Therefore, it is not uncommon for domestic enterprises to "misplace" and "position" at present. Many products and brands are struggling to reach the right destination from a wrong starting point, but unfortunately they are caught in the embarrassing situation of "riding a tiger" or "waiting for the rabbit".
First, what is the essence of "positioning"?
If you make a simple noun explanation, it can be said that any book that writes "positioning" can give a wonderful answer. So there is nothing to say here, just discuss the nature of positioning.
After more than ten years of bumpy road, China enterprises finally realized the importance of marketing strategy. Therefore, people have begun to admit that marketing strategy is more important than marketing tactics, and summed up a clear order: strategy first, tactics second.
So, what is the core of marketing strategy? I think there is no better way than positioning. Because the biggest problem solved by marketing strategy is to bring a platform for sustainable development to enterprises, and positioning can just do this. It can be explained from the following two angles:
1, from the customer's perspective.
With the development of social economy, there are more and more products available for customers to choose from in the market, ranging from brands to varieties. However, the process of purchasing products is getting shorter and shorter, and it is difficult for consumers' brains to sort out so much information, so they must make a purchase decision in a short time. What should we do? We need a simple and convincing reason. If you have this reason, your products can be sold quickly and expensively. Otherwise, just the opposite. Therefore, in order to survive and make money in the current demand environment, we must do better than others in a certain purchase reason, and pursue less but better.
2. From the point of view of competition.
Many domestic enterprises have a strong "herd mentality" and like to follow others, so I will do what others do. Without analyzing needs or trends, everyone will eventually kill each other on the battlefield. With the continuous maturity of the market economy and the internationalization of the domestic market, although this phenomenon has improved, it is still very serious in some industries. There can be no permanent price war. Most enterprises will move towards the road of differentiation sooner or later. Then, people have begun to differentiate themselves and establish their own competitive advantages. If you didn't, or didn't stand out, what would your fate be like? It's simple: just sell things cheaper than others.
From the above two perspectives, positioning plays at least two roles in marketing strategy: the source of customers' favor and the focus of competition. Because, without positioning, consumers can't know you at the first time and choose you; Without positioning, competitors can easily beat you. Therefore, it can be said that positioning is the core of marketing strategy, and its essence is the pillar of a brand to make money continuously.
In addition, from the brand itself, positioning is also a discipline. Without it, all the tactics made by the brand in the later period have no standards to follow, and all the behaviors are like loose sand, which is of no help.
Second, what are the common dislocations of Chinese enterprises?
According to the author's observation, in recent years, in the actual operation process, China enterprises have at least the following four aspects of "positioning" dislocation:
1, positioning confusion.
This is the most typical dislocation phenomenon and the most common one. It is that there are too many brand features, or too many brand positioning, which makes buyers confused about the brand image.
A few months ago, CCTV2 held a column called "Brand China". Invite more successful domestic business owners to be guests every night. Once, I was invited by the heads of the four giants in China's home appliance industry. The host asked them many questions about brand creation, but the answers were similar, either technological innovation or channel occupation; Either the talent strategy or the spirit of struggle. More ironically, the host asked them to do a brand personification test and asked, "Who is your brand most like?" The answers written by those bosses are far from the answers given by consumers. So, are consumers' answers consistent? No, it's basically diverse.
This is the case with the home appliance industry, which claims to have the highest marketization rate in China. What about other industries? Needless to say, most enterprises do a very general job in positioning, few enterprises insist on a single positioning on a brand, and the brand image is quite chaotic.
2. Suspicious positioning.
This dislocation is even more serious. In other words, all the work that an enterprise has done on the features, prices or publicity of its products can't convince buyers, and consumers think that you are bragging or lying.
Take the milk industry as an example. At one time, many brands positioned themselves as "fresh". It seems that this positioning is good and really meets the characteristics of dairy products and the needs of consumers. But the problem is that the work they have done under this positioning is not satisfactory. For example, in the product mix, there are Pap, Bailibao, tetra pak pillow, tetra pak brick and even milk powder and other products. What's more, "fresh" milk has been on the shelves for several months and is still on sale. The salesperson was embarrassed. The products sold are not fresh and will soon expire. What should I do? In desperation, we had to engage in buying and giving activities.
This is the problem, and consumers are beginning to doubt it. Because what they hear every day is: how fresh this brand is, just like a cow following around, but it is not. Especially when the milk they bought is wrinkled and faded, and the production date is too big, they can't believe that your milk is fresh.
3. Over-positioning.
Compared with the above two kinds of dislocation phenomena, this dislocation is still relatively good, but the possible consequence is that more market opportunities are lost in vain. Excessive positioning means that the brand identity is too narrow, which is not conducive to product line extension or brand extension.
I have contacted a large domestic lubricating oil company. When discussing its brand positioning with them at that time, they told me this sentence: "We think our brand is lubricating oil, nothing else. Our idea is to position it as a high-quality lubricant and make it synonymous with lubricant in the near future. "
From their cheerful words, we can feel how eager they are to make this brand well. However, this positioning is a typical "over-positioning", which is unfavorable to its competitive advantage, product line extension and brand extension.
