they will ultimately hear and see what they want to and what really matters to them.
The approach that the process of clarification advocates is using content that is more tailored to customer needs. Often, the content is not even directly related to the products on offer, but it could provide real benefits to customers. Clarification can use a variety of other forms of providing users with useful information: pictures, articles, movies, music, e-books, apps and other downloadable content. Despite the many forms, the principle remains the same, it is all about customers, not the company.
Third, one-way versus multiway communication. In the past, positioning was formed through communication controlled by the company while the customer acted as just a passive recipient of the messages. But with the advancement in technology, the interaction has grown into not only a two-way communication between company and customers, but into a multi-way communication between customers themselves. Mobile and digital technology has made it easier for customers to share information with the people around them (friends, families and also followers).
To that end, it is vital for companies to produce customer-oriented content, which is deemed exciting and entertaining enough by customers to be shareable in their networks.
Hermawan Kartajaya is founder and executive chairman of MarkPlus, Inc. Ardhi Ridwansyah is director of EMBA SBM-ITB/MarkPlus Institute.
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