How can you seduce a primadona?

Consumers today are spoiled. There are so many brands, trying desperately to call their attention that it is hard for them to listen and remain loyal. Today the biggest challenge brands have is being able to stand out and retaining consumers. Certainly, a brand that is transparent to consumer’s eyes will have a hard time selling. In the same way, a brand that cannot create a solid bond with the consumer will soon be substituted by another brand.

That is why a good POSITIONING is the first LEVER for GROWTH. If you feel your brand is unnoticed or simply doesn’t cut through the clutter and consumers seem apathic about it, then you probably have a positioning issue. It might be also a good time to reposition your brand if you have a bad image, or if your category is simply perceived as not relevant anymore.

Here the 4 elements for a good positioning statement. Your brand should fulfill all of them if it wants to have a positioning that leads to GROWTH.

1. Differentiate: Today, more than ever, in this jungle of brands that we live in, brands need to help the consumer differentiate products within a multitude of products. In other words, a brand needs to tell consumers what makes it different than other brands.

2. Make that differentiation relevant:  Furthermore, brands need to tell consumers why should buy that particular brand. In the last years, the Private label trend has contributed to the commoditization of many products, hitting all industries. Only the brands that are not “culturally transparent” will be able to survive in the long term. Not being “transparent” means being relevant and being able to involve the consumers into the decision taking process.

Consumers tend to save money on those brands where the implication is low. For instance, in France, toothpaste is a category with a very low implication. Prices as well as the overall market have been going down in the last years. In Brasil however there is a much stronger body and beauty culture. It should therefore not be surprising that Brasil has a higher consumption of toothpaste per inhabitant than France, and that the toothpaste market in Brasil is booming!

3. Reassure: Brands also need to reduce the risk perception of certain products. Too often we see intoxications due to certain food products or cars being recalled from the streets. Why do we buy a Volkswagen rather than a Renault? Because the quality perception of Volkswagen is higher!

Henkel is a good example of a brand that uses its corporate image to endorse its sub-brands. The methodology is simple; after an detergent arvertisement, a small slogan “Henkel Quality” appears. Like this, consumers know that product is not just a brand, but it’s a Henkel brand. And Henkel is a well know company, with many years of history. Automatically associate  that to quality. How could otherwise such a big company have become what it is today?

4. Associate your brand to a value: Differentiation has become more emotional. Emotions engage consumers to a much deeper level than pure rational arguments. There are always good rational arguments on both sides of a discussion, but it is the emotional argumentation that finally helps decline the balance on one side or the other. That means 2 things; you need to have good rational arguments, but you also need the emotional ones if you want to close the pitch.

posted by Ignacio Molins