3.0 Brand Positioning
3.1 Analysing Brand Positioning
Brand positing “allows the service brand to gain a meaningful competitive advantage over its competitors and to appear unique to the consumer.” (McDonald et al, 2011) It is a strategy used by companies to emphasize the features and benefits the brand offers for its target consumers or by creating an image through advertising, such as luxurious or utilitarian.
According to de Chernatony, brand positioning is about “identifying a differential advantage.”(de Chernatony, 2006)This statement suggests that de Chernatony was referring to differential or edge positioning which uses its unique selling point (USP) of the brand which will give you competitive advantage in the market. This method is generally used by smaller or new businesses to a market that are trying to succeed against major competitors. An example of this would be supermarkets using own brand food which focus on price.
However, Brand positioning is more than just identifying the advantage; other factors need to be taken into consideration to have the full view. One aspect is the perceived value of the brand by customers; a product is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. Another factor needing to be acknowledged is what is expected from the brand for the consumers. If consumers past experience with a brand is of a high quality then it will be expected for all future products. This links to the price of the product if a new product does not have the same quality as pervious products then this should be reflected in the price. The price of a product is easily quantifiable as this is normally based on own price compared to competitors. However, for Apple Inc it would have been more difficult to set a price as they are being innovative releasing technology which has never been used before.
Central positioning is a strategy usually used by market leaders, for instance Heinz and its baked beans, because it focuses on the key benefits related with the product group as it is perceived as the best brand in the market. Conversely, impersonating brands can utilize a variation on central positioning by a replica position, as long as it “delivers the same benefits as the market leader.”(Lilien et al, 2007, p79)
3.2 Apple Positioning Statement
Apple is the brand for everyone and anyone that satisfies the need to have the latest technological advances by offering products that look good but are also fun, faster, lighter and thinner.
According to Kapferer “Positioning does not reveal all of the brand’s richness of meaning nor reflect all its potential” (Kapferer, 2007, p177) His own model, “For What? Whom? When? and Against whom?” (Appendix Two) restricts brands as soon as they begin answering the four questions. This type of strategy has a differential technique more suited to companies relying on their USP to competing against market leaders. The questions fail to encapsulate a brand fully and take away the identity making it hard to distinguish between brands targeting the same people with similar products, for example Pepsi and Coca cola.
The positioning statement, based on Elliot and Percy’s model “To (target segment and need) our (brand) is (concept) that (point of difference/benefit.)”(Rosenbaum-Elliot, Percy & Pervan, 2011) was chosen because it is a central positioning strategy which is mainly used by market leaders.
Apple has demonstrated its superiority with boastful statements including, “It’s the most amazing iPhone yet” (Apple, 2012) which is why a model that communicates the utmost benefit has been chosen. Although it can be hard to summarize a brand’s characteristics into one sentence Apple’s outgoing, straight to the point attitude would be more suited to Percy’s positioning model.
Apple’s competition is difficult to pin down because in the past years it would be argued that as a PC manufacturer Apple would be rivalling companies such as Dell.
Dell’s brand positioning appears to be a differential strategy focusing on its USP that you obtain the computer “Direct from Dell.” (Dell et al, 1999) This differs from Apple because Dell focuses its marketing on people who specifically are in want or need of a computer spending limited time and energy on those who are not interested. Apple uses a different technique by having a broader target market advertising that their product is for everyone and anyone. “Everyone should have a notebook this advanced. And now everyone can.” (Apple, 2012) Although Apple’s target market is larger both companies are successful for the reason that they both use their main attribute, reassurance of quality. This psychological acquisition has been obtained through the alleged added value created from good experiences consumers have encountered throughout the years they have been trading.
Recently Apple have reached out considerably into online media (iPhones, iTunes) which has put them into a new competitive market with Blackberry and other mobile companies alike all trying to be the best.
4.0 Brand Analysis
To be able to understand consumer’s perception of Apple a brief survey (Appendix Three) was handed out to several randomly selected participants of all ages to ascertain their opinions of the brand. As Apple is accessible to all ages there was no limitation to whom the survey was handed out to, except younger children who would not have been able to comprehend what was being enquired. The following information is a tiny sample of the population meaning that the results are not a representation of the population as a whole.
