Securing the Customer’s “Permission”

Establishing the frame of reference does not automatically translate into successful brand repositioning. To reach that end point, marketers must ensure they have the customer’s “permission” to claim the new ground to which the brand aspires. Because that permission amounts to a reasonable and logical extension of the brand in the eyes of the customer, it requires building a “bridge” that can carry customers from where they perceive your brand to be today to where you want to take it in the future. Thus, for the Celestial Seasonings brand, the bridge leverages customers’ perceptions of the brand as “organic, natural, and healthy” to allow the brand to extend from its core product offering of teas into herb-based and “alternative” vitamin and mineral supplements. Similarly, Marriott uses customers’ perceptions of the brand as a leader in hotels and “living-care” to extend the brand into assisted living for senior citizens.

Intangibles

Emotional brand benefits can provide the most powerful source of brand permission. If a brand is currently meeting the customer’s emotional needs, then extension of that brand into an allied product/service arena becomes much more plausible and acceptable – the extension is likely to be granted customer permission. For example, the strong emotional benefits associated with the Hallmark brand in greeting cards allowed for the extension of the brand into wrapping papers, ornaments, and other products with emotional ties to celebration and commemoration.

A strong brand identity can also help marketers secure the desired permission from consumers. Because Victoria’s Secret owns or is associated with the notion of intimate moments, for example, it would be easier for that brand to get permission to introduce a new line of lingerie or perfume with a sensual connotation than it would be to launch a line of jeans or handbags.

In repositioning, marketers must embrace the idea that they are brand “stewards,” while customer’s deny their relationship with the brand and determine the basis for the relationship. A steward must spend more time deeply understanding what customers really think about the brand and where potential “bridges” to growth and new positioning exist.

Make Sure What You Say is what you Do

After the brand position has been developed, marketers must ensure the brand performance is able to live up to its new promise. While “do what you say” has always been Rule No. 1 for building brand equity, following that rule can be a sign cant challenge for many companies. This is particularly true in service industries, given the need for tremendous organizational change, and industries that require long lead times for organizational or infrastructure changes. Such changes occur at the same time customers are being presented with the new brand position. Three important steps can help win customer acceptance –

Identify the pathway of performance “signals” that will convince customers of the new brand positioning so that what you say is in fact what you are able to do. We have found that you can quantify which brand elements are more important for creating the desired impact on the customer’s overall brand image and how these elements impact each other in the process.

Marketers should not attempt to cover the waterfront here, but instead focus on the relevant interrelated “hot buttons” that will clearly convey the message. For example, in the case of a technology brand positioning itself as “humanizing technology for everyday people,” the strongest set of pathways to the positioning came from product signals such as customized hardware and specie application platforms (e.g., games, house- hold management) rather than from equipment with the latest features and innovative design. The pathway modeling also indicated the strong signal value of the brand’s customer service representatives having an understanding of an individual customer’s needs. This important service signal led to the broader customer perception of the brand as caring – an important personality signal for the brand to deliver on its positioning.

Additionally, the marketer learned that having technicians follow through with customers to issue resolution was a critical service signal that led to the broader personality signal of the brand being professional – another key for the brand to live up to its positioning. With these insights, the marketer could allocate resources accordingly, ensuring that the more important signals were being appropriately supported.

• Develop necessary product/service programs to ensure consistent performance on these signals to the customer. For example, if the brand positioning is built around superior customer satisfaction, but frontline sales people are measured on revenue rather than satisfaction, it is unlikely that consistent performance will be achieved. So, if airline gate agents are the rest and most important contact point for customers, they should be empowered to solve customers’ issues instead of redirecting them to customer service personnel. In the technology brand example, given the importance of the customer service representatives and service technicians, there should be a greater emphasis on the quality of the service delivered rather than on the number of customers that can be serviced over a given time period.
• Make sure approaches are in place to track and assess your performance against these customer signals prior to the formal launching of the new positioning. Applying rigorous quality assurance procedures to key elements of the new brand experience will often ensure that customers are not disappointed, or fail to have their expectations met. Current data-collection methods allow for rapid response and can be leveraged to determine whether the launch programs are having their desired effect on brand perceptions.

Positioning –Positioning is the art of creating a distinct image for a product in the minds of the customers. A simple example would suffice. The first thing that comes to one’s mind when some- body says ‘ATM’ is Automated Teller Machine. This is the product. But the customer’s question would be “What does ATM mean to me?” The answer is Any-Time-Money. That makes sense to him or her because it means instant cash. The concept neatly rolls up the benefit of ready cash and puts it in the mind of the customer. Thus Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is the ‘product’, Any-Time-Money (ATM) is the ‘positioning.’

Repositioning – is changing the positioning of a brand. A particular positioning statement may not work with a brand. For instance, Dettol toilet soap was positioned as beauty soap initially. This was not in line with its core values. Dettol, the parent brand (anti-septic liquid) was known for its ability to heal cuts. The extension’s “beauty” positioning was not in tune with the parent’s “germ-kill” positioning. The soap, therefore, had to be repositioned as “germ-kill” soap (“bath for grimy occasions”) and it fared extremely, well after repositioning. Here, the soap had to be repositioned for image mismatch. There are several other reasons for repositioning. Often falling or stagnant sales is responsible for repositioning exercises.

After examining the repositioning of several brands from the Indian market, the following 9 types of repositioning have been identified. These are –

• Increasing relevance to the consumer
• Increasing occasions for use
• Search for a viable position
• Making the brand serious
• Falling sales
• Bringing in new customers
• Making the brand contemporary
• Differentiate from other brands
• Changed market conditions

It is not always that these nine categories are mutually exclusive. Often one reason leads to the other and a brand is repositioned sometimes for a multiplicity of reasons. Illustrations of the above types of repositioning are listed below.

Note – Some of these repositioning statements have been changed again. That need not make them less relevant as illustrations.