Marketing Q&A : Frame of Reference and Points of Parity

A Marketing Practice reader asks this very pertinent question " What is frame of reference and points of parity and their role in branding ?"

Frame of reference is the framework used by the consumers to make sense of the product in question. Humans understand and remember new things by linking it to existing (known) objects. Frame of reference is that evaluative criterion which is used by consumers to make a better understanding of the product/services. Frame of reference also explains the context in which consumers tend to evaluate /place the product. For example , the frame of reference used to evaluate Frooti is that it is a mango drink. Coca Cola = Cola, Ace = Mini Truck, Dettol = Antiseptic etc. If Frooti launches an Apple Drink, the consumers will find it difficult to accept the product since it is out of the frame of reference used to evaluate/understand Frooti

Since consumers use a frame of reference in understanding a product, the concept has a very important place in the positioning of the product. Positioning is defined as the act of designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market ( Kotler). The first task of the marketer is to identify the frame of reference used by the target market in evaluating the product/service. Once the frame of reference is identified, the marketer will position the product in line with the frame of reference. In case of products that lack a frame of reference, marketers should create a frame of reference for the consumers.

The concept of Points of Parity helps marketers to place the product in line with the consumer's frame of reference. Points of parity are those associations that are not necessarily unique to the brand but may in fact be shared with other brands. There are two forms of Points of Parity - Category POP and Competitive POP. Category POP are those associations that consumers view as being necessary to be a legitimate and credible offering with a certain product or service category.Competitive POP are those associations designed to negate competitor's Points of Parity ( Kevin Keller).

In simple terms , when a product is launched, the marketer should tell the customer about the category in which the product belongs ( category POP). This task is important for products which belong to a new category. For example , hand sanitizer is a new category and consumers are not aware of such a category. So when a brand is being launched in such a new category, brand managers should first establish a category POP. For that , the consumers should be made aware of such a category. Right now marketers are using infomercials to educate the consumers about hand sanitizer, its advantages and uses. Once the frame of reference is established ,then the brand should be placed in the category. Usually marketers use packaging, product form and labels to establish category points of parity.

Competitor POP is where marketers tell the consumers that their brand have all the properties/qualities of their competing brands. For example Lifebuoy soap will establish competitive POP with Dettol soap by claiming that it has germ killing qualities and vice versa.

These strategies will fail if the marketers did not understand the frame of reference used by consumers in evaluating the product. This lack of understanding can lead to positioning failures that eventually lead to product failure.

Xylys : It Possesses You

Brand : Xylys

Company : Titan Industries Ltd

Agency : Rediffusion

Brand Analysis Count : # 460

Xylys can be termed as India's own premium watch brand. The brand created by Titan Industries is taking on the iconic premium watch brands like Omega, Rado,Patek Philippe, Rolex,Cartier etc. The brand was born in 2006 gain rapid acceptance in the Indian watch market.

Indian luxury watch market is worth Rs 500 crore and is dominated by Swiss and other European brands. There is virtually no presence of any Indian brands in that segment. The rising affluent Indian consumer class and the trend towards more expressive lifestyle accessories prompted Titan to seriously look at this segment. Xylys is currently targeting the lower spectrum of the luxury watch segment.

Xylys was initially launched as a flanker brand for Titan. Titan which is the market leader in the mid-price segment felt that the upper end of their target customers were moving towards iconic global premium brands. With that intention of blocking any such migration , Xylys was introduced at the price range of Rs 8000- Rs 33,000.

Xylys however gathered good momentum with the brand clocking a 50% CAGR growth rate. From being a flanker brand, Xylys morphed to be a powerful growth brand in the course of time.

Titan while carefully analyzing the consumer behavior of premium watch customers, it found that the consumers were highly influenced by the "Country of Origin " association. The consumers loved the Swiss Made proposition and there is a huge association between " Swiss Made " and quality, precision , premium etc. The insight was that it would be difficult for an "Indian Made " tag to impress upon the target segment. Titan thus made Xylys - a Swiss Made watch. Xylys is manufactured at a state-of-the-art factory in Switzerland which has a rich heritage of 80 years in precision watch making.

Xylys' strong point was its design . The brand is being crafted in association with Swiss designer Laurent Rufenacht along with Titan's own designer Michael Foley. The sharp unique designs quickly made Xylys a fast growing brand in the segment.

Xylys was launched as a contemporary brand targeting the upwardly mobile successful men & women. The brand has segmentedthe market based on psychographic profiles. Xylys defines its customers as contemporary dynamic successful persons who has attitude and confidence. The brand wants to celebrate success with them. The customers of Xylys are highly individualistic persons who does what they love. These people would love to express themselves and loves to show their success to the world. The brand has a very well defined brand charter and values which I feel is an excellent marketing practice. ( Read Xylys Brand Charter here).

During the launch phase, Xylys was endorsed by the Actor Rahul Bose, tennis player Carlos Moya and super model Saira Mohan. The basic theme of the launch campaign was the story of how these people tread their own path and became successful.

