I'd like to know what you thought of the positioning exercise we did in class. As you worked as a team to craft alternative positionings for Simply Safe, which of the four aspects of the positioning was most difficult to pin down? Target? Frame of reference? Differentiation? or Reason why? Why was it difficult? How satisfied are you that you identified the 'right' positioning?
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The exercise was a god opportunity to experience the kind of thinking that companies go through to come up with the right position statement for their products.
Of the four aspects of the positioning, the one I struggle more with was the first one, TARGET. My team and I were concerned about either being too broad or narrow when naming our target. I think we ended up choosing Moms as our market but, now that I think more about it, we might be excluding women that are not mothers but care about their pets health, or how about just environmentally conscious women that what an effective, safe cleaner. How do you put a single name to all those categories? How do we call our market? On the other hand, narrowing it to only Moms may be a more efficient way to position the product.
We found it challenging to differentiate the product. With the introduction of Green Works by Clorox, there is a competitor with similar product attributes by a trusted brand already in the marketplace. It's challenging to figure out what makes Simply Safe so unique that consumer's will choose an unfamiliar brand versus a trusted brand with many years of cleaning equity.
The biggest challenge for positioning Simply Safe is the target aspect. In determining the target market, many factors were looked at including: affordability, how environmentally conscious the consumer is, the safety aspect of the product, and whether the consumer is willing to change.
During the exercise, we tried to incorporate many interests of the market. We came up with targeting the "soccer mom" that is concerned with the health of her children and pets. However, we may have missed the boat with the consumers that are environmentally and price conscious. Also, we did not take into account the consumers that are loyal to their current brands of cleaners. A different marketing strategy needs to be used to persuade these groups of consumers.
I think differentiation was the hardest because so few people understand or care about what's in their household cleaners. Unless you worry a lot about the environment, the most important aspect to you is the fact that it cleans well. People know that clorox cleans well so to get them to find enough reason to purchase the Simply Safe brand is difficult. Proving the cleaning power when compared to the others is a difficult step for Simply Safe when they are at par with the others in cleaning power.
I appreciate going through the Brand Pyramid exercise for different brands during class. It was most challenging to me to differentiate between Performance from Judgments and Imagery from Feelings. It was especially difficult with Simply Safe exercise when I have limited experience with the product. Even though Simply Safe is an excellent, safe cleaning product but it is not easy to find a position that evoke strong, emotional connection with consumers.
Having the opportunity to create alternative positioning statements for Simply Safe was a great exercise allowing us to pull together what we went through in class, including the pyramid. I think for my team the "reason why" aspect of positioning was the most difficult because none of us truly felt like we had enough background with the product to say X or Y is the proof that shows Simply Safe is "the best." In the end our reason why pieces are a bit broad, but I do feel like they accomplish the goal of fitting in with the rest of the positioning statement.
I think the trickiest part in positioning Simply Safe will be convincing people that it is both an effective cleaner and safe for the environment. Though admittedly without the proper data to back this up, I would guess people do not spend much time researching cleaners and their environmental impact. Moreover, Simply Safe doesn't only have the burden of convincing consumers that their products are environmentally friendly -- they also must convince people that perhaps the products they are currently using have a significantly negative impact, so much so that it justifies switching brands.
One of the hard parts about selling on the "green promise" is that environmental issues may only resonate with people who are toward the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. How big of a market is that? Fortunately, the number of people concerned about the environment certainly seems to be growing. Secondarily, as a marketer, you have limited time to engage and convince a customer that it works effectively. The best strategy then is to induce sampling by consumers - small test-size containers or coupons.
I think differentation was the hardest component of our positioning. We struggled with how to best articulate the unique attributes of Simply Safe that would appeal to our target market. We wanted to convey that the product is both effective and safe as a cleaner. Finding a way to convey both of those points in a unique way that differentiates Simply Safe from other competing products without sounding generic was difficult.
