Four Brand Marketing Positioning Analysis Tools

< p > < strong > (1) ZMET technology < /strong > /p >

< p > > a href= "http://www.91se91.com/business/" > ZMET technology < /a > is the abbreviation of Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (Chatman metaphor interpretation technology), which was born in 1995.

The theoretical basis of this technology is that more than 80% of human communication is non-verbal. Traditional questionnaires, group surveys and personal interviews can not get people to express their inner feelings.

Therefore, it has been suggested that consumer surveys should best express their thoughts, opinions, feelings and emotions in a non-verbal way.

ZMET technology is such a technology, it is widely used in brand related issues.

Its customers include AT&T, Coca-Cola, DuPont, Kodak, general motors, Polaroid Co, Reebok international, Pacific natural gas and power companies and other world famous enterprises.

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< p > for example, Motorola made use of ZMET technology when making marketing plans for a new security system.

When a company asks customers how they feel about safety, the image of a dog appears in their minds.

Dogs represent comfort and safety, a sense of protection.

So the company positioned the brand as "a loyal partner" and named it Watchdog (police dog).

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The application of < p > ZMET technology is as follows: < /p >

< p > (1) first use computer animation technology or camera to take a few pictures to represent the symbolic meaning of the brand.

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< p > (2) which customers can choose to express the brand appropriately.

The number of customers tested was 20~24.

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< p > (3) use Kelly's (Kelly) memory lattice association test technology to explain the reasons behind the choice.

For example, DuPont Co's tight pants made of Lycra fabrics show that women have ambivalent feelings of "both" and "hate" in the test.

What's the matter? Women feel sexy and feel a little erotic.

This is a way to reveal and peel away the feelings hidden in the minds of consumers through the way of association and storytelling.

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< p > (4) according to the results of the test analysis, we can draw a mental thinking map.

With this mental map, enterprises can choose multiple strategies when they are positioning their brands.

Of course, ZMET technology failed to provide similar graphics for competing brands.

However, at least, it has described the brand product and the corresponding activities (laundry) feelings. As long as we do a similar analysis of the competitive brands, we can understand the differences between different brands and find the location.

In addition, if we want to adopt the specific location, we can find a feasible location by comparing the full understanding of the attached objects.

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< p > < strong > (two) brand positioning perception map < /strong > < /p >

< p > > a href= "http://www.91se91.com/business/" > perceptual map < /a > is an intuitive and succinct typical analysis tool, widely used in brands such as automobiles, liquor, cosmetics and service industries.

At present, the most commonly used perceptual map is two-dimensional perception map. Its working principle is as follows: < /p >

< p > first is to determine the benchmark variables.

This is the most important job in making brand positioning perceptual maps.

The right choice of variables is the basis for successful application of brand perception maps. Once the variables are wrongly selected, it will be worthless to do the work well afterwards.

Since the perception map is generally two dimensional, we should understand the factors that influence consumers' purchasing decisions and their respective weights through market research.

Then, through statistical analysis, two variables with high importance and good brand differentiation can be identified.

For example, the analysis of liquor market can use "high low" and "blending type - brewing" two variables.

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< p > followed by determining the location of each brand in the perceptual map.

With the help of statistical software package (such as SPSS), the performance evaluation of the key variables of brands is quantified.

The corresponding analysis program can pform the data of consumers to the perceptual map of each brand in the evaluation variable.

Similar patterns can also be obtained by using multidimensional scaling.

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< p > when the above two steps are finished, you can draw the perceptual map of hand drawing.

The perceptual map directly shows consumers' evaluation of the differences in brand characteristics. After clarified the location of the brand and the difference with the competitors, it can determine the direction of brand positioning.

At this time, we should consider the uniqueness of brand location and pay attention to the intensity of competition in every market.

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< p > < strong > (three) brand positioning parallelmap < /strong > < /p >

< p > perceptual map is suitable for the evaluation of two key variables.

But in reality, there are many factors that affect consumers' purchase, so using perceptual maps is sometimes not appropriate.

The commonly used and better method is < a href= "http://www.91se91.com/business/" > parallelmap < /a >.

The so-called parallelism chart is to rank the evaluation variables according to their importance, and to compare the performance of each brand on each variable. Finally, the brand positioning is determined on this basis.

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< p > < strong > (four) projection technique < /strong > /p >

< p > projection is a psychological term. It was first published by psychologist Floyd Te and used in psychoanalysis of human beings.

People have ID, ego, superego, and the three are not fully co-ordinated.

For consumers, their buying behavior may not be entirely rational or even irrational.

However, consumers may be able to rationalize their actions directly, so as to conceal their real buying motives.

This behavior is called "defense mechanism".

Projective technology allows him to react freely without restriction by providing the respondents with an ambiguous stimulus situation.

That is to say, individuals (consumers) express their deep motives, desires, emotions and ideas in the absence of or fail to activate their defense mechanisms.

Projective technology has two main functions: (1) revealing the real cause of a particular behavior or attitude; second, showing what people mean by buying, owning or using a product or service, that is, what symbolism is.