Watch the launch ad : Xylys Launch

Xylys -Saira Mohan

The brand at that time had the tagline " The power of X " . The brand used " X" to symbolize the differentiating factor in the highly successful people. X also denotes Xylys-the brand.

In 2010, the brand changed its positioning from " Symbol of Success " to " Feeling of Love ". The brand now is talking about falling in love with Xylys. Xylys is currently running a campaign reflecting the new positioning.

Watch the new campaign here : Xylys Possession

The brand have also adopted a new tagline " You do not possess Xylys , it possesses you ".

The new campaign is a significant deviation from the core positioning of the brand. The entire brand personality of Xylys was changed in the current campaign. I wonder why a brand which is growing should try to change its positioning at this critical juncture.

The earlier positioning of Xylys were talking about the highly individualistic expressive nature of successful people while the current positioning talks about how Xylys takes control of such a person. If you look closely the brand is totally off the mark regarding the core values that it stands for. I feel that the agency has not read the brand charter before creating the campaign. The purpose of creating a brand charter is to protect continuity in the communication. The product managers should use the charter as the basis for devising their communication strategies. The current campaign is very difficult to fit into the brand charter.

Regarding the execution of the new positioning , there is nothing worthwhile in the advertisement. The idea of a man being possessed by a product and forgets everything is an idea which has been raped a million times. Even the chocolate brand 5 star uses this idea as the central theme.

Having said that, Xylys' core strength is its design and since watch is an experiential product , consumers may fall for it when they see the designs. But the brand needs to create clutter-breaking campaigns if it wants to fight the likes of Omega , Rado etc.

Xylys has took lot of effort in creating a very good brand charter. Why not follow it ??

Brand Update : Tic Tac moves from Hello to Refreshment

Tic Tac , the mint confectionery brand from the Ferrero group has gone for a new positioning. The brand has changed its positioning from " Conversation Starter " to a " Refreshment that needs to be Shared ".

The brand had gone for a similar repositioning in 2008 when it adopted the tagline " The New Hello ". The brand was then positioned as an " ice-breaker" or " Conversation Starter". The brand after two years is embarking on a new communication route.

Tic Tac is a unique brand. The shape, taste and packaging sets this brand apart from the rest of the mint-based confectionery brand. The brand has also gained good penetration interms of distribution.

The uniqueness of the brand has poised certain positioning issues for the marketer. Since the brand is different from the conventional mint-based products, the positioning should also reflect the uniqueness. Polo is a brand that has used its unique form to its advantage by its positioning based on the " Hole " factor. Tic Tac ideally should have discovered some smart way of communicating its uniqueness. But so far it failed to do so.

Tic Tac so far has not able to find a differentiated communication platform that reflected the uniqueness of the brand. That is the reason why this brand failed to came out with any clutter-breaking campaigns.

The current campaign and the positioning is no better. Infact it is worse than the earlier proposition of " The New Hello ".

Watch the new ad here : Refreshment to be shared

The theme of a group of bored youngsters breaking into ecstatic dance after consuming the product is an idea from pre-historic era. The new positioning based on " Sharing " is also not capturing/communicating anything unique about Tic Tac.

The brand globally had the positioning statement " Its not just a mint. its a Tic Tac " which is a very powerful positioning platform. I wonder why the brand discarded such a powerful statement and settled from something sub-standard ? It has to be mentioned that the brand also adopts the concept of " Sharing a Tic Tac " in the values but it is not the primary talking point. The current global theme for the brand is centered around " Refreshment " but in India , the brand failed to reflect any of the original brand values.

The new campaign and the positioning of Tic Tac is a big letdown. The brand lost its USP of shape, taste and freshness in the current campaign. I think the brand should first talk about why use it and then talk about sharing it.

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Tic Tac

Brand Update : Ranbir Kapoor is the New Cool Face of John Players

John Players has a new brand ambassador. The brand chose the current Bollywood hotshot Ranbir Kapoor as the new brand ambassador. Ranbir replaces Hrithik Roshan as the new face of cool. The brand is currently running a print/digital campaign featuring the new brand ambassador.

Hrithik had a tough run last year with most of the films ending up as flops. While Ranbir Kapoor is on a roll these days with plenty of hits and also critical acclaim for his roles. John Players want to cash in on the current success of Ranbir along with the " Cool " looks of the actor.

For a company like ITC which has plenty of cash flowing in to the kitty every year, changing brand ambassadors may not hurt very much. Hrithik and Ranbir are expensive assets and only a firm like ITC can afford to dump stars like Hrithik and opt for the current hotshot within a short span of time.

There is no doubt that Ranbir Kapoor makes an excellent choice for John Players. The actor has the cool looks and attitude and gels with the overall persona of the brand.

I feel that the brand is less aggressive on the promotion front. The brand's noise in the media is very less or rather goes unnoticed. Although some of the campaigns were good, the brand undertook sporadic bursts of campaigns. In that sense, the brand failed to capitalize on the power of the celebrity which endorsed the brand.

