Strengthen your position with chocolate bars

by: Megan Miranda

If you know anybody at Third Degree, you know we love chocolate. So it’s not surprising that we recently had a discussion that used different brands of chocolate as an illustration of brand positioning. (Can we still call it an illustration if we actually ate the chocolate…?) Anyway, there’s a wide variety of chocolate available on the market. And while it’s all pretty much the same set of basic ingredients, there are significant differences in price between, say, a Hershey’s bar and a Godiva chocolate bar. Sure, there may be some gradations of quality and flavor across the gamut of chocolate brands but probably not enough to support the exponential difference in price between brands. So what’s going on? The answer is positioning.

Uneven pricing between brands that deliver essentially the same product isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s as easy to spot in the fashion and hospitality industries as it is in the consumer packaged goods industry. Think Burberry versus Banana Republic. The Ritz Carlton versus the Holiday Inn Express. Tiffany’s or Cartier versus Jared. The basic product or service (clothing, a place to stay for the night, jewelry) falls within the same category, but the price points, positioning, and experience are all significantly different. Each of these brands is successful in its own right, because they understand what audience they serve and they align their marketing strategy accordingly.

Understand your audience. Here are two ways you can better understand your audience: segmentation and contextual analysis.

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