BEER POSITIONING AND DIFFERENTIATION

The perceptual map above indicates the positioning strategies of the various brands operating in the Indian beer market. The brands as can be seen are fighting on different positioning platforms. However, in many cases there are overlaps and any lack in the effectiveness of the brand’s communication strategy serves only to further enhance the negative effect of these overlaps. The question marks (???) show possible new positioning strategies, though financial viability of these is not reflected by the map.

In this map, the perceived distance (dissimilarity) between Foster’s and Kalyani is the largest. Further, Zingaro and Thunderbolt are perceived to be the closest pair among this set of brands. The clusters of beers such as Knockout, Kalyani and Haywards help to identify (sub)categories of beers that may be different from the way that the company defines its competitors.

In looking at the vectors, moving in a northeast direction from the origin, beers increase in their popularity with men. Haywards is the most popular with men. The horizontal axis (in the east direction) is most closely associated with attributes "premium," "dining out," and "special occasions", areas which have no brands operating in the Indian market and are possible areas of new brand launch positioning. In the west direction, the horizontal axis is most closely associated with the attributes "on a budget" and "good value." Thus, the horizontal axis (the west to east direction) indicates an underlying dimension of "budget-premium," along which customers seem to characterize their perceptions of the differences between these beers.

Source: http://www.foolonahill.com/mbabeer.html