The positioning exercise completed in class showed me how important the positioning statement is as it truly affects all subsequent marketing decisions. Having to write not one, but two positioning statments for Simply Safe helped our group flush through our ideas.
Regarding Simply Safe,the differentiation portion of the positioning was our challenge. Although Simply Safe, may truly clean more effectively and may contain less harmful ingredients than the competition, the average customer may never know that. Chances are the decision of which cleaning product to buy is a low involvment decision made within a few seconds at a grocery store.
Due to these challenges, I believe the best method of selling Simply Safe is through infomercials or the Home Shopping Network. Such avenues allow for demonstration and may be more open to brands that are not household names.
The biggest challenge while creating the positioning statement for Simply Safe was determining the "Resonance" of the product. It was easy to determine what the product wanted to protray and how it wanted to be portrayed, but trying to determine the exact relationship that this product would have with consumers is harder because there is so little marketing about the product. There is no background data to begin initial analysis for this item, so everything is based on trial and error.
The biggest challenge while creating the positioning statement for Simply Safe was determining the "Resonance" of the product. It was easy to determine what the product wanted to protray and how it wanted to be portrayed, but trying to determine the exact relationship that this product would have with consumers is harder because there is so little marketing about the product. There is no background data to begin initial analysis for this item, so everything is based on trial and error.
It was a good exercise to understand how to build a platform of what do we want to be as a brand. For me it was easier to identify what I wanted consumers to think about the meaning, response and resonance of the product. However, I found very challenging to differentiate the product from others. I was not sure about which attributes were important enough for the consumer to change their purchasing behavior to buy Simply Safe instead of buying their current product.
In my opinion, the biggest challenge in positioning Simply Safe was the target market market. The reason for this is that if we only target mothers and pet-owners, we would be excluding a huge market, which would potentially be interested in this product. Lately, the green trend has won many people over, including single men and women, college students and these could be excellent future loyal customers.
The most difficult aspect of positioning Simply Safe was differentiation. We have learned that one of its distinguishing features is safety, and that it has an industrial strength formula with a nice scent. However, many customers are currently using products that they perceive have a good performance and a nice scent as well. I think there needs to be more consumer awareness of what constitutes a safe cleaning product because there are many products in the market that customers don’t consider that hazardous and yet they are. As such awareness increases, it will be easier to reinforce simply safe’s position in the mind of its customers.
The Simply Safe exercise was a great way to practice making statements about the differentiation of a product.
The most difficult challenge for me was developing our 'Reason Why'. Although the Point of Differentiation was relatively easy for us to identify, my group had a difficult time describing these in a way that would resonate well with consumers. We knew that the product was industrial strength, yet safe to drink, and that the product was tough on factory grime yet smelled great. However, because the claims for Simply Safe were backed by our 'reason why', we wanted something simple and effective that would stick and resonate with the consumer.
I think that the biggest challenge we found would be differentiating this product against other "green" products that have a stronger brand identity. Another challenge could be convincing people that this product will work as well as harsh chemicals. Bleach gives consumers a feeling that things are sterile and something like this cannot offer that. Convincing consumers that it works just as well will be a challenge.
I liked the positioning exercise because it gave us the opportunity to actually write out a statement a marketer in the field would write for a product. I liked seeing the template of how to create a positioning statement and I feel it will help me in the future, in the event I need to create a positioning statement for a product.
I would say differentiation was the hardest part for us to nail down because it seems a lot of cleaning products have the same claims, or at least very similar claims. The goal was to get people to understand what makes Simply Safe even better than all of those products consumers already know and trust. I think that was the toughest part.
The exercise demonstrated how difficult it can be to create a positioning statement especially in a group. There are so many ways to position a brand and each of us a slightly different idea of how to most effectively accomplish it. The only way a marketer could be sure they have successfully positioned their product would be to test and analyze results. Over time you'd know more about who your customers are, what aspects they value most, and why they chose you over the competition.
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