Positioning Guide #14: Low price is not a brand benefit.
Positioning Guide #15: There should never be a reference to price in a brand position statement.
Too often marketers will include a reference to low price in a brand positioning statement. The brand position defines the unique brand benefit that your brand is going to deliver to your target customers. You’ve validated through research that your unique brand benefit motivates your target customers to consider your brand. Don’t confuse yourself and others who read your brand positioning template by including a reference to price.
Sometimes a brand position which includes a reference to price is referred to as a “value” position. All brand positions that have a unique brand benefit that motivates target customers to consider the brand are “value” positions. The value that you deliver to your target customers is your unique brand benefit.
Price is not part of brand positioning. It is part of the marketing mix. After your target customers believe that your brand delivers your unique brand benefit, the marketing mix question becomes what are they willing to pay to get the benefit that your brand delivers?
The danger in including a reference to price in the brand position is that it will become the primary focus of tactical execution. Give an advertising agency a summary brand positioning statement that contains a reference to low price, and that’s what they’ll emphasize in the creative product. The unique brand benefit will be relegated to a secondary role and the creative will be full of star bursts emphasizing low price.
Wal-Mart’s old themeline was “Lowest prices … always.” If you had asked Wal-Mart executives what their unique brand benefit was, they’d probably would have said “lowest prices.” However, the Wal-Mart brand is much richer than just offering low prices. Wal-Mart delivers of number of retail attributes for which mid-America is looking … friendliness through the greeter, known and trusted brand names, wide selection in many product categories, liberal return policy, etc. Wrap all of these retail attributes into a single brand attribute and you have trust. Mid-America trusts Wal-Mart. Moreover, they can do business with their trusted retailer and get a good deal.
Wal-Mart’s change of themelines to “Pay less. Live Better.” comes closer to following marketing ground rules. Yes, they still have the reference to price in the themeline, but they have the reason that their target customers are willing to sacrifice service and tolerate long lines to get Wal-Mart’s low prices in the “Live Better.” In the upcoming pricing section of this blog you’ll learn that all consumers want the most for their money. Why? So that they can live better on the income that they have. “Live Better” is a unique brand benefit that motivates the Wal-Mart target customer. Reflecting back to this blog’s discussion of consumer wants/needs and my belief that Maslow’s hierarchy is a pretty good model for those wants/needs, I don’t know where “Live Better” fits into Maslow’s hierarchy; but I’m sure that it’s in there somewhere.
Target is argued by some to be the best marketer of all three of the discount retailers. Target gives its target customers fashion and style at a low price. The product benefits are fashion and style which satisfy some social and/or ego needs. Since all consumers want the most for their money, Target gives them the fashion and style that they are seeking for a low price. Again to referring to Maslow’s hierarchy, fashion and style are probably social motivators or possibly ego motivators. See how all of this stuff fits together?
That’s it for this week. I’ve been blogging now for about eight months and have yet to receive a single comment. The stats say that people are reading this blog. Whoever you are, leave me a comment so I’ll know that this stuff isn’t disappearing into cyberspace.
No comments:
Post a Comment