Brand analysis is the process in using theoretical concepts to piece a picture together in understanding what a brand is. Brand analysis looks into different aspects, such as brand identity, culture and mantra, to investigate the brand involved identifying both its strengths and weaknesses.
The major concept that is important to all companies is brand personality, which is personifying a brand name which enables consumers to be able to relate to a brand on a personal level. Example of a brand personality traits include sincere, impulsive and imaginative. Blackston (1992) argues that “a brand relationship includes the two components of trust and customer satisfaction.” (Glynn, 2009) Brand personality enables consumers to reach self conceptualisation through personification of the brand. Therefore customer satisfaction is obtained by the consumer perceiving and reacting to the brand whilst the brand behaves and reacts to the consumer. Apple is great at reacting to customers because former co founder Steve Jobs focused the company on giving the customers what they never knew they needed. Apple completely changed the way in which we use music players and phone. The personification of Apple is supported within the evidence gathered from question nine in the survey “How would you describe Apple?” All the vocabulary that was used described the brand as if it were a person, such as innovative, stylish and most popularly creative.
There are three categories that brand personality can be spilt in. Public, Private and Attributed
Brand image is described as
4.2 Apple- Brand Pyramid
5.0 Special Interest
Celebrity endorsement is “the use of a celebrity in advertising who recommends the sponsored product’s usage.”(Clemente, 2002) Apple would get an increase in sales if they got the right celebrity endorsing the brand .Apple already used celebrities to endorse its product a few years ago with a special edition iPod put together with U2 and Nike which had a sensor track workout process on their iPod nano. The endorsement can help introduce brands to new customers who like to copy the latest celebrity trend. Although a celebrity image could overshadow a brand, Apple is so globally recognized that the person chosen would assist rather than outshine the products. Celebrity endorsement can be expensive but this would be a small expense to such a successful brand as Apple.
Apple is notorious for using band’s music in its adverts to endorse its product, which can also benefit the band, such as Black Eyed Peas and Jet whose music went up in the charts due to the exposure. A permanent celebrity figure promoting the brand could create brand recall which “relates to consumers' ability to identify the brand under a variety of circumstances.”(Keller, 1998, p658) This is the brain associating a person with the product they are promoting, for instance when a person thinks of Freddie Flintoff they remember his Morrisons advertisements.
According to Kamins “the image of the celebrity must fit with the image of the product or brand.”(Städtler, 2010) this is what’s known as the “Match-up hypothesis.” (Kamins, 1990) In other words, a celebrity needs to be chosen who fits in with the image of the brand and product. A ‘good match-up’ would be Jamie Oliver representing Sainsbury as he is a chef and Sainsbury promotes good quality food. A ‘bad match-up’ would be the Olsen Twins ‘got milk’ advertisement because of the girls’ image at the time of being anorexic celebrities. Furthermore, theorist McCracken (1989) believes that celebrities represent the ideal of what people want to achieve in life. This means that you are more likely to buy a product endorsed by a celebrity than an anonymous model. A ‘good match-up’ for Apple would be to have Beyoncé Knowles as the celebrity to endorse future brand activity. As a singer, song writer, record producer and actress she would be a good person to represent the company as she is such a respected and well loved celebrity.
Moreover, it is thought that certain factors of a celebrity can affect the effectiveness of the sales. “Honesty, integrity, and believability of an endorser as perceived by the target audience,” (Erdogan et al, 2001, p. 40) Beyoncé Knowles is a celebrity who encapsulates all of the attributes and more. It is common knowledge that Beyoncé is a hard worker and puts 100% into everything she does so representing Apple would be no mean feat for her. Disadvantages of celebrity endorsement are that they may create public controversies which would damage a brands image or the image change of the celebrity may affect public recognition. Both of these statements seem to have no relevance to Beyoncé Knowles as she likes to keep her private life out of the public’s view.
The Source of Creditability Model suggest for a consumer to buy into the endorser the “trustworthiness” (Hovland et al, 1953) of the message and the source from whom it is conveyed by are considered sometimes unknowingly to the consumer (psychologically). Attractiveness and credibility of a celebrity appear to go hand in hand. The more attractive a celebrity the more appealing the brand becomes in most instances. This is based on the Source Attractiveness Model (McGuire, 1985) which has four dimensions; namely “familiarity” (knowledge of source through exposure), “likeability” (affection for source based on his/her physical appearance or behaviour), “similarity” (resemblance between the source and the audience), and “attractiveness.” (McCracken 1989 p. 311) Attractiveness is something Beyoncé Knowles has, for the past five years alone she has been in the top twenty of the sexist females which is not an easy accomplishment.
