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Measuring brand positioning effectiveness of car brands using triangular approach

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Abstract

Brands work more on the perceptual identity than the real identity as it spotlights the position of the brands in customers’ minds. Positioning is an unbeatable weapon in marketer’s arsenal for establishing perceptual identity. After deciding the positioning strategy, companies spend millions on marketing communications without considering that whether this huge budget has helped in achieving the desired position in customers’ perceptions or not. So, measuring the effectiveness of brand positioning strategies is more important to achieve the coherence among the efforts than merely designing and communicating these strategies. The present study aims to examine this coherence by measuring the effectiveness of the brand positioning strategies of three Indian car brands. For this, the desired, communicated and perceived positioning strategies are taken. The triangulation research methodology (secondary data of these car brands, content analysis of the advertisements and survey research of consumers’ opinions) is adopted. Findings of this study reveal that car brands go for multiple positioning strategies rather than single positioning strategy. It is also observed that full congruence is not visible in any car brand that signifies that the positioning efforts are not clearly communicated through advertisements. This study has relevance in marketing as it may serve as a basis for assessing the operationalization of positioning strategies in general. This study also makes the managers available with the description of basic building blocks for the implementation of positioning strategies in automobile industry.

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Data availability statement

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

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  1. University School of Management, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, 136 119, India

    Saloni Pawan Diwan & B. S. Bodla

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  1. Saloni Pawan Diwan
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  2. B. S. Bodla
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Correspondence to Saloni Pawan Diwan.

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Diwan, S.P., Bodla, B.S. Measuring brand positioning effectiveness of car brands using triangular approach. SN Bus Econ 2, 39 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-022-00211-8

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