Brand Positioning & Consumer Perception

This assignment examines the crucial role brand positioning plays in shaping consumer perceptions, particularly among young audiences. It analyzes case studies of brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and Coca-Cola, highlighting how their positioning strategies have either resonated or failed to connect with the younger demographic. The text emphasizes that brands must adapt to evolving consumer preferences and values to remain relevant and successful.

Running head: MARKETING
Marketing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1MARKETING
Answer 1
Introduction
The world is based on fully-fledged economy that helps in thriving on different markets
that is based on the different consumer tastes and preferences. The assignment is motivated in
order to answer the question that is relating to the different factors that has to be considered
while analyzing the meaning of the marketing realities. In the next section, different concepts
and theories has been identified in such a manner that helps in mapping different considerations
in an effective manner.
Marketing Reality
A marketing reality is the changes and this governs the road of marketing with the hope
of different endeavors. The different kind of businesses is leaving different provisions of change
in order to evolve the different realities of marketing. The different electronic giants like EBay,
Alibaba that have flexible structure of business to go with the continuous flow of ease of nation.
In the next section, it will discuss the different major forces that affect the realities of
marketing to date and time. The new realities are losing sheen and it includes both online along
with offline platforms. The different offline platforms are witnessing the different change in the
business of the seller’s attitude towards analyzing the tastes of the customers with use of
technology. The reality is the usage of technology by different businesses and in the next section;
different sellers use the number of different technologies to reachability in the market (Kim et al.
2014).

2MARKETING
Three Major Forces and effect of change in future
1. Prediction of the behavior of consumers is essential factor previously, presently and it will be
important in future as well. Before the era of the internet, there were no e-commerce and base of
customers existed. In the present stage, this is the e-commerce stage wherein there is fully
explored stage. The customers are treated in an effective manner and online retailers gain
competitive advantage. The combined power of analytics, big data and technology serves a
revolution in platforms of e-commerce (Baker and Saren 2016). However, it is difficult for the
retailers to gain competitive advantage in the market for 91.6%.
2. Budgets in marketing are essential factor and this takes huge chunk that is spent in the
business. There has been different studies that has been demonstrated as the rule of budget rules
in the marketing strategy of different businesses. It is governed by different factors that include
size of business, changing technology and economic balance of nation. According to the
research, average budget of global marketing is increasing and it changes from 1% to 15% with
the help of different campaigns. Triggered campaigns are believed in order to cross more than
58% to total revenues of retailers. The spending of the budget is determined with different
aspects from size of company and size of economy along with regulations and this will help in
analyzing budget in an effective manner (Buckley 2016)
3. Evergreen challenge of competition and technology will not fade the elements as major
factor affecting the line of business. The competitive environment is boon for the pocket of
customers and this is bane for the sellers (Lamberton and Stephen 2016). This kind of challenge
of competition is huge in decision-making approach and this cannot be avoided in nature. This is
recent quest to clinch title in war among businesses and the competition takes a toll on the

3MARKETING
marketplace that will limit and this will overlapping the campaigning the strategies of electronics
along with different other sectors.
Other Potential Forces
There are different potential forces that affect the marketing realities:
Channels of marketing: This is a business along with allocation of budget that has to be
wise in selection of channels of marketing
Information Technology: This is generic term, it has total power to topple sentiments of
market
Globalization: This helps in questing to clear different limitations that is territorial and
this is motivation to different emerging businesses
Deregulation: Ease of performing the business is essential that goes in hand with
globalization
Loyalty: The different loyalty programmes of brand is essential in retaining the customers
and for major and small businesses
Delivery: The delivery system is essential in nature as this will help in making the
different things easier in nature (Woodside 2016)
Convergence: When there are more than two industries join hands, it creates huge impact
on existing future and realities
Answer 2
The ability of the brand to speak to a customer goes a long way in determining the
success of a brand. A brand should possess the capability to communicate its value to its

