Repositioning and superiority
through compartmentalisation

Why repositioning?

Branding begins with a redefinition of the corporation’s business. Redefinition means a strategic relocation of the corporation’s position. Why does repositioning become necessary? This might be for a variety of reasons, for instance where further growth is unlikely due to intense market competition, where a business has expanded and its domain become unfocused, or where a merger has brought a change in the corporation’s domain identity as well as in its competitive relations.

Branding can be described as acquiring a completely new identity by repositioning the business and attaching to it signals which symbolise a new domain. If relocation to the new position succeeds in establishing an unusual identity, the relevant market can be monopolised.
The essence of branding is in repositioning, which has a tremendous business impact.

Schema change in core business = business individualisation

Repositioning as part of branding is not a conventional competitive superiority strategy for winning out over rival companies. The competitive superiority strategy, making use of its own organisational capacity and core competence, addresses the issue of how to outdo the opposition, but tends to drive the company into a defensive position so as not to be overtaken by other companies. Repositioning as part of branding, however, is designed to acquire a unique position by changing the perception, or schema, of the company’s core business. A unique business individualisation which does not fit into any of the existing industry categories has the power to bring out latent capacity and to expose latent market needs.

Repositioning orients toward blue ocean markets

Arousing latent demand

Repositioning of the core business is a framework for exposing hidden market demand, and at the same time acts as a leadership tool to rejuvenate the organisation, by improving the mindset of its members.

By repositioning and attaching the appropriate signals, it is possible to create uncharted markets where there is no competition (blue ocean markets). Branding is not based on a competitive superiority strategy but on superiority through a compartmentalisation strategy to exploit the company’s strengths and distinctive features.

Repositioning of corporations and products

Brands become obsolete with time, and therefore need to be constantly managed and subjected to renewal.
In the Wilkhahn branding project, a special survey technique was used to identify the market position of the company’s own brand and competitor brands. It was discovered that the brands overlapped in places and that the company’s own brand was dispersed over a number of positions. Brand obsolescence is when the value which is the core of the brand becomes unfocused and, in some cases, the position itself becomes dispersed. In the project, a position specific to Wilkhahn was identified and a strategy rolled out which concentrated on this one position. The survey also experimented with a comparison of the two different positions of the corporation and its products on the same coordinate axis. This revealed that the image positions of the corporation and its products were quite far apart. In the Wilkhahn branding project, consistency between the corporate brand and the product brand became an important strategic issue. In this way, branding can also be seen as the process of re-confirming image and market position and relocating them to the most advantageous position.

Positioning map of Wilkhahn