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< p > < a href= > http://www.91se91.com/business/ > projective technology < /a > by designing broad stimuli with multiple meanings or meanings to stimulate the internal perception mechanism of human beings.

For example, a picture with abstract content, an unfinished sentence, and a story without ending is freely explained.

This interpretation will undoubtedly reflect their own subjective things, and therefore more authentic than other findings.

When projecting technology is applied concretely, the first thing is to ask the respondents to express their first reaction as soon as they see a picture or hear a word, and to project their inner thoughts.

The two is to borrow the third person (rather than himself) to project the respondents' ideas.

Specific techniques include word association, role play, third person technology, brand personification, cloze test, story telling and story telling.

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P > < strong > 1. words association < /strong > /p >

< p > word association is a traditional and easy way to implement.

This method is that the investigators present a series of vocabularies to the respondents, asking the respondents to answer, what is the first thing that comes to mind when they see the word.

This technology has two main points: first, to have a series of vocabularies; two, to be quick so as not to play a role in the defense mechanism.

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< p > word association can produce many words and ideas.

In order to assess the degree and relative importance of the relationship between a word and a concept and a specific brand, the purpose of the study is to study the brand association and image in the consumer's mind, and direct questions to target consumers on the basis of word association, asking them to evaluate whether these words are suitable for the brand with 5 points or 7 points system.

It is very appropriate to be unsuitable for determining the location map of the brand.

Similar research can be done to competitors' brands.

In the United States, people did a research on McDonald's and Jack - in-the-Box, and found that McDonald's is more closely associated with "everywhere", "familiar", "clean", "cheap" and "child". Jack in-the-Box is more closely associated with "diversity", "fun" and "nutrition".

At home, some research institutions asked respondents to say their association with "WAL-MART", resulting in such words as "cheap", "promotional activities", "loitering", "all kinds of commodities", "daily necessities", "food" and "reliable".

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< p > < strong > 2. role play < /strong > < /p >

< p > role playing is to let the investigator play another role, such as a shop assistant, and then let him try to sell products to the dissenting customers.

As long as he does not feel uncomfortable or embarrassed in playing this role, he will fully project his thoughts and feelings.

Participants are asked to play a role, which is the recipient of a product, such as playing crops, researching pesticides, playing the walls to study paint, etc., or the brand itself.

This technology is mainly used to help researchers to understand information about brand function and product performance.

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< p > < strong > 3. third person technology < /strong > < /p >

< p > Third the basic idea of technology and role play is basically the same. It is also asking the respondents whether their friends, leaders or ordinary people will react or think in a certain setting.

Here, the investigator will consciously or unconsciously cast his attitude onto the "third person" to reveal his true feelings.

At that time, the respondents might say, "I would never think so."

Investigators should encourage the respondents to fully express their views, praise his analysis is logical and rational, and express his respect and trust to him, so that he can relax the sense of "Id" to the third person.

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< p > < strong > 4. brand personification < /strong > < /p >

< p > > a href= "http://www.91se91.com/business/" > brand personification < /a > is to ask the respondents to imagine a brand as a person, and then describe their age, sex, appearance, personality, characteristics, interests, hobbies, professional positions, social status, family status, entertainment and so on.

Brand personification can be carried out through the imagination of the respondents, or by means of auditorium assistance.

For example, we can use different types of character pictures to make jigsaw puzzle to understand the different lifestyles of these people in different situations.

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< p > brand personification is mainly used to understand brand image description and brand image value and brand personality, and clearly capture the importance of brand through human character.

Brand personification also helps to reveal a deep emotional connection between consumers and brands.

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< p > < strong > 5. cloze test < /strong > < /p >

< p > cloze is the most commonly used way to make a list of incomplete and ambiguous sentences, and ask the subjects to complete the sentence.

Two points should be paid attention to when applying this method.

First, sentences should be described in third person such as "he" or "ordinary person" to avoid causing self defense mechanism.

In the face of statements such as "people think television", "China joins WTO, ordinary people think" and "women generally think men smoke", they are easy to reveal their true opinions.

Two, when doing cloze, we should encourage the respondents to write the first feeling after seeing this incomplete sentence.

Because after any deep thinking, the answers tend to be rationalized, which will reduce the projection effect of cloze.

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Cloze (P) can also be expanded into a small story.

First describe a part of a story, then ask the testers to describe the further development of the story.

Of course, this is more complicated and requires more imaginative power of the respondents.

The advantage of story telling is that the problem is more open, and there is no fixed structure to get more consumers' feelings, thoughts and values.

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< p > < strong > 6.. See the picture compiling the story method < /strong > < /p >.

< p > picture compiling and storytelling is to require the respondents to describe the story and story characters from the objective angle (actually projected).

The more ambiguous the situation is, the more interpretations can be made. The better the projection is.

This test method can be used to test brand image, brand communication itself, brand consumers and consumption occasions.

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< p > projection technology is still developing. Besides the above six methods, there are user images, brand stars, visiting companies, shopping baskets and so on.

Projection technology is widely applied in revealing brand image, reflecting brand positioning, choosing brand name and deciding brand extension strategy.

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