How does competitive positioning helps a company to achieve a
sustainable and substantial brand equity?

Helpmepls - -

The idea of brand equity's relationship with competitive positioning
has been developed in studies of profit in market share (PIMS) and
through a related concept of value chain analysis.

The PIMS studies originally done in the 1970s looked at what factors
influence profitability and by how much.  Market share has the highest
impact on profitability of any of more than 60 factors studied;
product "quality" was a second important factor.

Quality and quality management became very important during the 1980s,
particularly as automobile and semiconductor companies responded to
Japanese companies' leadership in reliability.

By the 1990s, the focus had shifted to measuring value or quality.  As
Jack Welch, the now-retired chairman of General Electric said,
"Yesterday doesn't count.   All that matters is providing the most
value to customers tomorrow."

The way that it's done is through what's called today "value chain
analysis," mapping your products attributes against that of
competition, then exploiting both your strengths – and your
competitors' weaknesses.  "Brand" or "image" have long-lasting impact
and are hard to change, as they are tied to the performance of the
company or product.

An excellent introduction to value chain analysis, brand and
positioning is done by Bradley Gale.  In this example, he uses an
equipment company and positions it against two key competitors:
Customer Value, Inc.
"Measuring and Improving Customer Value" (undated)
http://www.cval.com/Gale/ISBM.RTF

Interestingly enough, when Lou Gerstner took over the management of
IBM's portfolio of products, he instituted a similar measurement
system centrally within the company (rather than one run by each
division).  His account is told in the book released at the end of
2002, "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?"

A related piece on the MindTools website treats analysis of
strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats for a company and its
competitors:
MindTools
"SWOT Analysis" (Dec. 10, 2001)
http://www.mindtools.com/swot.html

Google search strategy:
PIMS + "market leadership"
"value chain analysis"
"brand equity"

If there's any part of this answer that's unclear, please request a
clarification before rating it.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

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Request for Answer Clarification by helpmepls-ga on 18 Jan 2003 11:10 PST

Hi, read through the answers but need certain clarification. The
answer provided are more on views and general. I had posted this
question in the category of marketing management cos i would like to
know what, how a company uses positioning to achieve a sustainable
brand equity and what considerations and factors the company must be
aware of to achieve this.
Thanks

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Clarification of Answer by omnivorous-ga on 20 Jan 2003 09:12 PST

My apologies for not getting back with you sooner on a clarification;
the weekend got in the way.

Let me suggest a Google search strategy involving the following to get
to more specifics for you on branding and tactical decisions:
positioning + "brand equity" + process
positioning + "brand equity" + process + "case study"

You'll find some very specific information in the first case on the
tactical decisions involved in branding.  Most of the top 10 Google
links are very detailed.

The "case study" search turns up a number of specific instances
(though you'll have to read through the links for good detailed
examples).  Here are a couple:
McKie/Headstrom Public Relations
"Hitachi PC Corporation"
http://www.mhpr.com/hipc_case.htm

The premier company at branding in the U.S. is considered to be
Procter & Gamble, so an exploration of this area should include one or
more P&G cases.  Here's a discsussion of branding, including a summary
of Crest toothpaste positioning:
University of Toledo
"Advertising Promotion," Sue Mantel's course in Integrated Marketing
Communications
http://www.utoledo.edu/~pmantel/ch2outline.rtf

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA