Positioning

1
Positioning

• 27th January, 2005

2
Today

• Summary of schemas
• What are the implications of memory structure for
  positioning?

3
Schemas

• Associative networks of information (nodes)
• Associations of various strengths (trace
  strength)
• Spreading activation
• Evaluation attached to nodes
• Schemas can be primed (adventurous Donald)
• Schemas themselves can be categorized
  taxonomically or by goals

4

• Donald spent a great amount of his time in
  search of what he liked to call excitement. He
  had already climbed Mt. McKinley shot the
  Colorado rapids in a kayak, driven in a
  demolition derby, and piloted a jet-powered boat
  -- without knowing very much about boats. He had
  risked injury, and even death, a number of times.
  Now he was in search of new excitement. He was
  thinking, perhaps, he would do some skydiving or
  maybe cross the Atlantic in a sailboat. By the
  way he acted one could readily guess that Donald
  was well aware of his ability to do many things
  well. Other than business engagements, Donald's
  contacts with people were rather limited. He
  felt he didn't really need to rely on anyone.
  Once Donald made up his mind to do something it
  was as good as done no matter how long it might
  take or how difficult the going might be. Only
  rarely did he change his mind even when it might
  well have been better if he had.

5
Donald Study

• Would you say you felt positively or negatively
  towards Donald?
• How would you describe Donald?
• Was Donald reckless or adventurous?
• Higgins, E. Tory, Rholes, W. S., Jones, C. R.
  (1977). Category accessibility and impression
  formation. Journal of Experimental Social
  Psychology, 13, 141 154

6
Taxonomic Categorization

• Individual schemas can be grouped according to
  similarity of attributes
• Groups of schemas with similar attributes can
  themselves be further grouped
• Leads to a hierarchical organization
• Within categories, certain schemas are considered
  most representative prototypes

7
Taxonomic Categorization
Beverages
Superordinate level
Basic level
Soft drinks
Coffees
Fruit juices
Prototype
Ground
Instant
Subordinate level
Coke
7up
Folgers
Nescafe
Pepsi
Schemata
8
Prototypes

• Best example of a category
• Example that comes to mind first
• Why?
• Tends to similar across individuals (within
  cultures, groups, etc.)
• E.g. soft drinks, birds, family pets, etc.

9
Goal-Derived Categorization

• Schemas organized in terms of the goals they
  serve
• Goals are provided by needs
• Examples
• Losing weight
• Going on a picnic
• Getting a good grade

10
Marketing Schemas

• Think of a purchase you made recently
• At what point in time were you first aware that
  you were going to have to make the purchase?
• What was the reason you were going to have to
  make the purchase?
• How did you proceed once you knew you would have
  to make a purchase?
• This is your goal-derived schema for that
  particular need
• What information nodes appear in your schema and
  in what order?
• Which of these would marketers want to activate
  their product (i.e. make it salient)?

11
Marketing Schemas

• We can think of consumers needs in terms of
  schemas
• Groups of needs will be associated in consumers
  minds
• Within a segment, consumers should share the same
  group of needs
• When a need becomes important the relevant schema
  will become salient
• This schema probably includes a solution to the
  need (i.e. a product category)

12
Marketing Schemas

• Implication 1 Product should be associated with
  needs and product category

Hunger
Time
(CompetitiveAdvantage)
Fast food
13
Marketing Schemas
Fast food
versus
Fast food
14
Marketing Schemas

• However, product should come to mind (i.e. be
  activated) by need and product category
• Implication 2 Need and product category alone
  should activate product trace strength

Hunger
Fast food
Time
15
Marketing Schemas

• Implication 3 We would like our product to be a
  prototype
• Can you think of examples where this has
  backfired?

16
Marketing Schemas

• Product should be evaluated favourably (awareness
  is necessary but not sufficient)
• Implication 4 Awareness is not enough. Must
  ensure a favourable evaluation

Hunger
Fast food

Time
17
Marketing Schemas

• What if need triggers competitive offerings too?
• Implication 5 Favourability and trace strength
  should be greater than competition

Hunger
Fast food
Time

18
Marketing Schema
Everyday use

• What happens when there are multiple competitors
  in the marketplace?
• Implication 6 Need-based associations should be
  unique

Jeans
Robust
Clothing
FCUK
Style
Levis
Affordability
Lee
19
Positioning Examples

• What do you think of when you think of these
  product categories/needs
• Soft drink
• Detergent
• Sexy lingerie
• Safe cars
• Reliable cars
• Quality electronics
• Low cost general purpose store
• Tough trucks

20
Positioning Examples

• What do you think of when you think of these
  products
• Coke
• Tide
• Victorias Secret
• Volvo
• Toyota
• Sony
• Walmart
• Ford

21
Positioning Exercise

• Coke Pepsi (cola)
• Tide detergent (stain remover)
• Victorias Secret sexy, lingerie
• Volvo safety
• Toyota reliable
• Sony quality, expensive (good value)
• Walmart low prices

22
Marketing Schemas

• How do we create associations?
• Consistent message
• Repetition of message
• Consumers need to process message (encode)

23
Positioning Strategies

• What types of associations should we create?
• How many associations should we create?

24
Types of Associations

• Product category prototype (e.g. jeans)
• Product features
• Usage occasions (e.g. Grey Poupon)
• Competition why would Avis want to position as
  no. 2 to Hertz?
• Class/product disassociation (e.g. the un-cola)
• Association should be designed to best
  communicate value of fulfilling needs benefits
• Consider nature of goal-derived schema

25
Number of Associations

• Unique selling proposition vs. multiple selling
  proposition
• Proponents of each
• Psychological considerations
• Motivation and capacity (processing gt
  encoding)
• Likelihood of retrieval
• Perceptions of quality and credibility

26
Quality Perceptions

• Which is better at moisturizing?
• Dove or Lever 2000
• Which is better at deodorizing?
• Lever 2000 or Zest
• Dove emphasizes moisturizing ability
• Lever 2000 emphasizes moisturizing and
  deodorizing
• Zest emphasizes deodorizing
• Why might this happen?

27
Quality Perceptions

• Harder to recall multiple associations
• Ease of retrieval heuristic
• Not credible that one product can be so many
  things

28
Nature of Associations

• Positive strong
• Distinctive (memorable), or at least superior
• Not easily copied (e.g. Coke its the real
  thing versus Pepsi its the cola)
• Requires consistent message

29
Positioning Errors

• Over-positioning too specific or promising too
  much
• Under-positioning not adopting a clear position
• Confused- or contradictory-positioning

30
Positioning Tools

• Perceptual maps
• Helps visualize position of company and
  competition
• Can be used to represent ideal points
• Uses a variety of statistical techniques
• Can also create intuitive maps

31
Actual Positions
32
Ideal Positions