Abstract
Positioning describes where a company’s products and services stand in relation to those of the competitors. This helps the brand to occupy a market niche. Branding is important to a company, because it helps to differentiate the goods and services in order for consumers to choose them over the competitors’ products. Cognitive and affective models show how consumers’ feelings, beliefs and behaviours influence their brand choices.
In order for a company to make sales, it is necessary to develop good marketing strategies. It is also important to ensure proper positioning of the products and services in order to attract buyers. Effective marketing requires a good understanding of how consumers develop their attitudes towards the products. Branding helps communicate the uniqueness of the company’s goods and services to make the brand a preferred choice among alternatives. It is also important to understand how consumers search for information and make decisions regarding products and services.
Positioning
Positioning is a strategy employed in marketing that involves the identification of a market problem and the development of a solution based on an understanding of the current situation in the market. Market research may be conducted in order to understand the situation and to identify opportunities. This may be done with the intention of occupying a market niche for a brand or product. Excelsior Industries intends to position its products and services in order to attract buyers and possibly increase sales. For this reason, the company would need to employ certain positioning strategies in order to create a distinct impression in the consumers’ minds. This is the only way the company can survive.
In order for the company to ensure brand positioning is done effectively, it would be necessary to identify the uniqueness of the brand. Firstly, Excelsior Industries would need to understand its direct competition. The competitors may include companies that offer the same products. It would also be important to understand how the competitors have positioned their business. For example, the companies could claim to be the cheapest, largest or the most efficient in service delivery.
Excelsior would then need to document its own positioning and compare it to those of its competitors. This would give it an opportunity to identify viable areas for differentiation. After identifying these gaps, it would be necessary for the company to develop a distinct and differentiating positioning idea. Finally, it would need to create a positioning statement with specific messages that would be used for developing communications across the company.
In terms of product positioning, Excelsior Industries would need to first define the market for the products by knowing the relevant customers. Identification of the attributes of the products would also be important. The company would then need to conduct market research in order to identify what the customers feel about each attribute associated with the products. It would then be necessary to understand the combination of attributes that the consumers prefer.
While considering positioning, it is important to understand the positioning concepts. One of the concepts is the functional positions. They aim at solving the problems and providing benefits to the consumers. Symbolic positions, on the other hand, may be useful in self-image enhancement. Experiential positions aim at providing cognitive and sensory stimulation.
Branding
This is a method used to show the uniqueness of one’s goods and services. Using a unique name, symbol or design differentiates them from those of another seller. Branding is the process of creating the distinct image or name. This may be achieved through the use of advertisements that create an image in the mind of a consumer. Branding does not only make potential customers choose the brand over the competition, but also creates the idea that it is the only source of solutions.
The first stage involved in branding is understanding and discovery of the brand. It is important to understand the company well in order to communicate better about it to others, because customers may not understand the products and services the same way the producer understands them. Ultimately, the customers are the ones to define the brand. The company only helps in shaping it in the customer’s minds. Therefore, research is vital at this stage. This may also involve the examination of the corporate culture, mission and goals.
The second stage involves articulation and clarification. This is whereby the collected data is analyzed and translated into objectives. This would describe where the company is and where it would like to go. The company should not only look at its customers, but also include all its audiences.
The third stage is positioning and differentiating. This stage is important in brand definition. Excelsior Industries will have to compare itself with its competitors and define its unique value proposition. The company should identify the unique benefits that it is ready to provide to the customers. This will set it apart from its competitors and guide its outreach through advertising and marketing.
The fourth stage involves identifying and creating. This stage cannot be arrived at effectively without passing through brand strategy. With the information obtained so far, the company can then align the objectives descriptively and strategically. The logo, tagline and visual design should work together towards a common goal. The products and services of the company may also need to be redesigned in order to align them to the brand.
The fifth stage would involve its application and extension. This involves the building and activation of the new brand. This could involve launching the brand internally first. The brand may be introduced within the organization first before making it public. This could help in shaping the employees’ behaviour in order to ensure that customer experience is excellent. Afterwards, the brand may be introduced to the public through advertisements, presentations and promotions. The brand may then be managed by brand champions. This would help deliver a consistent brand experience. Going forward, the brand may be monitored, evaluated and updated in order to keep it relevant in the current market.
