Positioning

Positioning strategy can be incorporated at the corporate, market and product level. Corporate positioning refers to communicating the main attributes of the organisation, such as BHP’s platform as an Australian owned company. Market positioning is firstly determined by establishing appropriate groupings or segments within a market to be entered and the company choosing which attributes of a product to portray appropriate to each of those groups.

In the case of trade unions the first category is that of the entire sector. The literature on young people and unions indicated that they did not know the purpose of trade unions (Bailey et al., 2010). This creates a situation similar to the Kelloggs brand trying to sell Corn Flakes to customers who had never experienced or been informed about breakfast cereal. Generic marketing across the entire union sector would help to establish the actual service category and it ensures that sales representatives (recruitment staff, organisers or delegates) are not confronted with customers who have neverheard of the company or the product. Following this initial informational promotion, trade unions can each use a more tailored message depicting the unique attributes of the services they offer.

The importance of generic marketing is illustrated in Figure 4.2, ‘The Man in the Chair’ which was the most recognised business to business advertisement in the

twentieth century (Obrecht, 1999) and has since been revamped as a social media video. In 2009 the message it conveyed was still considered accurate and effective (Saveriano, 2009) and conveying the message that without a general understanding of the brand

category the customer will not readily relate to the specific brand.

This applies to unions in the following way: The union representative, usually the organiser or local delegate, in their efforts to sell allegiance through membership

typically employs personal selling methods. Selling trade union membership is a first time purchase or ‘new task’ purchase, the product is highly technical and complex, and it is a customised purchase (Solomon et al., 2011) making personal selling the best suited approach. Additionally flexibility and responsiveness are required to make the sale and the establishment of an on-going relationship is essential and is beneficial for both parties (Rix & Stanton, 1998).

If the foundational step of creating brand awareness is not undertaken the sales representative (delegate or organiser) is likely to face their own man-in-the-chair and spend little time devoted to sales and more time raising the customer’s awareness of the service by informing them about the basics of unionism and how the service could

benefit them. After such an information exchange there would be little time remaining to explore more personalised application of the membership for Gen Y. This would be a very poor approach with Gen Y who are far more likely to engage with the sales process if that process revolved around their individualised viewpoint.

Figure 4.2. ‘The Man in the Chair’. This figure demonstrates the importance of brand knowledge prior to personal selling efforts. McGraw-Hill Companies (1958).

After generic marketing of the product category ‘unions’, the next stage is

against those of competitors in the same category (G. Elliott, Rundle-Thiele, & Waller, 2011) and is fundamental in a successful marketing campaign (Blankson & Kalafatis, 2001). Product positioning analysis of a given brand and its competitors has been based ‘primarily on consumers' evaluations of similarities, perceptions, and importances of sets of attributes and various usage occasions’ (Arabie, Carroll, DeSarbo, & Wind, 1981). On a daily basis consumers are bombarded with communication about companies and

products (that is, goods, services and ideas). Positioning assists consumers to cut through this plethora of disorganised information by simplifying the evaluation processes

involved in buyer decision making. Elliott et al. (2011), state that position can be based on: product class, product attributes, benefits offered, away from competitors, against a competitor, usage occasions and user.

Positioning and branding also need to be aligned with consumer decision styles, which are important because if known, they can help to predict purchasing behaviour and they direct a marketer’s choice of ways to segment a market and position their offering (Sinkovics, Mink' Leelapanyalert, & Yamin, 2010). A relevant area is that of self-image congruence (Kressmann et al., 2006) in that trade unions may need to reposition

themselves with a brand image appealing to consumers to enhance brand loyalty (Freling, Crosno, & Henard, 2011; Jamal & Al-Marri, 2007). Azevedo and Farhangmehr (2005) discuss this in conjunction with transformational advertising (as opposed to functional congruity which is more likely achieved with information based communications) (Rossiter & Percy, 1985; Rossiter, Percy, & Bellman, 2005). It is important that

sufficient advertising is undertaken to reinforce emotional bonds between the consumer and brand (de Chernatony, 1993) with emotional bonds consisting of peace of mind, security, ambition, pride and empowerment (Lynch & De Chernatony, 2007); all characteristics that sit well with union membership. Additionally consumer choice can be sub-divided into cognitive evaluation and emotion driven. The latter operating from the context of a social and cultural setting (R. Elliott, 1998) and influencing brand positioning.

The theories of consumer purchase behaviour and positioning strategies converge when considering Lee, Sudhir and Steckel’s (2002) approach, which assumes that

consumers have multiple preferences for every product group and that the unique prevailing circumstances of the purchasing situation acts as a trigger to activate a

moment of product selection assisted by brand associations (J. Howard & Sheth, 1969). In the context of trade unions each union could legitimately be described as its own brand. The consumer’s verbal descriptors of brands are important to know, because with such knowledge the marketer can build a set of matching product and service criteria (J. Howard & Sheth, 1969) which is fitting for the market and is appropriately priced. The main mechanism for communicating a brand’s positioning is promotion and this will now be reviewed.