Brand positioning is defined as placing the product or service in the mind of a prospect customer. To position companies in markets, one must differentiate the company and ensure customers acknowledge that difference. For example, when an individual thinks of "overnight shiping", they might think of the popular shipping firm FedEx (fedex.com), Similarly, they could Johnson & Johnson brand Band-Aid with "adhesive bandage." Companies spend significant resources to achieve this positioning. It is not enough to be different, although differentiation is a prerequisite for positioning.
I want to launch my own brand of household blenders, and for that I'll need to assess customer perceptions of existing blender brands and model attributes in the market and identify any gaps in order to ensure a successful launch and positioning that ensures my brand's growth.
Perceptual mapping graphically represents customers' perceptions of important attributes of areas of interest for marketers, such as product or service categories and brands. The maps show us the "position" of products and services in the customer's mind. Two-dimensional perceptual maps use the x and y axes to denote the two primary purchasing criteria consumers consider when buying a product or service.
Perceptual mapping can be used to assess the perception of different competitors within product or service categories. For example, close distances between competitors on perceptual maps indicate that customers view the competitors as similar. Blank areas in perceptual maps signify the absence of significant competitors in that area. The blank area could signify a new market opportunity, which management can decide if it is worth pursuing.
Attribute-based perceptual maps display data from customer evaluations of products and services using attributes they find relevant. Attributes are tangible descriptors customers use when considering the purchase of a product or service. Examples include reliability, durability, style, luxury, comfort, sportiness, and other directly observable characteristics.
Consumers evaluate household blenders (within a given price range) by considering feature availability and blending power. According to consumerreports.org [1], some leading brands and models for popular consumer blenders at about $60 are as follows:
- Black &Decker BL 1900
- Cuisinart BFP-703CH
- Hamilton Beach 56221
- KitchenAid KSB560
- Oster 4093 Beehive
- Sunbeam 3350W
- Waring WPB80BC
Selection Criteria: I start by researching the market segment to determine the selection criteria. I find that, for blenders, customers use two decision criteria - features and power when shopping for blenders. "Features" refer to the number of speed settings and other adjustments available on the machine. For example, features in our set ranged from simple, as in the Off-Low-High switch in the Waring, or elaborate, as in the Cuisinart.
Meanwhile, power refered to the effective chopping power of the blender, ranging from the relatively weak Sunbeam to the ferocious Oster.
Market Survey: Next, I survey individuals in the marketsegment for their perceived rating for each choice within the category. I ask them to rate each choice against the two selection criteria discovered earlier on a 1- 10 rating scale. I designate a "5" for expected features, such as three or four speeds, with lower scoers for more Spartan features and higher scores for extensive features. Similarly, ratings for efective ranged from "1", designating relatively weak performance, to "5", indicating expected power, to "10" designating very strong chopping power. Afetr surveying the individuals, I averaged the results as follows:
Note: you can also find the results of the survey in the "blender dataset.csv" dataset in this repository.
I use MS Excel to build a perceptual map for these competing brands across a two-dimensional XY scatter plot.
From the map, we see several brands competing in the "Basic Features & High Power" quadrant. We see only one brand each in the "Basic Features & Low Power and Feature Rich & Low Power" quadrant. Surprisingly, we do not see any brands at all in the "Feature Rich & High Power" quadrant.
Marketing Strategy: The perceptual map suggests that I investigate the "Feature Rich & High Power quadrant to determine market demand for a potential product. If indeed strong demand exists, it could be profitable for me to launch such a product, because I face no competition from established brands there.