Analysis of Positioning Strategies for Brand Packaging

[China Packaging News] The purpose of brand positioning is to create a distinct brand personality and shape a unique brand image, thereby meeting the needs of target consumers. Brand positioning is a highly creative activity with no fixed pattern. If there is a fixed pattern, the differences among brands will be greatly reduced, the influence of the brands will weaken accordingly, and the value of the brands' existence will be greatly discounted. According to incomplete statistics, there are dozens of common brand positioning strategies and those that have emerged in recent years. Many of them can be used alone or in combination to achieve better results. The following briefly introduces some of the most common brand positioning strategies.

I. Chief Positioning

Chief positioning is a market positioning that aims to become the "number one" in an industry or a certain aspect. The position of "number one" is enviable because it indicates that this brand is leading the entire market. Once a brand takes the leading position and is crowned with the title of "number one", it will generate a focusing effect, a halo effect, a magnetic field effect and a "nuclear fission" effect, possessing competitive advantages that follower brands do not have. Xerox is the number one brand of copiers. IBM's overall strength is much stronger than that of Xerox, but the copiers produced by IBM can never compete with Xerox. Kodak ventured into the "instant imaging" market to compete with Polaroid, but in the end, it only managed to capture a very small market share.

The basis for the chief positioning is the psychological law that people tend to only pay attention to the "first" and have the deepest impression of the "first". For example, the first person to sail around the world, the first person to land on the moon, etc. In today's era of information explosion and a highly developed commodity economy, brands are as numerous as fish crossing a river. Consumers only remember those top-ranked brands, especially the number one ones, but have no memory of the majority of brands.

Once a brand becomes the "number one" in the industry, as long as the enterprise is good at management and constantly innovates, it can maintain this position all the time. Since 1923, Coca-Cola, Colgate, Gillette, Goldyear, Hershey's, Kellogg's, Kodak, Lipton, Manhattan in the United States Among the top ten brands such as) and Nabisco, except for Manhattan, the other nine still maintain the top position to this day.

Of course, not all enterprises have the strength to apply the chief positioning strategy. Only those large-scale and powerful enterprises have the ability to operate it. For most enterprises, it is possible to develop competitive advantages in certain aspects of the brand and achieve a competitive positioning. For instance, Dial soap is the number one deodorizing soap, and Posk racing car is the number one for small sports cars. Wait a moment.

Second, strengthen positioning

Strengthening positioning refers to reinforcing one's own image positioning in the minds of consumers. When a company is unable to defeat its rivals head-on or is at a disadvantage in competition, it can consciously highlight the advantages of a certain aspect of its brand to leave a deep impression on consumers and thus win the competition. 7-Up soda tells consumers "It's not cola." Yadu constant temperature air exchanger tells consumers, "I'm not an air conditioner." Richardson Merrill knew that its products were no match for those of Conde and Dristan, so it positioned its cold medicine Nyquil as a "night cold medicine", informing consumers that it was a new drug to be taken at night, and thus achieved success.

Iii. Comparative Positioning

Comparative positioning is a positioning strategy that determines one's own market position by comparing with competing brands. In essence, it is a kind of positioning by taking advantage of the situation or reactive positioning. Leverage the momentum of competitors to enhance one's own brand image. When almost all car manufacturers are striving to design their cars longer, lower and more aesthetically pleasing, the Tortoise appears both small and ugly. If traditional methods are used for promotion, it is inevitable to try every possible way to cover up the shortcomings and exaggerate the advantages, such as taking more beautiful photos to publicize the unique quality advantages of the turtle car or other aspects. However, King Turtle positioned its brand as "Small" and produced an advertisement: "Think Small." Its positioning has achieved great success.

In comparative positioning, the selection of the reference object is an important issue. Generally speaking, only by comparing oneself with well-known and reputable brands can one take advantage of the situation to enhance one's own value. In the 1960s, the American DDB advertising Agency created the advertisement "The Second Manifesto" for Avis Car Rental Company, which was a classic example of success achieved through comparative positioning. Thanks to its ingenious connection with the leading brand in the market, Avis's market share has risen by 28 percentage points, significantly widening the gap with the industry's third-ranked national Company.

At present, fierce business battles involving comparative positioning often occur between network software and hardware suppliers. Far Eastern Eco, July 19, 2001

The full-page advertisement of Oracle Corporation was published in the magazine nomic Review. Oracle claims that the efficiency of their SAP management software is four times higher than that of IBM's software, and "the interest ratio of customers in Oracle to IBM software is 10:1". This competitive approach couldn't be more straightforward.

Iv. Gap Positioning

No product can possess all the competitive advantages of similar products, nor can it occupy the entire market of similar products. There are always some gaps in the market that are valued by consumers but have not been developed. Being good at identifying and discovering such market gaps is an important choice for the successful positioning of a brand. Generally speaking, the market gaps of M produced by Mars Company of the United States mainly include the following types:

(1) Time gap

Some textile and garment enterprises launch down jackets, down quilts, sweaters and woolen trousers in summer. Some air conditioning factories and ice cream factories step up brand promotion before the arrival of summer or sell their products in winter. When cotton textiles are gradually being forgotten by people and chemical synthetic fibers are sweeping the market, some merchants have launched pure cotton uniforms, which are refreshing to the eyes. These are all typical examples of making use of time gaps.

