10. Points-of-Parity Category Points of Parity The essentials to your product or service The āgreen feesā to play the marketing game Competitive Points of Parity Used to negate your competitionās point of difference The āLess-Fillingā Part of Miller Lite
20. Interested in learning moreā¦ Read Chapter 10 in Marketing Management Read Chapter 8 in Up and Out of Poverty Thank you for listening
Editor's Notes
Just like surfing, in the world of marketing you first must determine your spot. Without doing so can lead to the complete breakdown of a product or service or in surfer terms āgetting snakedā. As Kotler and Keller (page 268) put it your goal is to āoccupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target marketāTry not to be a Kook or waxboy.
To further use the analogy of a surfer, there is bad positioning and good.On the left clearly this guy is a bad spot. If a company does a bad job of positioning it will confuse its market.A good one (referenced as the infamous Jeff Spicoli from 1982) will help guide all people involved, including of course, the consumer.
Since 1985 VS has delivered 25% annual sales growth and now posts over $3.2 billion in revenue. National average of bra sales is 2. VS customers buy 8-10. Limited Brands founder Leslie Wexner turned VS into a glamourous experience for women. Of course most women went out and purchased these wings as well as the lingerie.
No, I am not referencing the band started in 1992 Stone Temple Pilots or an automobile additives company here. Remember these 3 letters. Segmentation, Targeting and PositioningMarketing Strategy revolves around this. Your job in all this mess is to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of your target within these 3 items.
On a much more serious note.In Kotler and Leeās Chapter 8, developing a desired position even relates to the world of fighting malaria. 40% of the worldās population lives in areas at risk of malariaEvery year 1 million people die of MalariaThe GDP of African countries is 32% lower because of malaria. Imagine that.
A non-profit campaign to eradicate this problem was brought forth in 2002.Using the 4 P method (which my colleagues will describe next) they became very successful.Bringing into their positioningMothers, Commercial Manufacturers of nets, small local businesses, and Policy makers.
āIts not delivery, itāāsDiGiornoā First you need to define a competitive frame of reference.Determining what is your ācategory membershipā. Which brands compete and which brands function as close substitutesClever positioning with DiGiorno as they were positioned away from the frozen pizza category. Of course, Nestle owns them so thatās a whole different issue.
PODās are attributes that consumers strongly associate with a brand.They also believe that they couldnāt find the same attribute with a competitive brand.Here we have a woman putting together a man apparently she likes rock stars. No mention of vodka. Can you think of any?
These are attributes that are shared with other brands. They consist of Category Points of Parity and also Competitive Points of Parity.Category are the essentials. Your product has to have these components or else it wonāt survive.Competitive points are the ones used to negate your competition.
Points of parityvs points of differencemiller lite was able to do this, but was definitely straddling a fine lineUsing ex jocks like bob uecker and yogi berra they humorously debated which 2 points was more descriptive of the beer.Tastes great or less filling.
The straddle position often looks like an ideal way to create a best of both worlds solution, but be careful as it may not become credible or a legitimate player in any of the categories it tries to get into. PDAās trying to become Personal Computers could be a good example of a failure. BMW in the 1980s however, was able to achieve the image of both luxury and performance
There are 3 ways to communicate.#1.Announce your category benefits-a brownie mix becomes a dessert by claiming great taste or by showing images of people eating a hot brownie.Continue to reassure your clients that your product is great because of great visuals and even great descriptionsJiffi Australian CondomsSlogan: The thinking man's condom.
2. Comparing or associating your brand with a great company works as well. Tommy Hilfiger comparing itself to Calvin Klein or Perry ellis. This was when the brand was completely unknown and quickly entered into this upscale clothing membership. Of course, this was when denim shirts and rolling up your jeens were cool as well.
Describe the product in a new light. This should follow the brand name. It is a concise means of conveying category origin. Automobile companies are and were notorious for communicating a unique position with their products. The original minivan in 1984 by Chrysler was deemed the āMagic Wagonā Ford motor company called its 2004 X-Trainer a āsports wagonā And of course we canāt forget the griswolds Queen Family Truckster in Lampoons Vacation.
All of us as potential marketers, must decide on which of these levels to really anchor into. Who would have thought that anyone cared about Folgers.āFlaked Coffee Crystalsā??And this leads the next, most important part of the past 5 minutesā¦the positioning statement
To communicate a company or to position oneself, marketing plans should include a Positioning statementIt should follow the form:To (target group and need)Our (brand)Is to (the concept)That (what the point of difference is or does)
