MMGP: Positioning/Competition/Branding - Essay Example

MMGP: Positioning/Competition/Branding MMGP: Positioning/Competition/Branding Brand elements communicate, symbolize and differentiate a particular brand. The application of brand elements in every market plan expresses the brand makeup to the marketplace. Some of the common examples of brand elements include brand name, emblem, catchphrase and packaging style. It is necessary to analyze the brand elements that would be most useful for differentiating Dasani water brand from the competition. Dasani water has existed in the local and international market for a significant period.

Consequently, their brand, logo and name are presently recognized. Coca-Cola Company will still use them. The design of an organization’s product can boost sales. Dasani water design team has come up with a unique packaging for a certain age group. For instance, the design team recently announced the introduction of PlantBottle packaging and repeated lightweighting programs (Kent & Ignatius, 2011). Apart from targeting adult audiences aged between 25 years and 49 years, introduction of PlantBottle packaging would be an essential step towards accomplishing the company’s upcoming objective of using renewable materials to manufacture plastic bottles (Farhana, 2012).

This brand element would be most useful for differentiating Dasani water with other competing brands. It is noteworthy that packaging and design reveals the targeted customers (Siguaw, Mattila & Austin, 1999). In addition, the idea of using renewable high quality plastic bottles creates a highly attractive and less complex pack to persuade consumers to buy and take home for reuse. An additional brand element that would be useful in differentiating Dasani water is brand personality. The personality is considered as the main part of the brand’s positioning statement.

Many people have been wondering whether bottled water are purely distilled or taken from tap water (Doria, 2006). To counter this notion, Coca-Cola Company should alter their brand personality by changing their positioning statement to make it the most admired bottled water product in the market. For instance, the positioning statement should be, “the best tasting water admired by everyone”. The statement would encourage consumers to purchase and validate whether it really has the best taste.

Even though Dasani water was withdrawn from the stores and shelves in the UK market, consumers are still aware of the brand due to the negative reasons. Therefore, for the re-introduction of this brand to the UK market, Coca-Cola Company must come up with a different brand name to remove the negative secondary connections and previous experience (Ward, Cain, Mullally, Holliday, Wernham, Baillie & Greenfield, 2009). The significant first step in improving brand awareness is to ensure that consumers are informed about the existence of a brand name.

The brand name of this product should be changed in the UK market. Notably, the change in brand name should only apply to the UK market because the customers had developed a negative perception concerning Dasani water. Bottled water is relatively a broad market. Many brands are not capable of validating their assertions of purity except for providing company pictures and advanced filtration process. Coca-Cola Company should use communication strategy as one of the brand elements to evoke a touching response and establish a positive outlook for the brand (Bridges, Keller & Sood, 2000).

In conclusion, some of the brand elements that would be most useful for differentiating Dasani water with other competing brands include product packaging and design, brand name, brand personality and communication strategy. ReferencesBridges, S., Keller, K. L., & Sood, S. (2000). Communication strategies for brand extensions: enhancing perceived fit by establishing explanatory links. Journal of Advertising, 29(4), 1-11.Doria, M. (2006). Bottled water versus tap water: understanding consumers-preferences.

J Water Health, 271, 276.Farhana, M. (2012). Brand elements lead to brand equity: Differentiate or die. Information Management and Business Review, 4(3), 223-233.Kent, C. M., & Ignatius, A. (2011). Shaking Things Up at Coca-Cola. Harvard Business Review.Siguaw, J. A., Mattila, A., & Austin, J. R. (1999). The brand-personality scale. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 40 (3), 48-5.Ward, L. A., Cain, O. L., Mullally, R. A., Holliday, K. S., Wernham, A. G., Baillie, P. D.

, & Greenfield, S. M. (2009). Health beliefs about bottled water: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health, 9(1), 196.