Product Superiority: Myth or Fact? (2)

A continuation of the series on how generic products/services can be leveraged to achieve super-brand status.
It is expedient to again itemize some of the fundamental purposes of branding which are virtually the same anywhere in the world. In general, they are:
To distinguish a company’s offering and differentiate a particular product from its competitors.
To create identification and brand awareness.
To guarantee a level of quality and satisfaction such that the brand becomes a trademark of sorts.
To generally help promote a product or service.
Bear in mind that in continuation from the last edition, we’ve been examining the means by which ordinarily generic products/services have managed to achieve ‘superbrand’ status over the years, the first being by adding value.

Taking a Position
Indeed a whole lot has been preached and documented about positioning since those early days (more than two decades ago) when Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote the treatise, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, on the topic. The book has gone on to be further cited by more than 100 other books on brand positioning and associated topics, but note that positioning in itself is by no means rocket science.
Essentially, a brand name is much more than a mere label employed to differentiate various manufacturers of a similar product. A brand is a complex symbol which captures and represents a variety of ideas and attributes as well as a defined persona. A brand is meant to tell consumers many things it has succeeded in building up and acquiring as a public object over a time-frame.
Let’s take a look at a few world-class brands below.
Coca-Cola
for instance stands for the spirit of refreshment and bringing people together. Its attributes include refreshment, excitement and socialization. Its current pay-off is Open Happiness.
BMW is renowned for being the best car company in the world. Attributes of the brand include quality performance and technology. The pay-off line or its positioning is The Ultimate Driving Machine.
McDonald’s Corporation stands for affordable good food for the family. Its brand attributes are trust, convenience and value. Its corporate vision is to be the favourite family restaurant.
British Airways is modelled to stand for the world’s leading provider of travel services. The brand attributes are global reach and care. Its brand theme is the World’s favourite airline.
Nike Inc. stands for the experience of competitive emotion, winning and crushing competition. Its brand attributes are performance, achievement, individualism and attitude. The brand theme is Just Do It.
Positioning is really not a difficult concept to grasp. At its roots are simply the benefits  rational emotions that people associate with particular brands.
The concept of the brand presents the background to the realisation that all purchasing decisions for products and services alike involve a combination of both rational (functional) and emotional criteria. The rational criteria herein are the physical components/elements of the particular product or service, while the emotional criteria are the sum of the impressions, ideas, opinions and random associations which the potential purchaser has logged in his/her mind about that product or service.
Blackberry is a device that keeps you in the loop even when you’re on the move. Gatorade is the sports thirst quencher. Harp is the real beer that allows you to be yourself. Skye bank is the bank that says ‘YES! to your needs’ … bla bla bla!
Simple as it is in principle, it can actually be more difficult in practice and this is primarily because it’s very easy to confuse true positioning with a focus on features and attributes.
Altogether, the holistic image of the brand is really a combination of these rational and emotional elements. Thus, the word brand is employed to describe or represent everything that people know, think or feel about a phenomenon.

Keeping the Focus
Coca-Cola is undeniably the world’s most valuable brand, isn’t it? But the brand understands the import of keeping focus. As it expands into new beverage categories, it maintains high standards and invariably introduces new and exotic flavours. Even then, the brand doesn’t attempt to build its positioning around flavours or taste or any elements along those lines. Real refreshment has and will always be the benefit (and positioning) the Coca-Cola brand has owned for decades and the brand has ensured the positioning is focused there even as the definition of refreshment hasn’t remained static.
Therefore, as you evaluate your brand’s positioning, take care not to focus on features that will soon be co-opted by your competitors. Consideration should be made for the primary benefits your brand provides and what these really add up to. It is also preached by brand scholars (source: businessweek.com) that positioning should be subjected to six key tests  Relevance, Simplicity, Differentiation, Believability, Credibility, Defensibility.
If it passes these tests and comes out strong, your brand is likely to provide value for the long-term as this will guide the full range of marketing efforts and crucial decisions, from research and development to acquisitions.
Having said all, it’s quite clear why we’re willing to spend the amounts of resources we do on all the ‘Superbrands.’ They got their positioning right, and that’s clearly the first step in creating a brand worth billions!