(2) Age gap

Age is an important variable in population segmentation. Enterprises can, based on the competitive advantages of their products, identify the age groups that have been overlooked by similar products and position their brands accordingly. Coca-Cola's Queer brand juice is a successful model in the marketing field. One of the key reasons is that it targeted the market gap of no leading brand in the children's juice beverage market.

(3) Gender gap

In modern society, the status of men and women is increasingly equal, and the distinction of gender roles in many industries is no longer so strict. For some brands, shaping a certain gender image is conducive to maintaining a stable customer base. A suit should reflect a man's elegance and nobility, while gauze and skirts emphasize a woman's grace and dignity. Marlboro is the leader in the men's cigarette market, and to this day, no brand has been able to shake its dominant position. Lorillard's Luke brand cigarettes advertised: "From Kankakee to Kokomo, Luke travels smoothly and slowly along the way," attempting to carve out a niche in the men's cigarette market, but ended up occupying only a very small market share.

Similarly, Virginia Sims in the United States has the largest market share in the female cigarette market, while another brand, Eve, has failed. The reason is that the losers come too late. Goldlion was originally a "men's world", but later it attempted to produce products for women, which eventually weakened its brand image.

(4) Gap in usage

Consumers have different consumption habits. Some people prefer small packages, which are frequently used and convenient to carry. Some people prefer large packages and purchase them once for long-term use. Sometimes, by taking advantage of the gap in usage, unexpected effects can be achieved. For instance, shampoo comes in small packages of 2ml and large packages of 500ml. Different packages can meet the needs of different consumers and increase sales. In order to make a mark in the high-end wine market, Changyu Company has adopted a brand-new direct sales model for a new product of its Changyu Castel Winery - full barrel ordering, with each barrel priced at around 80,000 yuan. The minimum transaction unit set for this direct sales is the barrel (225L per barrel, that is, 750ml per bottle, totaling 300 bottles), and thus it is commonly known as "winery wine sold by barrel".

(V) The gap in the high-price market

The market can be divided into high-price markets and low-price markets based on the prices of goods. For luxury goods like watches and perfumes, positioning in the high-end market is often very effective. For instance, "The most expensive perfume in the world is only joy", "Why should you invest in Piaget? It is the most expensive watch in the world." The high-price strategy is also known as the skimming pricing strategy. In pursuit of maximum profits, enterprises, in the early stage of launching new products, will take advantage of customers' desire for novelty and set the product prices relatively high.

American companies such as Renault, DuPont and Polaroid have all employed this strategy. For instance, in 1945, Renault introduced the production technology of ballpoint pens from Argentina, with an investment of around 260,000 US dollars. The production cost of each pen was only 0.8 US dollars, and its selling price was set at 12.5 US dollars. Half a year later, Renault not only recovered all its investment but also reaped a profit nearly six times that of the investment.

(6) The gap in the low-price market

Products in the low-price market are generally mass-market products. When consumers go shopping, the first brand that comes to mind is the one located in the low-price market. In China, when people talk about instant coffee, the first brand that comes to mind is Nestle. But when it comes to low-cost instant coffee, the first thing that comes to mind is Lishen. Although there are many domestic low-priced instant coffee products, from the current perspective, Lishen has occupied the gap in the low-price market. In the 1990s, the aviation industry in the United States was in a slump. In 1992, the entire industry suffered a loss of 2 billion US dollars. In sharp contrast to this depressed atmosphere, Southwest Airlines of the United States has achieved remarkable results one after another. In 1992, the company's operating income increased by 25%. The success of Southwest Airlines is mainly attributed to consumers' recognition of its low prices.

To promote her image of low prices, the company's president, Claire, once personally appeared on a hot news program on TV. In the program, Claire carried a briefcase on her head and said that if any passenger felt shabby about taking the company's flight, the company would give him such a bag. When the host asked why, Claire said, "To make money!" The money saved by taking a Southwest Airlines flight could fill an entire package. When Toyota promoted the Lexus sedan in the United States, it placed the Lexus image side by side with the Mercedes-Benz image and enlarged the headline, claiming, "It's the first time in history that you can buy a car worth $75,000 for $38,000."

Some enterprises have marketing goals that not only aim to make profits but also to serve the long-term interests of consumers and contribute to the progress and development of society. They aim for multi-social responsibility when setting prices, but there are still not many such high-quality enterprises. For instance, the American company Medtonick invented the world's first pacemaker. Starting from the greatest welfare of humanity and adhering to the principle of saving lives and healing the wounded, the company insisted on taking social responsibility as the pricing goal of this product and set its price relatively low.

V. Product Category Positioning

The method of associating a product with a specific product category to establish brand association is called product category positioning. One way to position a product category is to inform consumers that it belongs to a certain type of product. For instance, Pacific Ocean World positions itself as an "educational institution". Another approach is to define oneself as a product category that is in opposition to or significantly different from competitors, such as 7-Up positioning itself as a "non-cola" beverage.

-- This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-273900.html