Celebrities are currently promoting Apple without any incentive but merely because they love the product, for example Oprah Winfrey stated "Words cannot describe what I feel for this magnificent, magnificent device," (Marsal, 2010) referring to the Apple iPad on her self-titled talk show. Winfrey had a great deal of influence over sales of products which shows that choosing the right celebrity can help increase sales figures.
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7.0 Bibliography
Apple. (2011). iPhone 4 S. Available: http://store.apple.com. Last accessed 13th Jan 2012.
Blackston. (1992). Observations: Building brand equity by managing the brand's relationships. Journal of advertising research. 32 (3), pp79-86
Clemente, M (2002). The Marketing Glossary: Key Terms, Concepts and Applications. New Jersey: Clemente Communications Group. p97.
De Chernatony, L. (2006). From brand vision to brand evaluation: strategically building and sustaining brands. London: Butterworth- Heinemann.
Dell, M & Fredman, C. (1999). Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry: Harper Business
Glynn, Mark (2009). Business-to-business brand management: theory, research and executive case study exercises. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. -p127.
Hovland.C, Janis, L. & Kelley, H (1953), Communication and Persuasion. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Kamins, M. (1990). An investigation into the ‘match-up’ hypothesis in celebrity advertising: when beauty may only be skin deep. Journal of Advertising. Vol. 19, No. 1, pp 4- 14.
Kapferer, J N. (2008).Choosing a name for a strong brand. In: The New Strategic Brand Management. 4th ed. London: Kogan Page. P176, P177 & P211
Keller, Kevin (1998). Strategic brand management: building, measuring and managing brand equity. Pearson Prentice Hall. p658.
Landa, R (2006).What is branding? In: Designing Brand Experience. USA: Thomson Delmar Learning. p9
Lilien, G., Rangaswamy, A. and De Bruyn A. (2007). Principles of Marketing Engineering. 1st ed. Canada: Trafford Publishing, p79
Marsal, K. (2010). Oprah declares Apple's iPad her 'favourite thing ever,' gives away 275. Available: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/11/24/oprah_declares_apples_ipad_her_favorite_thing_ever_gives_away_275.html. Last accessed 13th Jan 2012.
McCracken, Grant. (1989).Who is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process. Journal of Consumer Research 16, no. 3 (December 1989): 310-21
McGuire, William J. (1985), Handbook of Social Psychology (Gardner Lindzey and Eliot Aronson Ed.). New York: Random House.
McDonald, M., de Chernatony, L & Wallace, E. (2011). Creating Powerful Brands. 4th ed. Oxford: Elsevier LTD. p221
Rosenbaum-Elliot, R., Percy, L.& Pervan, S.(2011). Strategic Brand Management, 2nd ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press
Staalduinen, D.(2009). Return of Sir Steve: 6 ways Steve Jobs taught me to be human. Available: http://www.begtodiffer.com/2009/09/return-of-the-king-again-how-steve-jobs-taught-me-to-be-human/. Last accessed 1st Jan 2012.
Städtler, Raphael (2010). Celebrity Scandals and Their Impact on Brand Image: A Study among Young Consumers. Germany: Druck and Bindung: Books on demand. p25.
8.0 Appendix
Appendix One
Apple’s product timeline
(Staalduinen, 2009)
Appendix Two
(Kapferer, 2008, p176)
Appendix Three
Survey Questions
- Age:
- Gender:
- What is Apple?
- Do you like Apple Inc. products?
Yes No
- When was the last time you used Apple’s products?
- Today
- Within Two days
- Last week
- Last Month
- Never
- Other
- In your opinion which is their best product?
- iPhone
- iPod
- iPad
- Mac
- Other
Out of 1 to 10, 10 being very satisfied 1 being not satisfied at all
- How satisfied would you say you are with Apple’s products?
- How good do you think there customer service is?
Next
- How would you describe Apple?
- What is the first word that comes to mind when someone mentions Apple?