Let's change the brand of other industries and make a hypothesis. If "Mercedes-Benz is a high-quality car", "Sony is a high-quality color TV", "Nestle is a high-quality coffee" and "Nike is a high-quality sports shoe", do you think this positioning is competitive? The answer is self-evident.
4. Insufficient positioning.
This may be the dislocation phenomenon closest to the correct positioning. In other words, there is nothing wrong with the direction of brand positioning, but the lack of positioning leads buyers to not really realize the uniqueness of the brand and only have a vague concept of the brand.
I once served a sanitary towel brand. The uniqueness of this brand lies in extracting a natural and safe antibacterial factor from Sophora flavescens (a herb that can kill bacteria, called penicillin in Chinese medicine) and adding it to sanitary napkins. If menstrual women use this sanitary towel, they can avoid bacterial infection, relieve itching and remove odor, and feel cool and comfortable. More importantly, the use of this sanitary towel by menstrual women can also balance the PH value and reduce the chance of getting sick during menstruation. At that time, our brand positioning for them was "antibacterial". However, after a year, they found another company to plan, positioned the brand as "prevention and care" and sent me a proposal for advice (because they had a good personal relationship). At that time, I saw this positioning and told them that it was a typical "insufficient positioning". Because "antibacterial" is the uniqueness of your brand and has direct competitiveness, "prevention and care" is the benefit brought by antibacterial. This is a bit similar to comfort soap. Sterilization is the difference between comfortable soap and other soaps. What if it is positioned as "skin care"? Obviously, this brand has become ambiguous and is likely to lose market share.
Third, how to avoid positioning dislocation?
So, how can we avoid these dislocations? How can China brand find an accurate positioning? I think this is a topic that all our professionals are studying together. Here, just remind everyone to do the following four things:
1, positioning can make customers feel it personally.
Positioning is not something to show the boss, but a promise to the target customer. Therefore, your positioning must be personally felt by the target customers. For example, the happiness of McDonald's, the dandruff removal of Head & Shoulders, and the driving pleasure of BMW.
If your target customer doesn't feel your positioning, it means that it has nothing to do with the interests of the target customer and may become a castle in the air.
Therefore, in the process of positioning, we must ask two questions repeatedly: "Is it related to the interests of the target customers" and "Can the target customers feel it personally?" If the answer is no, it must be replaced.
For example, after BMW is positioned as "driving pleasure", the car it provides can't make people feel the pleasure of driving, so it is very troublesome. There must be something wrong with this positioning. So over the years, in order to keep this promise, BMW has really made great efforts in products, especially in the power of the car and the design of the cockpit. I don't know if you have noticed. Among those luxury car brands (non-sports cars), only BMW showed customers the difficult driving action of turning 180 degrees in high-speed driving. Why are you doing this? The purpose is to make customers feel the authenticity of their positioning.
2. Positioning should be based on the real advantages of the product.
When people talk about brands, they are often rambling and easily divorced from the real advantages of products. This phenomenon is particularly prominent when you invite an advertising company to do this. They may tell you some beautiful stories, or they may tell some international success stories. You sound reasonable and interesting. But unfortunately, the positioning given to you is far from your product advantages.
As early as 2002, an advertising company made brand planning for Yili milk powder. At that time, Yili milk powder was defined as "caring", and its logical reasoning was: Yili milk powder brought nutrition to the whole family → from then on, the whole family felt the warmth of home → in fact, this is the care that Yili milk powder brought to customers → so Yili milk powder is a kind of milk powder with "heart".
How touching does this reasoning sound? To tell the truth, I was working in Yili, and I was confused by them. But now look at this positioning, it is clear that its logical reasoning is absurd and far-fetched, and it is not based on the real advantages of Yili milk powder. Later, through great efforts, we added a concept of "nature" to this positioning, with the aim of giving full play to the real advantages of the product.
Therefore, the relevant person in charge of the enterprise must face it with a pragmatic attitude to avoid this kind of thing. Brand positioning must be based on the real advantages of products, and repeatedly ask yourself, "Can such positioning promote brand performance for a long time?" If not, we should continue to look for more effective positioning.
3, positioning should be different from competitors, highlighting the competitive advantage.
In fact, the real brand is to "run counter to" your competitors. You say east, I will say west; You say two, I say one. Only in this way can we highlight our competitive advantage. Follow the orientation, and it will definitely not end well.
Therefore, the relevant person in charge of the enterprise must pay attention to uniqueness when positioning their own brands, and repeatedly ask themselves, "Is our positioning unique enough compared with competitors?" Although this uniqueness is not unique and whimsical, it must be effectively distinguished from competitors.
There are many cases in this regard. For example, Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola are typical. The early Coca-Cola was positioned as "authentic". It means that you want to drink coke, and only Coca-Cola is the most authentic and classic. Later, Pepsi will enter this market, how to position it? After their analysis, they found that the consumers of Coca-Cola are mostly adults, because only adults can like authentic things. As a result, they positioned themselves as "the choice of the new generation" and locked their brand personality in "anti-tradition". Therefore, it is not uncommon for Chinese enterprises to have "dislocation" in "positioning" at present. Many products and brands are struggling to move from a wrong starting point to a correct ending point, but unfortunately they are caught in the embarrassing situation of "riding a tiger" or "waiting for a rabbit"