Page 121 - DMGT408DMGT203_Marketing Management

Marketing Management/Essentials of Marketing

Notes
Example: Routinely one can see a statement “Highest quality & lowest price”. (A Google
search on the phrase highest quality & lowest price” resulted in over a 100 million hits.)
Doubtful positioning: This situation may arise when customers find brand claims unbelievable
keeping in view the product features, price, or the manufacturer.

Example: A mutual fund offering a 100% returns on investment; Oxyrich brand that
claims to clean better than all the leading brands.
Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:
10. For Hero Honda Karizma, Tata Nano is also a potential competitor.
11. The logos and mascots of the company, like Air India’s Maharaja, can be used for positioning
the offering.
12. When Hertz says, we are Hertz, they are not, they are positioning on the basis of quality.

13. Castrol’s tagline- ‘It’s not just oil, its liquid engineering’, indicates positioning by product class.
14. When Lufthansa says, there is no better way to fly, they are positioning on the basis of
competition.
15. The brands like Ponds, Head and Shoulders, All Clear, Dove etc. are all victims of under-
positioning.
16. Too much positioning by creating many associations with the brand can confuse the
customers.

Case Study The Body Shop and Marketing

he Body Shop recorded rapid growth during the 1970s and 1980s. However, its
founder, Anita Roddick had publicly dismissed the role of marketing. It is well-
Tknown that she publicly ridiculed marketing for putting the interests of shareholders
before the needs of society. She also held in similar low esteem the financial community
that she referred to as “merchant wankers.” While things were going very favourably,
nobody seemed to mind her sceptical approach. After all, it was possible that she had
actually found a new way of doing business, and the results so far stood to prove it. But
how even such a famous and admired person as Anita Roddick could manage indefinitely
without consulting the fundamental principles of marketing, wondered marketing experts
and others. By the end of the 1990s, The Body Shop was experiencing bad times and the
sceptics among the marketing and financial field were quick to point out the folly of its
founder’s apparently idiosyncratic ways.

From a high in 1992, The Body Shop shares dropped to a low witnessed at the start of 2003,
despite the market index rising over that period. Profit remained similarly depressed, with
performance in almost all European, North American, and Far Eastern markets stagnant.
Yes, everybody recognised that Anita Roddick has been the dynamo behind The Body
Shop’s success. From a small single outlet, she inspired and managed the growth of the
chain to some 1500 familiar green-fronted establishments in 46 countries around the
Contd...

114 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY