Qiao Chunyang: An Epoch-Making Concept: Brand Positioning

　　 Economics Development and social progress have brought forth new ideas, and an important idea can open up an era.

In the latter half of the twentieth Century, the era of positioning came along with the name of a person. This man is called. Jack Traut 。 Jack Traut began his career in the advertising department of GE. After leaving GM, he was appointed advertising manager of a branch of Unirogyl. After that, he joined the advertising and marketing planning company of AI and began close cooperation between the two people for 26 years. He is currently the most famous in the world. Marketing One of the consulting companies, chief executive officer. The company is headquartered in Connecticut, USA, and has opened branches in 14 countries. Its customers include IMB, Xerox, Urger King World famous enterprises such as, P & G, P & G, Ericsson and so on.

In 1970, A Chis and Positioning published an article in the advertising age. They put forward an epoch-making brand new concept in marketing history. Since then, the wind of a fresh positioning theory has swept the global marketing community, triggering an ideological revolution and practical revolution in the marketing field.

Together with AI, he wrote many classics of marketing theory: the 1980 "positioning" came out, and 1985 "marketing war" was published. These two books were translated into 14 languages and sold well all over the world. The marketing revolution was launched in 1988. In 1995, Jack Traut also worked with R. R. R. R. R. R. R. R. R. R. At this point, Jack Traut drew a satisfactory conclusion for the concept of positioning and made the positioning theory a complete ideological system.

Because Jack Traut put forward the concept of "the greatest influence on American Marketing in history", he was praised as "the most influential American Marketing" and "the eternal law of discovering marketing". As Tang Jun, vice president of Southwest Airlines, said, "the first point of marketing psychology is to read the book" positioning ". Its core seems simple, but it is actually full of strength, and has been widely used in various fields. Not only in the United States, the impact of positioning theory on the global marketing community is also enormous and far-reaching.

In order to highlight the value and significance of positioning, and to explain the convenience, positioning is deliberately understandable to divide the product era, image era and positioning era. In the smoky marketing battlefield, product positioning, advertising positioning, price positioning, service positioning, leader positioning, competitor positioning, positioning "function", positioning "brand", positioning "image", positioning "consumers"...... Positioning is everywhere. {page_break}

A Chis and he believe that consumers' brain stores all kinds of product information, just like a sponge filled with water. It is possible to absorb new product information only by squeezing out the original product information. Accordingly, they define such a definition: "positioning is not about doing something for your product." It's the effort of your future potential customers. That is, positioning your product in the hearts of your future potential customers. They believe that positioning "change is the name, price and packaging, in fact, no change to the product, all changes are basically being modified, the purpose is to get a favorable position in the hearts of potential customers." It is a pure communication strategy that allows product information to occupy the gap between consumers' minds. It can be seen that positioning is a creative experiment on existing products.

Brand positioning is the process of designing a brand so that it can occupy a unique and valuable position in the mind of the target consumer, or the process and result of establishing a brand image related to the target market. Brand positioning is the inevitable outcome and objective requirement of marketing development. It is the foundation of brand building, the premise of brand success, the goal orientation of brand operation, the primary task of brand whole process management, and its immeasurable value in brand management. Therefore, the brand positioning theory has been playing an increasingly important role since its birth, and even promoted to the height of brand management strategy. Each brand must have a clear and accurate positioning so that it can convey effective information to consumers when promoting. It can be said that the primary task of brand management is brand positioning.

Brand positioning is the prerequisite for brand to occupy the market. Because the purpose of brand positioning is to establish a good brand image, create a lasting charm for consumers, make consumers purchase desire, make purchase decisions, and fully experience the emotional appeals expressed by brand positioning. Winning the consumer means winning the market competition. Brand positioning is also the precondition of brand communication. Because the brand positioning stipulates the content of brand communication, the brand communication will lose its direction and basis without the prior brand image design. Take advertising as an example, if the brand positioning is to outline the image, then the advertisement is to depict the image; if the brand positioning is the strategy of attack, advertising is the means of attack. On the one hand, advertising appeal, as the theme of communication between brands and consumers, is an important manifestation of brand personality. Brand positioning needs the help of the strong power of advertising and the psychological resonance of consumers. On the other hand, advertising strategy must be based on brand positioning. Advertising themes, advertising creativity, advertising performance and other elements should be closely related to brand positioning, obey brand positioning and serve brand positioning. Especially advertising creativity, it is the life and soul of advertising, is the eye of advertising, must be closely related to brand positioning, and can not be divorced from brand positioning. If the direction of creativity and orientation is consistent, the greater the increment of creativity, the higher the energy of brand jumping; if the direction of creativity and orientation is inconsistent, the greater the increment of creativity, the less hope of positioning and the greater the damage to brand. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is no clear and accurate brand positioning and lots of advertisements are not available. No more wooden boats can be tied to an aircraft carrier, and the same is true. {page_break}

Market research is the premise of brand positioning. Integrated communication is the means of brand positioning. The establishment of a unique expectation image and brand location is the purpose of brand positioning. Successful brand positioning is often structured in areas where consumers can feel directly, such as images, and must continue to convey information to consumers. Therefore, brand positioning is not only a strategic tool for marketing, but also a strategic tool for communication.

The core of brand positioning is STP, namely, market segmentation (Segmenting), target market selection (Targeting) and market positioning (Postitioning).

(1) market segmentation. According to certain characteristics of consumers, enterprises divide complex market into several sub markets. In different sub markets, the demand difference of consumers is obvious; in the same sub market, the demand of consumers is the same. Market segmentation makes enterprises easy to find opportunities, so that enterprises have an objective basis for designing brand personality and shaping brand image.

(2) target market selection. According to the results of market segmentation, and according to their own conditions and product characteristics, and in combination with marketing objectives, enterprises choose the most advantageous and attractive market segments for enterprises and products, that is, the target market, and all brand operation activities of enterprises must always focus on the target market. Brand positioning should also aim at the target market and keep consistent with the characteristics of the target market and consumer demand, so that the brand can get the understanding and recognition of the target market. It can be said that the target market is the focal point of brand positioning.

(3) market positioning. Once the target market is selected, the target location of the brand can be determined and the product and brand will be designed to win the recognition of the target consumers. Because the brand image is realized through the communication and subjective reflection of consumers, it is necessary to signal the brand image. Here, brand has become a bridge and link between enterprises and consumers. Brand positioning has also become the core and concentration table of market positioning.

Because the brand positioning is restricted and influenced by many factors, the failure of brand positioning or brand positioning often occurs in practice. There are three main reasons for the mistakes in brand positioning: first, enterprises do not form a clear positioning strategy; second, enterprises fail to convey ideas, ideas and principles clearly to the market; third, enterprises can not provide enough support for marketing resources and ensure the positioning efforts. They believe that the first and second reasons lie in the fact that enterprises fail to foster a clear idea of brand positioning. If enterprises want to make the brand positioning successful and avoid mistakes, we must pay attention to certain strategies and methods.