The concept of positioning starts with a product – a detergent bar, an airline service, an educational institution, a movie star, or a political candidate. Positioning is not what you do to a product. "It is creating a ‘position’ in a prospect’s mind, one that reflects the company’s own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of its competitors," Ries and Trout write. It is battling for the mind of people. It is expressing how a product wishes to be perceived using a core message delivered in every appropriate medium, which can translate into awareness, trial, desire, sustained loyalty and undying love.
Positioning is spelling out how to project a leader so that it gets into the mind and stays entrenched there, finding a "niche" for a follower not currently occupied by the leader, and avoiding the pitfalls of letting a second product ride on the successes of an established one. Effective positioning helps a product generate dominant market shares and category or industry leadership. It makes a brand become a household name through the use of functional and emotional hooks that connect to people.
In a much larger sense, positioning is at the very center of building brand equity. If brand equity is the perceived value of the product–how people think of the product or service on its own and relative to the competition–then that perceived value basically describes the "position" in their minds. Getting the product to that point, of course, is one of the marketing communicator’s great challenges.
Prof. Fred Kanzler says, "One of the most profound statements on the subject of positioning comes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. When Alice asks the Cheshire Cat which path to take, he answers, ’If you don’t care where you’re going, it doesn’t make a difference which path you take.’ Parallel that with a product’s advertising program. Without a clear trail or focus, it can act like Medusa’s top–one head with many ‘snake-mouths,’ saying unimportant propositions, and going in all directions."
A well-thought-out positioning statement defines a product’s direction. Kanzler recommends answering seven essential questions to help you develop a focused one – Who are you? What business are you in? What people do you serve? What does the market you serve need? Against whom do you compete? What’s different about your business? What unique benefit is derived from your product or service? The path will be clearer for Alice, if you are able to provide the accurate responses to these queries.
President Arroyo was Nora Aunor, Superstar and idol of the masses up to her vice-presidency. When she assumed the presidency, she shifted from a laundry woman’s granddaughter (Gloria Labandera), to a doting Tita (Ate Glo), to a caring mother (Ina ng Bayan), to a Great Filipino Worker, and now an Anti-Crime and Terrorism Czarina. Put all this in a positioning framework to see whether these positioning variations, made in a span of only over a year, will contribute to difficulty in maneuvering her political campaign. Remember that political figures are essentially brands, and a brand is what PGMA stands for.
Of late, President Arroyo is projecting so strongly her anti-crime persona. She says this is needed to teach the criminals a lesson by exposing them to public humiliation, to inform the public that the law enforcers are doing their work, and to send a message to criminals that she means business about ridding the country of hooligans and terrorists. However, some are saying that she is doing this kind of action, hopefully to win the trust and support of her audiences, and probably their votes come 2004.
With a divided reaction on her latest public projection, it looks like the search for PGMA’s positioning is not over yet. A well-defined brand personality that can cut across all ages, socio-economic segments, geography and other demographic and psychographic factors must be developed. Look at former Mayor Rudolph Guiliani of New York. He demonstrated his personal brand very clearly during and after the events of September 11. He was everywhere–rushing to the World Trade Center after the first suicide plane hit, fleeing for safety when the second tower collapsed, keeping the public informed, preparing the city for the unfolding aftermath of the attacks, meeting with firefighters and policemen, and consoling individuals and families over their losses. After a year of unending gossip and increasing irrelevance, he became the perfect leader (even winning the Time Man of the Year Award in 2001) for New York City in the most challenging of times. Informed, consoling and human have become the dimensions of his personal brand. And with that he was able to regain the trust and admiration of the many New Yorkers, who had written him off.
Political leaders need to have a strong positioning that will work through good times and bad. Defining PGMA’s positioning and bringing it to life through consistency in action is something that she should instinctively recognize and articulate effectively. A positioning, built from a compelling personal brand will be a critical success factor in her popularity and trust rating.
How does one go about defining a presidential positioning? The underlying principles are the same as those applied to branding a juice drink, a cell phone, or a hotel service. Brenda Smith and John Kelly recommend, "Recognize your personal strengths and gifts, think about how you best connect with people, consider what your target audience needs. Also, identify the value you deliver to meet those needs, and communicate in a way that reaches your constituents’ hearts and minds, via the channels that work best for you. And most importantly, recognize the gaps in your positioning, and invest time and energy to overcome those gaps."
The president’s functional brand promise is to deliver successful, objective results–to achieve economic growth and stability, to fight poverty, among others. Her emotional brand promise is to be an inspirational visionary, an articulate communicator, or for most of us, simply being a compelling and confidence-inspiring leader.
Changes in positioning can be confusing to the people and can deplete the President’s image. Having a new one (if research says it is necessary) is not going to be difficult, if there is a clear definition of her functional and emotional equities. It is high time that she should have a focused positioning that projects her true persona.