Abstract
This study is dedicated to the communication positioning of a brand and its semiotic nature and managerial significance. First, various basics but key points on the topic are presented and commented on. Some of them are on the evolutionary path of a brand as a commercial concept, consumer’s involvement as a main source of its contemporary equity, its exchange value, and primary task to make a difference. In the second, larger part, different theories and models by both academics and practitioners are observed in order to extract their common ground or specificity regarding brand positioning essence, process and practices, including brand core, identity and personification, creation of unique associations, consumer’s imaginary provocation, appealing statement support, as well as a way by which the market “noise” could be surmounted in the name of successful distinction from the competition.
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Notes
- 1.
According to a large proportion of researchers—economists, futurists, and marketers—at the beginning of the information age and the announcement of the knowledge economy, the capitalist system has undergone a revolutionary change, which may be equal to the invention of the steam engine or electricity. Although many factors have prevented the world from developing evenly, and in many parts of the planet remnants of the feudal system are observed, thanks to the globalization processes the developed countries and the powerful international corporations exert a strong influence on the unification of the mechanisms of economic development, in the center of which is not so much production itself but rather the single user. This has its consequences, eloquently described by Jeremy Rifkin: “In the networked economy, characterized by a shorter product life and a continually expanding flow of goods and services, human attention, rather than material resources, is what becomes insufficient.” (2001, p. 107).
- 2.
We can find a confirmation in the following passage written by Peter Fisk: “A good brand is the one that you want to live your life with, in which you trust and count on, when everything around you changes…. Originally brands developed as labels for right of ownership. Today, however, much more important is what they do to people, how they reflect their needs and attract them, how they formulate their aspirations and enable them to do more” (2008, p. 153).
- 3.
“What makes an organization strong, are not the goods and services offered by it, but its position occupied in the minds of the consumers” (Trout and Rivkin 2002, p. 149).
- 4.
Objects are signs, whether single or in combination; message bearers are their colors and shapes as well as their material and arrangement in space. The shape/commodity is an independent communication system which underpins the public one and is not a “supplement” or connotation. Here, the role of the code is decisive, whether talking about material contents of production or immaterial contents of meaning (Baudrillard 1996, pp. 18 and 158).
- 5.
The change in the meaning of the brand gives reason to some authors, including Baleva (2007, p. 177), using the presence of the English word brand, to designate a wider concept which is common in marketing, unlike trademark, which is part of the legal and business vocabulary. In the Bulgarian language, however, the semantic distinction is still hard to detect, despite the entry of the English terminology.
- 6.
The figure varies according to the sources and years; for the example, data from Interbrand in 1999 are used, quoted by Aaker and Joachimsthaler in Brand Leadership, 2000, p. 19.
- 7.
Almost similar to that is the story of cigarettes Marlboro, described by Jacques Seguela. The aim of their first ads was to highlight adventurism and aggression, while subsequently it turns out that smokers perceive the brand as a symbol of space and freedom of nature in contrast to the urban environment and stress of the offices (2004, pp. 73–80).
- 8.
“The hidden part of the iceberg is a brand’s ‘cultural unconscious’ (…) made up of associations, similarities and significant differences” (Evans 1999, p. 15).
- 9.
We use the concept of brand positioning, rather than product positioning because, as mentioned above, the brand has long since become a symbolic substitute of goods and even gives them a force in the course of communication with the target group (see Baleva 2007, p. 390).
- 10.
“The consumer has to recognize the premises that are made in the brand positioning, in the content of the brand communication. And the look and feel of the communications will have to reflect the brand personality” (Floor 2006, p. 65).
- 11.
“Every consumer buys to meet their specific need, therefore, the selection of information focuses on those properties of the advertised product, which will meet the need of the consumer” (Petrova 2004, p. 25).
- 12.
“The image of the brand is built over time and it purposefully appropriates the images, actions and events that define the importance of brand for the consumers…” (Zyman 2005b, p. 91).
- 13.
According to Jack Trout and Al Ries, the right place where the high price of a product should be put on is in advertisements, not in the store. If the work on positioning is well done, in front of the label there will be no unpleasant surprises for the consumer because he/she will already be aware that this product is moving in a certain high-price category (Trout and Ries 1981, p. 70).
- 14.
In Differentiate or Die, we encounter the following formulation: “Positioning is how you differentiate your product in the mind of its potential users. (…) If you understand how the mind works, you will understand positioning too” (Trout and Rivkin 2002, p. 102).
- 15.
“Don’t play semantic games with the prospect. Advertising is not a debate. It’s a seduction” (Trout and Ries 1981, p. 76).
- 16.
“The product is also born…. The product grows up and starts to make a living. We measure its height not in centimeters, but in conquered percents of the market. (…) Above all, the product is able to communicate. As we create its brand, we give it the gift of speak” (Seguela 2004, p. 48).
- 17.
Led by the widespread economic principle by W. Pareto that 20 % of brand-loyal buyers make 80 % of the its profits, Zyman warns against practicing horizontal marketing as an end in itself: “Much more effective is to build relationships with customers and then work on people who know you to buy more than every day to search for new customers” (Zyman 2005b, p. 79).
- 18.
With some changes; bold is in original text [D.T.].
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Trendafilov, D. (2015). The Brand as an Economic Value and a Sign: Positioning as an Instrument for Creating Market Distinctions. In: Trifonas, P. (eds) International Handbook of Semiotics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9404-6_15
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