Brand Positioning Strategies Explained: Chief, Reinforcement and Comparison Approaches

As reported by China Packaging Network, the purpose of brand positioning is to forge a distinctive brand personality and a unique brand image that answers what target consumers actually need. It is a highly creative exercise, and it follows no fixed formula. That is deliberate: if a fixed formula did exist, the differences between brands would shrink sharply, brand influence would weaken in step, and the value of a brand would be greatly diminished. According to incomplete statistics, common brand positioning strategies and those that have appeared in recent years run into the dozens, and many can be used alone or combined with others for a stronger effect. What follows is a brief look at a few of the most common approaches — useful context for brand owners and packaging teams shaping shelf-ready products.

1. Chief Positioning

Chief positioning sets its sights on becoming the "number one" in an industry or in a particular dimension of it. That spot is enviable because it signals that the brand is leading the whole market. Once a brand secures leadership and takes on the "No. 1" label, it triggers a focusing effect, a halo effect, a magnetic pull and even a "nuclear fission" effect — competitive advantages that follower brands simply cannot match. Xerox is the number-one copier brand; although IBM is far stronger overall, its copiers have never been able to challenge Xerox. When Kodak moved into the instant-imaging market to take on Polaroid, it captured only a small slice of share.

The rationale behind chief positioning rests on a well-documented psychological rule: people tend to notice only the "first" and to remember it most vividly. The first person to sail around the world and the first to walk on the moon are the classic illustrations. In today's era of information overload and highly developed commercial markets, brands proliferate like fish in a river, and consumers retain only the names near the top of the list — above all the number-one brand. Most others leave no trace at all.

Provided a company manages well and keeps innovating, once it becomes the industry's number one it can usually hold that position for a long time. Since 1923, of ten major US brands — Coca-Cola, Colgate, Gillette, Goodyear, Hershey's, Kellogg's, Kodak, Lipton, Manhattan and Nabisco — nine, all but Manhattan, still retain their number-one advantage today.

Not every company, of course, has the muscle to pursue chief positioning; only large, well-resourced players can pull it off. For most businesses, a more realistic route is to develop a competitive edge in one specific aspect of the brand and stake out a position there. Dial soap, for instance, is number one among deodorant soaps, and Porsche is number one among small sports cars.

1. Reinforcement Positioning

Reinforcement positioning means cementing an image in consumers' minds. When a company cannot beat its rivals head-on, or is on the back foot in the competition, it can deliberately spotlight one particular strength of the brand, leave a deep impression, and win out that way. 7-Up told consumers it is "not a cola"; Yadu's constant-temperature air exchanger told consumers "I am not an air conditioner"; and Richardson-Merrill, knowing its product was no match for Contac and Dristan, positioned its cold remedy Nyquil as a "night-time cold medicine" — a new drug to be taken in the evening — and succeeded with it.

1. Comparison Positioning

Comparison positioning is a strategy that establishes a brand's market position by measuring it against competing brands. In essence it is a form of borrowed-equity positioning, or reactive positioning: it leverages a rival's momentum to set off the brand's own image. When nearly every automaker was chasing the idea of designing small cars that... (the full original text is longer; excerpted here)