Comparisons of media types and congruence in positioning of service brands

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to undertake a comparative examination of the media types used in projecting positioning strategies of service brands, and to establish whether there is evidence of congruence/fit between managerial decisions, adopted communications and target audience perceptions of positioning strategies of the brands. The relative congruence among intended, conveyed and perceived brand positions is an important research task. Also, how to ensure such synergy and minimize incongruence is an important research question both to theory and to practice. Design/methodology/approach – Following extensive review of the literature, triangulation research method (face-to-face long interviews, survey and content analysis) characterized this study. Findings – The findings reveal that overall parity between the three media (TV; newspaper; and pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and billboards) is evident in terms of failure to translate managerial decisions into corresponding positioning messages. The findings also show that fit or congruence between managerial decision and communicated message fails to deliver the desired message in 19 per cent of the observations. Further 23 per cent of the adopted strategies are neither present in communications nor perceived by the target audience. Irrespective of a positioning strategy being adopted or not, there is total congruence/fit between messages in newspapers and target audience’s perceptions, while the corresponding results for TV and other media are moderate. Moreover, channels for positioning offerings can be multifaceted and they do not strictly have to occur via communications. Only “brand name” positioning strategy demonstrates total fit, while “top of the range” shows high frequency of failure to translate managerial decisions into appropriate communication messages. Originality/value – This paper offers useful insights into the overall differences between the three media (TV; newspaper; and pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and billboards) in the positioning of service brands. The study is a step forward in the diagnosis of the congruence/fit or coherence in the positioning activities between managers, firm practices and consumers’ perceptions. Without this knowledge, executives may encounter difficulties and challenges in their efforts at establishing, maintaining or reframing market “positions” for their offerings.

Article Withdrawn

“…Therefore, the task of evaluating the effectiveness of this positioning exercise is of paramount significance. It is also supported by Seggev (1982), Rossiter and Percy (1997), Alden, Steenkamp, and Batra (1999), Blankson (2004), and Blankson, Kalafatis, Coffie, and Tsogas (2014), who further indicate that since the ultimate objective of product/service/brand (offering) advertising emanates from positioning activities, the main concern of marketers and researchers must be the assessment of the degree to which desired positioning has been accomplished. Accordingly, an attempt is made to evaluate the offering's positions in the marketplace in the case of four popular Indian car brands.…”

Developing a scale for brand competitive positioning: a study in the home appliance industry

“…Previous research has identified some components to measure brand positioning (Blankson et al, 2014;Fuchs and Diamantopoulos, 2010;Malik et al, 2016). It has also shown that BCP is related to such factors as country-of-origin (Adina et al, 2015), market segmentation (Green, 2015), consumer preferences and perceptions (Lee and Liao, 2009) and product attributes (Gwin and Gwin, 2003).…”

“…The aim of this step was to produce a pool of items to tap the domains of the construct supported by theoretical conceptualizations and exploratory research. To obtain an initial list of items, the existing literature on BCP (Adina et al, 2015;Blankson and Strutton, 2011;Blankson et al, 2014;Chen et al, 2017;Fuchs and Diamantopoulos, 2010;Green, 2015;Iyer et al, 2019;Magnusson et al, 2019;Malik et al, 2016;Wason and Charlton, 2015) has been evaluated and the main indicators and factors were extracted for BCP, including distinctiveness/uniqueness, desirability/favorability, credibility, value for money and top of the mind awareness. We also classified the effective factors on BCP (Table 1).…”

“…(Darling, 2001;Fill, 2002;Gitau, 2010;Gwin and Gwin, 2003;Iyer et al, 2019;Kalafatis et al, 2000;Mohammad Shafiee and Es-Haghi, 2017;Pechmann and Ratneshwar, 1991) Sources of advantage: Firm infrastructure, new products investment, service development, brand identity, brand investment, market orientation, familiarity, reputation, etc. (Blankson et al, 2014;Chen et al, 2017;Gwin and Gwin, 2003;Iyer et al, 2019;Matear et al, 2004;Rajabi, 2011) Consumer perceptions (Sujan and Bettman, 1989) Co-branding outcomes (Wason and Charlton, 2015) Firm performance (Matear et al, 2004) Consumer evaluations of a new brand (Gammoh et al, 2011) Consumer choices of luxury brands (Guo and Dandan, 2013) Brand competitive positioning…”

Kajian Literatur Sistematis: Luxury Brand

“…Penelitian tentang Luxury brand telah dilakukan oleh para Ilmuwan dalam beberapa Kategori misalnya : Pertama, Luxury brand di relasikan dengan Aspek Psikologis Konsumen , Nilai, dan kejiwaaan Konsumen antara lain (Amaral et al, 2013;Blankson, Kalafatis, Coffie, & Tsogas, 2014;Brannen & Frisby, 2017;Jeong & Jang, 2018;Khare, Mishra, & Parveen, 2012;Liu, Li, Mizerski, & Soh, 2012;Rajagopal, 2018;Rajat Roy andFazlul K. Rabbanee2013), 2010;Salem & Salem, 2018) Khare et.al (2012), Blankson et.al ( 2014 ) . Kedua, Lux brand dihubungkan dengan Lintas Budaya ( cross-culture ), budaya konsumen dilakukan oleh beberapa peneliti antara lain : (Farah & Fawaz, 2016;Perez, Castaño, & Quintanilla, 2010;Potavanich, 2015;Wu, Luo, Schroeder, & Borgerson, 2017).…”