The brand is currently relying heavily on celebrity to stay ahead. In a sense, the brand has the tendency to fall into a celebrity trap. For ITC, the cost may not be an issue . But for the brand, it is suicidal to derive equity from an external source. The brand has a wonderful positioning of " Cool " quotient and it should try to like the Coolness to itself rather than rely on a secondary association. Parallel campaigns using other models or dress designs are necessary to derisk the over reliance on a celebrity.

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John Players

Mahindra Voyager : RIP ( 1997-2000)

Brand : Mahindra Voyager

Company : Mahindra & Mahindra

Brand Analysis Count : #459

Voyager was an ambitious brand, aiming to create a new segment in the Indian automobile industry. But rather than creating a new category, the brand went down the history as a failed one.

Voyager was Mahindra's foray into the consumer vehicles segment. The brand was created in collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors .Voyager was launched in India in 1997 and lived a very short life of a little over two years.

Voyager was India's first and perhaps the last luxury Multi-Purpose family van. The brand was positioned as a luxury family carrier and Mahindra hoped that the association with Mitsubishi will give enough reason to charge a premium .

Voyager was based on Mitsubishi's 1968 L300 van. Although the L300 is still in the market, Voyager failed to survive.

The van (MPV) segment in India was and is still dominated by Maruti Omni. The segment was a stagnant one . Indian consumers were never thrilled by the concept of a family van. One of the reason was the poor marketing and product development in that segment. Although some families own Omni, the main users of the van was in the commercial segment. Compared to cars, the van seldom offered a comfortable ride and there were issues regarding A/C and safety. Many consumers buy van for the functional benefit .

Mahindra felt that there is an opportunity for a premium family van. And thus born Voyager.

To begin with, Voyager had the support of one of the leading global automobile brands of that time in Mitsubishi. Voyager had a powerful engine and large space . But Voyager put off the consumer in two aspects - Design and Price.

More than the design, it was the price that killed Voyager. The base version of the brand was priced at Rs 5.25 lakh which was more than the price of a decent sedan. The arrogant pricing virtually scared away the Indian consumers. The consumer was not willing to pay that much money for a non-A/c vehicle.

Second factor that put-off the consumer was the design. Voyager was too boxy and Indian consumers did not like that design. Having said that, we have seen vehicles like Qualis thriving in the market despite poor looks. But in the case of Voyager, it could not boast about the quality , value or brand name.

Another aspect was the service factor. Mahindra and Mitsubishi were brands that are new to consumer market and there was suspicion about the level of service and after-sales support for the product.

The brand campaign was also not able to impress the consumer.The campaigns of Voyager essentially talked about the space and luxury but couldn't find any meaningful differentiator that justified the premium pricing of the brand. Consumers viewed Voyager as a functional product and not as a luxury one and that prevented consumers from paying a premium .

Distressed by the response from the individuals, Voyager aggressively pursued the commercial segment and became popular ( to certain extent) as ambulance vehicle. That was a final nail in the coffin. Voyager suddenly was branded as an ambulance vehicle which further distanced the individuals from the brand.

Indian consumers only have one reference point for vans i.e Maruti Omni. Omni is a highly functional product and its pricing also reflects that aspect. Voyager failed because it could not break away from that functional association . Neither the product design nor the benefits forced the consumers to think differently about the product. Since Voyager looked and felt like a van, it should also be priced like the van ( Omni) could have been the justification of the consumer while rejecting the brand.

Brand Update : Cadbury Dairy Milk For Shubh Aarambh

Cadbury's Dairy Milk has recently launched a new campaign " Shubh Aarambh" ( meaning Auspicious Beginning ). The campaign is the refined version of the earlier Payday campaign which evoked mixed response from the Ad analysts and consumers.

The Shubh Aarambh campaign reinforces the occasion based positioning of Dairy Milk. The brand has been trying to position itself as a symbol of enjoyment and celebrations. Indians have the tradition of sharing sweets on auspicious occasions and also when one initiates a venture/activity. Whether the activity is small like writing an exam or huge like starting a company, sharing of sweets is an integral part of the event. The belief is that good things happen when one starts a venture on a positive note ( like sharing sweets).

Dairy Milk very cleverly captured this tradition and incorporated into its brand story. The new campaign takes the brand to the center of this tradition linking Dairy Milk to Sweet and Auspicious Beginning.

While the previous PayDay campaign was a narrow interpretation of the occasion based positioning , Shubh Aarambh has given the brand a broad playing ground. In my opinion, the brand has hit upon a really great Big Idea. The concept is very much Indian and offers huge opportunity for creatives to weave great stories for the brand.

Watch the launch ad here : Shubh Aarambh

The concept also gels with the brand's tagline " Kuchch Meetha Ho Jaye ". The launch campaign is targeted at younger generation and hence the brand added a little humor and twist into the campaign.

Shubh Aarambh is a great idea for this great brand. It will be interesting to see how Dairy Milk milks this idea to the fullest.