Product Positioning Strategy – Use of Cultural Symbols

What is Product Positioning?

Product position refers to what the consumer thinks of your product when they are making a purchase decision.

Eg. lowest price, best service, freshest produce, “certified residue free,” easy access

Different Product Positioning Strategies

Product Benefits

Price and Quality

Use Application

Product User

Product Class

Competitor

Cultural Symbols

Positioning Strategy – Cultural Symbols

Culture can be defined as the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group

A population recognizes itself and the society through the use of cultural symbols

It is this fundamental principle that leads advertisers to associate a particular product with a cultural symbol

This leads the target market populace to associate the product with culture and the general understanding it identifies as holy, artistic, refined or sophisticated.

Essentially, identify something that is very meaningful to people and associate the brand with that symbol.

This helps to differentiate brands from other competitors.

Cultural Symbols Positioning Strategy

Video 1

o An international marketing campaign started by the Government of India in 2002, with the aim of promoting Indian tourism to a global audience

Strategy:  

o The campaign projected India as an attractive tourist destination by showcasing different aspects/ symbols of Indian culture and history like yoga, spirituality, dance, festivals and experiences like camel ride, climbing coconut tree, kite flying etc.

o Before 2002, the Indian government regularly prepared pamphlets and brochures for the promotion of tourism. It had various state based ads showcasing the beauty of each, however, it did not support tourism in a concerted fashion.

o With this campaign, It formulated an integrated communication strategy with the aim of promoting India as a destination of choice for the discerning traveler.

Benefits

Benefits:During the economic slowdown, tourism-related activities fell by 7% worldwide due to recession but in India only by 2%. After the launch of Campaign,

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) rose by 25%Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) rose by 36%

FTAs in India during  2011 : 63 lakhsFEEs in India during  2011 :Rs. 77591 crores

Recent Accolades:o Ranked ‘Highest Recall’ Advertisement worldwide by Travel and Leisure, 2011o Winner of PATA Gold Award for best Print Ad and Best Destination Marketing Campaigno World Travel Awards received for World’s leading Travel Destination Television

Commercial & Worlds leading Responsible Tourism Projecto 21st Grand Prix Award 2011-for encouraging global tourism through audio-visual mediao Appeared during the Oscar, Grammy and BAFTA award functions

Product Matrix

No. of destinations

DestinationsType

Less

More

Luxury Cultural heritage

Malaysia

Thailand

India

Dubai

Singapore

China

Video 2

It is an Indian stationery company

Manufactures art materials, marker pens, fountain pens, inks, pencils, and other stationery products

Strategy:o The TVC was made to promote one of the products - Camlin Permanent Marker. o In India bangles, lockets and vermillion mark are the symbol of married women in India.o Daily the husband applies vermilion on the wife forehead as it is believed to be

connected to his lifeline.o When the husband dies, Rudali (professional mourners) come and strip the women off

this symbol.o In the ad when the husband is alive he applies the vermilion on the women head with

the Camlin Permanent marker, and when he dies the professional mourners try to remove the vermilion from the head but it doesn’t go.

o After few minutes the husband comes back to life symbolizing that the camlin permanent mark is too permanent to be removed easily. Thus highlighting the quality of Camlin Permanent Marker.

Benefits

Accolades:o The Permanent Marker TV Commercial, (of Rudali with Bindi

fame) was selected to be shown in Japan as one of the world's greatest TV Commercials by NTV Network, the biggest TV network in Japan.

o It won Gold at The 40th Annual Abby awards in 2007 for best creative idea and direction.

Benefits:o Created a brand recall for a generic audience. o The above event came as a very important event in the

history of the Indian advertisement industry. It was recognition as a proof that the Indian advertisement industry has the potential to produce some of the very best campaigns.

Product Matrix

Product Variety

Price

Less

More

Less More

Video 3

India’s largest manufacturer of electrical and telecommunication cables

Also manufactures polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheets for various applications like roofing, signage and interiors

Strategy: Finolex being synonymous with safety for more than 5 decades; thought it was time to shift from the product-benefit approach to reposition the brand. Finolex involved its end-users, the traditional Indian audience, in an

aesthetic sense to communicate the underlying message of a traditional bond between Finolex & the color Laal.

Finolex, a non-core sector company, wished to see that its products be well accepted today by consumers and communicated the same using a cultural environment to strike a chord with the audience.

BenefitsThe company has set several benchmarks and has been recognised in the global arena

Accolades:o Ranked among the leading organizations of Business India's

Super 500 Corporationso Survey conducted by Business Today and Stern Standard,

Finolex was listed amongst the Best Wealth Creating Companies of India

o IIM-LIC award for Marketing Excellenceo Featured in the Top 150 Hidden Champions of the World by

World Link, Geneva.

Benefits:o Brand Finolex has become synonymous with quality and

innovationo The most preferred brand among electricians, architectso and builders, Finolex ranks high on the brand recognition

laddero Being a pioneer in advertising it is a brand with an excellent

top-of mind recall

Product Matrix

Connect with Target Market

Price

Functional

Cultural

Less More

Other examples

Idea Cellular Skoda Rapid

MaggiiThe Hindu

Conclusion

In order to make an impression on your target consumer population, as a manufacturer or a producer you would need to convince the consumer that there is INDEED a special feature in your product that (s)he would like to use or possess

Because Ultimately:The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.

- Peter Drucker

Thank You

Presented by:Neha Kumar (A029)Nitya Murty (A031)Rashi Kapur (A039)

Sonal Rajadhyax (A050)Yuvraj Tandon (A059)