Brand positioning strategies and their effectiveness: A case of high street fashion retail brands in Pakistan

Abstract

Brand positioning has been acknowledged by practitioners and academics to be an important element of brand management. Firstly, this study aims to investigate the relationship between three brand positioning strategies (benefit brand positioning strategy, feature brand positioning strategy and surrogate brand positioning strategy) and joint effect of the five dimensions of brand positioning effectiveness, namely, favourability, dissimilarity, uniqueness, credibility, and sustainability. Secondly, this study investigates the separate relationship between the three brand positioning strategies and the five dimensions of brand positioning effectiveness in the case of high street fashion apparel retail brands. To empirically test the proposed framework adapted measurement scales were used. Data from 607 young consumers in Pakistan were collected. Empirical findings confirm that benefit brand positioning strategy and surrogate brand positioning strategy have a greater effect on brand positioning effectiveness. However, a significant positive relationship was found between all three brand positioning strategies and brand positioning effectiveness. These findings also indicate varied yet insightful relationships between brand positioning strategies and five dimensions of brand positioning effectiveness. Marketers can benefit from these findings as a means to understand brand positioning strategies from a consumers’ perspective thereby making use of these results in articulating branding strategies as a way to generate and communicate a distinctive competitive perception for their brands.