Cognitive and Affective Models
The attitudes of a consumer are composed of the individual’s feelings, beliefs and behavioural intentions towards a particular commodity or brand. These components are interrelated and they affect the way an individual reacts to a brand. The beliefs of a consumer provide understanding about certain behaviours. An individual may hold both positive and negative beliefs towards the same commodity. In the case of Excelsior Industries, for example, a consumer may believe that red wine tastes good.
The consumer may also hold a negative belief that red wine is easily spilled and stains clothing. The individual may hold a neutral belief that red wine is red in colour. Some beliefs differ from person to person and some depend on the situation. For example, one may believe that red wine is good on a cold evening. Beliefs are held when the consumer has learnt about the products. Since consumers hold many beliefs, it is usually difficult to summarize them. The Multi-attribute (Fishbein) Model tried to summarize overall attitudes of a consumer.
Attitudes say a lot about consumers since people usually go for what they like. However, having a positive attitude towards a particular brand does not necessarily mean that the individual will buy the product. There is a distinction between the individual’s attitude towards the product and attitude towards the behaviour of purchase. Attitudes usually represent the likes and dislikes of a person. They are a lasting evaluation of the product that helps to direct behaviour.
However, they are changeable. An individual may have attitudes towards products, company, retailers or product attributes. Some may have attitudes towards brand associations, such as the logo, symbol or product endorsers. Individuals hold particular feelings (affect) towards products. They may be based on beliefs and would depend on how people feel about each of the products’ attributes. Behavioural intention describes their intended response towards the product.
The cognitive models may describe the cognitive component of consumer attitude. The employees of Excelsior Industries should understand that consumer beliefs are psychological associations between the brand and the attributes of the particular brand. In this case, the beliefs are based on knowledge (cognition).
Therefore, customer beliefs would be stronger if the association of the attributes is just as strong. Affective models, on the other hand, describe the emotive component of consumer attitudes. In this case, the decision on whether to buy or not is dependent on the affective response. Affect is the manner in which individuals respond to market stimuli. The affective models include the Functional Theory of Attitude, the Belief-Importance Model and Fishbein Model.
Intention describes the behaviour component of consumer attitudes. It shows the attitudes that individuals have towards brand purchase. Therefore, it may be the better predictor of behaviour. Models that describe behavioural intention include the Theory of Trying and the Theory of Reasoned Action. The latter proposes that an individual’s behavioural intention is influenced by the person’s attitude about the intended course of action. It is a measure of the individual’s strength of intention to perform the action.
In order for Excelsior Industries to realize better sales, it would be necessary to employ strategies of attitude change. However, it is not easy to change consumers’ attitudes. In order to succeed, it is important that the consumers do not feel that the company has self-serving agendas. One approach may be to try to change affect. Classical conditioning is a good place to start. This would involve pairing of a product with a liked stimulus. Alternatively, Excelsior Industries could try to make the consumers like the advertisements. It is possible that people would come to like the product as well.
Another strategy the company could adopt is changing behaviour. Consumers tend to continue using a particular brand as long as no one else convinces them to switch. Consumers may be convinced to switch to Excelsior’s brand by using temporary price discounts. The company may also try to change beliefs about the brand or products. This may be achieved by changing the currently held beliefs or changing the importance of beliefs. It may also be done by adding beliefs.
How Consumers Conduct Information Search
Before making purchases, customers may be involved in gathering preliminary information about several brands in the market. After identifying several brands or products, customers may then collect more information about the most suitable alternatives. This would then give them an opportunity to decide whether or not to purchase the most preferred one. Customers usually obtain preliminary information easily from diverse sources. For example, they could get this information from magazines, the internet, television and friends.
In order to understand some characteristics that are not easily quantifiable, the consumer may opt to use a less exhaustive method to obtain information. It has been shown that consumers choose a particular brand not only because of the suitability of the product characteristics, but also due to the variations in costs of searching the alternatives. Consumers conduct limited amount of research before choosing a particular brand. Therefore, Excelsior should ensure that the cost incurred by the consumers due to research is minimal.
Conclusion
In order for Excelsior Industries to realize greater sales of its products, it is necessary to employ positioning. This would help to attract customers by creating a distinct impression in their minds. Branding is also vital in differentiating the company’s products and services from those of the competitors. Excelsior also needs to understand the feelings, beliefs and behavioural intentions of the customers towards a brand. The cost of information search should be as low as possible in order to make it easy for consumers to know about the brand.