Identifying Optimal Points-of-Difference and Points-of-Parity

Once marketers have fixed the competitive frame of reference for positioning by defining the
customer target market and the nature of the competition, they can define the appropriate points-
of-difference and points-of-parity associations.

Points-of-Difference (PODs)
Are attributes or benefits consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate, and believe
that they could not find the same extent with a competitive brand. Strong brands may have multiple
points-of-difference. Some examples are Apple (design, ease-of-use, and irreverent attitude), Nike
(performance, innovative technology, and winning), and Southwest Airlines (value, reliability, and fun
personality).
Three key criteria determine whether a brand association can truly function as a point-of-
differencedesirability, deliverability, and differentiability. Some key considerations follow.
1. Desirable to consumer. Consumers must see the brand association as personally relevant
to them.
2. Deliverable by the company. The company must have the internal resources and
commitment to feasibly and profitably create and maintain the brand association in the
minds of consumers. The product design and marketing offering must support the desired
association.
3. Differentiating from competitors. Finally, consumers must see the brand association as
distinctive and superior to relevant competitors.
Any attribute or benefit associated with a product or service can function as a point-of-difference
for a brand as long as it is sufficiently desirable, deliverable, and differentiating.
The brand must demonstrate clear superiority on an attribute or benefit, however, for it to
function as a true point-of-difference.

Points-of-Parity
POPs on the other hand are attributes or benefits associations that are not necessarily unique to
the brand buy may in fact be shared with other brands.
A) These types of associations come in two basic forms: category and competitive.
1) Category points-of-parity are associations consumers view as essential to be a legitimate
and credible offering within a certain product or service category. They represent
necessary conditions but not necessarily sufficient for brand choice.
2) Category points-of-parity may change over time due to technological, legal, or consumer
trends.
B) Competitive points-of-parity are associations designed to negate competitors points-of-
difference.
1) If a brand can break-even where the competitors are trying to find an advantage and can
achieve advantages in other areas, the brand should be in a strong competitive position.
Points-of-Parity Versus Points-of-Difference
 A) To achieve a point-of-parity on a particular attribute or benefit, a sufficient number of
consumers must believe that the brand is good enough on that dimension.
B) There is a zone or range of tolerance or acceptance with points-of-parity.
C) The brand does not literally have to be seen as equal to competitors, but consumers must feel
that the brand does well enough on that particular attribute or benefit.
D) With points-of-differences, the brand must demonstrate clear superiority.
E) Often the key to positioning is not so much achieving a point-of-difference as in achieving
points-of-parity.
Positioning of Airlines
The rapidly growing domestic passenger airline industry in India has several airline brands trying
to occupy differentiated positioning in the minds of customers. Jet Airways, a full-service carrier,
is positioned as a premium airline while Jet Konnect and JetLite, the two other sub-brands from
the same company, are positioned as value airlines. Kingfisher airline is positioned as full
frillstrue value carrier with in-flight entertainment in the domestic sector. Kingfisher Red on
the other hand is positioned as a lower-fare carrier, competing with other value airline brands.
GoAir is positioned as an affordable carrier with high reliability for online performance. SpiceJet
and IndiGo are other airline brands that are positioned on similar platforms of low cost and on-
time performance. Air India, positioned as the national carrier, as it is owned by the Government
of India, provides connections to almost all major cities in India. While each airline is attempting
to differentiate itself from other competing brands, in a market that is on a growth path, clarity in
positioning of each brand is still evolving.

MULTIPLE FRAMES OF REFERENCE

It is not uncommon for a brand to identify more than one actual or potential competitive frame of
reference, if competition widens or the firm plans to expand into new categories.

There are two main options with multiple frames of reference.

1) One is to first develop the best possible positioning for each type or class of competitors and
then see whether there is a way to create one combined positioning robust enough to effectively
address them all.
2) If competition is too diverse, however, it may be necessary to prioritize competitors and then
choose the most important set of competitors to serve as the competitive frame.
3) One crucial consideration is not to try to be all things to all peoplethat leads to lowest-
common-denominator positioning which is typically ineffective.
4) Finally, if there are many competitors in different categories or sub-categories, it may be
useful to either develop the positioning at the categorical level for all relevant categories.