4MARKETING
customers and persuade them to purchase the given product (Laroche, Habibi and Richard 2013).
In the given section , certain examples of particular brands will be presented to illustrate the
success stories of certain brands who were effective in communicating their importance to the
target market group which can be described as the college crowd and student with age groups
around 18-25.
Apple- Apple is an electronic and software company, which produces phones, tablets and
laptops. It has various software’s such as iTunes also which are very successful amongst
the users. The power point of the given brand is its sleek design and powerful capacity.
When a user associates itself with the given brand, they consider themselves to be
fashionable and technologically advanced (Romaniuk and Nenycz-Thiel 2013). It is often
a craze amongst the youngsters to use these products, which matches with their status,
and hence, the given brand is successful to speak to the young crowd.
Nike- With the recent popularity of fitness as an attraction factor, the brand offers the
customers with a huge variety in their sportswear. The brand offers affordable and latest
trend s in its offerings. With association of various globally popular sports stars, the
brand has the ability to convince the consumer. The consumers would want to purchase
the product because of the celebrity association and fashion factor.
Amazon- The online e-commerce website has become hugely popular for its affordable
pricing and good quality products. Amazon offers a large variety of product to its
consumers, which makes it a favorite among the users. The young crowd is specifically
attracted to the consumer because of its ease of use. The application is available on all
platforms, which helps the young crowd to shop at their convenience.

5MARKETING
Pepsi- The brand offers drinks and snacks to the customers. The reason behind its
popularity among the young college crowd is that, it is easily available and extremely
affordable. The young crowd generally prefers to eat out and this provides it with a
perfect option (Nysveen and Pedersen 2014). The brand itself tries to associate itself
with the college crowd by using emoticons of various messaging applications, which
people use. This makes it apt for the users.
However, there are certain brands that fail to associate it with the young crowd. The examples of
such brands are given below:
Honda- Honda is a automobile brand, which produces automobiles like cars and bikes.
The brand has failed to attract the millennial crowd because of its association with the
high end and heavy products. The young crowd was unable to associate with the brand
and this is the reason, they could not be successful in marketing their products to this
crowd (He and Lai 2014). The young crowd has always been associated itself with
products that are fashionable and trendy. Though Honda tried to attract the younger
crowd, it failed in changing the design, which made the brand hugely unpopular.
Microsoft- Microsoft is the computer brand, which sells software as well as hardware.
Through over the years Microsoft has been faced with a huge competition from brands
like Apple, recently it has failed to communicate its message to the customers. The
perception of the young crowd has also changed for the company. They no longer view
the product as stylish or a fashionable one with which they can associate (Krystallis and
Chrysochou 2014). Had the brand, adopted new ways to adapt to the satisfaction level of
the consumers, they would not have failed in the mindset of the young minds.

6MARKETING
Coca-Cola- Though coca cola has been an extremely popular brand since the past few
decades, recently its popularity with the young crowd has dropped considerably. The
young crowd has started to perceive the brand as someone who only offers junk food and
drinks. The popularity of Coca-Cola has fallen tremendously in the past few years with
other health drinks coming up. The college crowd generally prefers health to junk today
and this has led to the failure of the brand to attract the young crowd.
Therefore, it can be stated that the brand positioning plays a key role in the mind of the
consumer. The way a brand presents itself in the eyes of the consumer is extremely crucial in
deciding its fate. The younger generation is extremely particular about their image and hence
they prefer to associate themselves only with brands that will uplift their image in their social
group.

7MARKETING
References
Baker, M.J. and Saren, M. eds., 2016. Marketing theory: a student text. Sage.
Buckley, P.J., 2016. The contribution of internalisation theory to international business: New
realities and unanswered questions. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.74-82.
He, Y. and Lai, K.K., 2014. The effect of corporate social responsibility on brand loyalty: the
mediating role of brand image. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 25(3-4),
pp.249-263.
Kim, K., Hayes, J.L., Avant, J.A. and Reid, L.N., 2014. Trends in advertising research: A
longitudinal analysis of leading advertising, marketing, and communication journals, 1980 to
2010. Journal of advertising, 43(3), pp.296-316.
Krystallis, A. and Chrysochou, P., 2014. The effects of service brand dimensions on brand
loyalty. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(2), pp.139-147.
Lamberton, C. and Stephen, A.T., 2016. A thematic exploration of digital, social media, and
mobile marketing: research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future
inquiry. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), pp.146-172.
Laroche, M., Habibi, M.R. and Richard, M.O., 2013. To be or not to be in social media: How
brand loyalty is affected by social media?. International Journal of Information
Management, 33(1), pp.76-82.
Nysveen, H. and Pedersen, P.E., 2014. Influences of cocreation on brand
experience. International Journal of Market Research, 56(6), pp.807-832.

8MARKETING
Romaniuk, J. and Nenycz-Thiel, M., 2013. Behavioral brand loyalty and consumer brand
associations. Journal of Business Research, 66(1), pp.67
Woodside, A.G., 2016. Embrace complexity theory, perform contrarian case analysis, and model
multiple realities. In Bad to Good: Achieving High Quality and Impact in Your Research(pp. 57-
81). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.