Positioning at the level of attribute(s) is merely scratching the surface. All products are more or less able to claim a hygiene level of performance.
The positioning that works taps into a deeper need of emotive gratification.
Let me offer an example, taken from Ernest Dichter’s method of motivational research.
The example is quoted in the ‘Handbook of Consumer Motivations’ but elaborated upon in ‘The Strategy of Desire’
The question is – What is a lighter ?
The reliability of a lighter is important because it is integrally connected with the basic (that is unconscious) reason for using a lighter.
Now if you were to ask people why they use cigarette lighters, the answer they would give would generally be “to light cigarettes.” That is the manifest or conscious explanation of why people use cigarette lighters. The latent or unconscious, and more significant reason, has to do with other matters.
The basic reason for using a lighter is the desire for mastery and power.
The capacity to summon fire inevitably gives every human being, child or grownup, a sense of power.
Reasons go far back into man’s evolutionary history. Fire and the ability to command it are prized because they are associated not only with warmth, but also with life itself.
As attested to by the Greek legend of Prometheus and many other myths, the ability to control fire is an age-old symbol of man’s conquest of the physical world he inhabits.
A cigarette lighter provided conspicuous evidence of this ability to summon fire. The ease and speed with which the lighter works enhances the feeling of power.
The failure of a lighter to work does not just create superficial social embarrassment, it frustrates a deep-seated desire for a feeling of mastery and control.
Thus, at the next level down, the pre-conscious level of the psyche, cigarette lighters are connected with a desire to demonstrate mastery and power. At the conscious level, we use cigarette lighters to light cigarettes
Now what would you position a brand of lighters on ?
Pedigree, reliability, effective conversion of fuel to fire, design, inherent cost, best value for money, serviceability, delighted customers , large portfolio of lighters !?
This essence of motivation is what any positioning exercise needs to keep at its heart !
(We didn’t start the fire.
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning)
Sreekant Khandekar Venkata Susmita B. Benita Chacko
