Three decades ago, Jack Trout and Al Ries wrote a path-breaking book — ‘Positioning: The battle for your mind’, which revolutionised the world of marketing. However, times have changed — competition is fiercer, technology is evolving at an ever faster pace, and many companies that were successful are in crisis today.

To cope with the fast changing environment, brands might, at times, have to reposition themselves — i.e., alter or adjust the differentiated perception that consumers have of them. This could be in response to entry of new competition, technological advances in the arena or to adapt to changing consumer needs. Trout has tackled this subject in his new book, ‘Repositioning’.

In many ways, both positioning and repositioning are the same — the process of owning space in the consumer’s mind via a word or idea, which is differentiating and compelling. Positioning is about creating that ownership; repositioning is about adjusting it. Here are some factors that marketers need to keep in mind while undertaking a positioning or repositioning exercise:

• Be brutally honest about your brand: Most companies nowadays collect a lot of metrics about their brands via research — measures like awareness, disposition, marketshare, image and equity are regularly tracked. However, in spite of this, early warning signs indicating a need for course correction are often ignored.

Managers tend to cherry pick data to suit their short terms needs, whilst ignoring other data points (e.g., focus on marketshare while ignoring declining trends in the core brand image attributes). Before getting into any repositioning exercise, it is vital to assess the brand’s current perception versus competition as honestly and objectively as possible — to understand what the consumer perceptions that need adjustment are.

• Believe in the power of simplicity: Consumers nowadays are faced with communication overload — being bombarded with hundreds of brand messages via TV, print, outdoor and online media. In such a scenario, the natural tendency of the human brain is to simplify the messages — and only ideas that are simple and compelling tend to resonate and stick in the mind.

For instance, in the automotive category, ‘safety’ remains indelibly associated with Volvo, despite brands like Mercedes and BMW trying to encroach on that territory. Similarly, BMW is strongly positioned on driving pleasure, while Mercedes is on status and luxury — these are simple and compelling ideas that stick in consumers’ minds.

• Differentiate versus the leader: If one is not the market leader, the worst strategy that one can adopt is to be a ‘Me Too’ of the leader. Cloning the leader hardly ever works, but differentiating oneself does — it is therefore important to understand how to target the weakness of the market leader or the established brand.

This could be via creating niche appeal for one’s brand (Harley Davidson is not a bike for everyone), offering something that the leader does not (Virgin Atlantic offering better in-flight service and personal entertainment than British Airways) or by using guerrilla marketing tactics (think Pepsi’s ‘Nothing Official About It’ tag line for the 1997 Cricket World Cup).

• Develop positioning around a proposition, not a product feature: Many companies make the mistake of trying to positioning their brand around a product feature or benefit — while this may work at times, it is usually a difficult position to sustain, as competition can easily come up with better features.

Price is an especially dangerous benefit to position a brand on, as consumers can misinterpret the intent — Tata Motors positioned Nano as ‘The cheapest car in the world’ and the brand failed as consumers did not want to be associated with a ‘cheap’ brand. Instead, had they positioned the brand as a ‘cute family car’ or a ‘safer alternative to two-wheelers’ (given the high accident rates on Indian roads), the brand might perhaps have had more success.

• Repositioning is a 360-degree exercise: Repositioning requires a concerted and coordinated approach involving all elements of the communications mix. Since consumer perceptions are difficult to change without word of mouth publicity, PR plays a very important role in such an exercise. According to Trout, PR plants the seed, advertising harvests the crop.

Ever since the launch of the iPod, Apple has relied more on advocacy of its loyal customers, rather than conventional advertising.

With markets, technology and consumers getting more sophisticated, brands will need to keep adapting in order to maintain relevance. Brand that are able to own a differentiated and compelling position in the consumer mind space are likely to succeed and thrive.

— The writer is CEO of AMRB, a research consultancy.