Straddle Positioning
Occasionally a company will try to straddle two frames of reference.
A) BMWs positioning of luxury and performance is an example.
Choosing POPs and PODs
A) Marketers typically focus on brand benefits in choosing the points-of-parity and points-of-
difference that make up their brand positioning.
B) Brand attributes generally play more of a supporting role by providing reasons to believe or
proof points as to why a brand can credibly claim it offers certain benefits.
C) For choosing specific benefits such as POPs and PODs to position a brand, perceptual
maps may be useful.
D) Perceptual maps are visual representations of consumer perceptions and preferences.
They provide quantitative portrayals of market situations and the way consumers view
different products, services, and brands along various dimensions.
E) By overlaying consumer preferences with brand perceptions, marketers can reveal
holes or openings that suggest unmet consumer needs and marketing opportunities.

Positioning Strategy
Positioning strategies can be conceived and developed in a variety of ways. It can be derived
from the object attributes, competition, application, the types of consumers involved, or the
characteristics of the product class. All these attributes represent a different approach in
developing positioning strategies, even though all of them have the common objective of
projecting a favorable image in the minds of the consumers or audience. There are seven
approaches to positioning strategies:

(1) Using Product characteristics or Customer Benefits as a positioning strategy

This strategy basically focuses upon the characteristics of the product or customer benefits. For
example if I say Imported items it basically tell or illustrate a variety of product characteristics
such as durability, economy or reliability etc. Lets take an example of motorbikes some are
emphasizing on fuel economy, some on power, looks and others stress on their durability. Hero
Cycles Ltd. positions first, emphasizing durability and style for its cycle.

At time even you would have noticed that a product is positioned along two or more product
characteristics at the same time. You would have seen this in the case of toothpaste market, most
toothpaste insists on freshness and cavity fighter as the product characteristics. It is always
tempting to try to position along several product characteristics, as it is frustrating to have some
good characteristics that are not communicated.

(2) Pricing as a positioning strategy Quality Approach or Positioning by Price-Quality Lets

take an example and understand this approach just suppose you have to go and buy a pair
ofjeans, as soon as you enter in the shop you will find different price rage jeans in the showroom
say price ranging from 350 rupees to 2000 rupees. As soon as look at the jeans of 350 Rupees
you say that it is not good in quality. Why? Basically because of perception, as most of us
perceive that if a product is expensive will be a quality product where as product that is cheap is
lower in quality. If we look at this Price quality approach it is important and is largely used in
product positioning. In many product categories, there are brands that deliberately attempt to
offer more in terms of service, features or performance. They charge more, partly to cover higher
costs and partly to let the consumers believe that the product is, certainly of higher quality.

(3) Positioning strategy based on Use or Application Lets understand this with the help of an
example like Nescafe Coffee for many years positioned it self as a winter product and advertised
mainly in winter but the introduction of cold coffee has developed a positioning strategy for the
summer months also. Basically this type of positioning-by-use represents a second or third
position for the brand, such type of positioning is done deliberately to expand the brands
market. If you are introducing new uses of the product that will automatically expand the brands
market.

(4) Positioning strategy based on Product Process Another positioning approach is to

associate the product with its users or a class of users. Makes of casual clothing like jeans have
introduced designer labels to develop a fashion image. In this case the expectation is that the
model or personality will influence the products image by reflecting the characteristics and
image of the model or personality communicated as a product user. Lets not forget that Johnson
and Johnson repositioned its shampoo from one used for babies to one used by people who wash
their hair frequently and therefore need a mild people who wash their hair frequently and
therefore need a mild shampoo. This repositioning resulted in a market share.

(5) Positioning strategy based on Product Class In some product class we have to make sure
critical positioning decisions For example, freeze dried coffee needed to positions itself with
respect to regular and instant coffee and similarly in case of dried milk makers came out with
instant breakfast positioned as a breakfast substitute and virtually identical product positioned as
a dietary meal substitute.

(6) Positioning strategy based on Cultural Symbols In todays world many advertisers are
using deeply entrenched cultural symbols to differentiate their brands from that of competitors.
The essential task is to identify something that is very meaningful to people that other
competitors are not using and associate this brand with that symbol. Air India uses maharaja as
its logo, by this they are trying to show that we welcome guest and give them royal treatment
with lot of respect and it also highlights Indian tradition. Using and popularizing trademarks
generally follow this type of positioning.

(7) Positioning strategy based on Competitors In this type of positioning strategies, an

implicit or explicit frame of reference is one or more competitors. In some cases, reference
competitor(s) can be the dominant aspect of the positioning strategies of the firm, the firm either
uses the same of similar positioning strategies as used by the competitors or the advertiser uses a
new strategy taking the competitors strategy as the base. A good example of this would
be Colgate and Pepsodent. Colgate when entered into the market focused on to family protection
but when Pepsodent entered into the market with focus on 24 hour protection and basically for
kids, Colgate changed its focus from family protection to kids teeth protection which was a
positioning strategy adopted because of competition.