Table 1: The Questions Asked to the Respondents
Questions:
Yes (%)
No (%)
Do you use a flexible work schedule?
64.3
35.7
Would you prefer to hire skilled workers in your company for a
long tenure?
14.3
85.7
Are employees to know aboutthe company's plans?
85.7
14.3
Does your company inform the staff aboutinternal issues?
71.4
28.6
Are ethnic and religious factors important when you make a
hiring decision?
0
100
Does yourcompany organize the competitions or projects?
78.6
21.4
Do employees participate in the decisionmaking and changes in
the structure of organizations?
92.9
7.1
Do you allow informal relationship with employees both inside
and outside in the organizations?
57.1
42.9
Do you organize teamwork in company?
71.4
28.6
Does your company have annual examination for checking the
implementation of plans?
57.1
42.9
Would you do something useful for company if you hadfree
time? (For example: to clean the territories)
35.7
64.3
The results of the survey reveal that the working system in our country is quite close to Japanese
management system, but we also have some differences in values and attitudes. The similarities of Kazakh
and Japanese management systems are the following:
The majority of companies does not hide their problems and say about their future plans directly to
the employees.
44
Organizing of teamwork and trainings. Japanese Management is convinced that work in teams
helps to increase cohesiveness and productivity.
Subordinates involved in process of business decision making and changing organization structure,
bosses allow for informal relationship between subordinates. It means that employees are in the
first place in importance.
Form the Hofstede's theory of cultural dimensions, the score of Kazakhstan shown as 68 /10/,which means
that Kazakhs more individualism. For example, as the question: Assume that you have free time, will you
do something useful for the organization (F.E. cleaning of territories)? Most of answers were “no” in
Kazakhstan, of which is “yes” in Japan. That means employees are ready to do everything for the
company all the time in Japan, not in our country.
Despite there are quite many similarities between Kazakhstani and Japanese management styles our
survey results have also revealed the differences:
Japanese companies draw up plans for 10 years and check accomplishment of it every year.
Kazakhstan made plans only for 15 years, in some company have no plans.
Japanese companies hire employees for the whole life and make comfortable opportunities for
workers. Kazakhstan companies hire employees for the short time and then looking at attitudes of
employee decide for how much time he will work at the company.
Figure 2 shows the terms of business planning. 57% of the respondents make plans for 13 years, 29% for
35 years. However no company make plans for 510 years which is very different from Japanese
companies. The worst thing is that 14% of companies that participated in the survey do not make business
planning at all.
Figure 2 - The percentage of firms making business planning
Conclusion
The results of the research are as follows:
Firstly, Kazakhstan is a rapidly developing country both in the economic and production sphere.
Only by improving our management system, we will get the higher level of achievement in developing
from focusing on the labor force. Second, our main traditional cultural values are similar to Japanese.
Unfortunately, because of the some historical reasons, it is being reduced over the recent years. However,
it is hard to turn over all the system and apply Japanese Management. What our managers need to do is
take the suitable part to the organization structure. As a result, we can adapt to the Japanese Management,
but cannot turn over the all of them. Because of, even there are exist the common point, we cannot turn it
over to use as ourselves.We need to apply techniques which are suitable for our country`s economic
environment and country`s condition.
References:
1. Takeshi Ohsawa, T. (1995). Introduction to characteristics of Japanese management style: For
better understanding of cultural differences in comparing MBTI data of Japan with other countries.
In R. A. Moody (Ed.), Psychological Type and CultureEast and West: A Multicultural Research
Symposium (pp. 241). University of Hawaii, January 1993. Gainesville, FL: Center for
Applications of Psychological Type.[http://typeandculture.org/Pages/C_papers93/18Ohsawa.pdf]
45
2. Feldman M.M. (1992). "Audit in psychotherapy: the concept of Kaizen". Psychiatric
Bulletin.Royal College of Psychiatrists. pp. 334–336.
3. A Critique of Lifetime Employment in Japan (Shushinkoyou), Austin UZAMA,
[http://www.apu.ac.jp/rcaps/uploads/fckeditor/publications
4. Takeshi Ohsawa, T. (1995). Introduction to characteristics of Japanese management style: For
better understanding of cultural differences in comparing MBTI data of Japan with other countries.
In R. A. Moody (Ed.), Psychological Type and CultureEast and West: A Multicultural Research
Symposium (pp. 241). University of Hawaii, January 1993. Gainesville, FL: Center for
Applications of Psychological Type.[http://typeandculture.org/Pages/C_papers93/18Ohsawa.pdf]
5. Japanese Management Philosophy and Techniques http://www.citehr.com
6. Masaaki Imai Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success (Russian version) (p. 160)
7. Jana Smith. “Japanesestyle Human Resource Management in the United States.”
8. Masaaki Imai Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success (p. 156) (Russian version)
9. TakeshiOhsawa, T. (1995). Introduction to characteristics of Japanese management style: For
better understanding of cultural differences in comparing MBTI data of Japan with other countries.
In R. A. Moody (Ed.), Psychological Type and CultureEast and West: A Multicultural Research
Symposium (pp. 250). University of Hawaii, January 1993. Gainesville, FL: Center for
Applications of Psychological http://typeandculture.org
10. Zhanar Temirbekova, Yury V. Latov, Natalia V. Latova, ZhanaidarTemirbekov; Work Related
Values:A Comparison of Four PostSoviet Countries
УДК 339.138
THE CONCEPT OF POSITIONING: FORMATION, DEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGY
Y.I. Gorelova
Scientific Supervisor Yelena Smirnova, MSc
Suleyman Demirel University, Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences
Annotation. Every successful brand stands for afundamental“platform” called positioning without
which it cannot have any chance to reach customers’ minds. Positioning concept has its logic and
structure; it is not only a definition or a statement.There is a limited number of studies revealing the
concept of positioning; and the concept itself is not yet clearly defined. There is some gap between a
theoretical understanding of positioning and a brand which companies present to customers. The human
brain instinctively looks for things that are different and unexpected. So, companies should thinkof what
they have to use to attract, reach and stay in the mind of customers. The new approaches to positioning
considered in this study may help firms to achieve success with their brands.
Key words: positioning, strategy, advertising, brand, customer mind.
Түйін. Әр табысты бренд өзінің негізгі қағидаларына негізделеді. Бұл «қағида платформасы»
жайғастыру деп аталады, бұл платформасыз тұтынушылардың санасын жаулау мүмкін емес.
Жайғастыру коцепциясының өз логикасы мен құрылымы бар, берілген концепт – бұл жай
анықтама немесе пікір емес. Жайғастыру коцепциясы тақырыбында шектеулі ғана зерттеулер бар
және жалпы түсінік нақты анықталмаған. Компаниялардың өз тұтынушыларына ұсынатын
жайғастыру және бренд жайлы теориялық түсінікте өзара айырмашылықтар бар. Адам миыи
нстинктке байланысты басқа заттардан ерекшеленетін және күтпеген заттарды іздейді. Сондықтан
компаниялар тұтынушылардың ойында қалу, ойын жаулау, назарын аудару үшін не істеу керек деп
ойлаулары қажет. Берілген мақалада қарастырылған жайғастыруға қатысты жаңа амалдар, тәсілдер
фирмаларға өз бредтерімен табысқа жетуге көмектесе алады.
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Аннотация. Каждый успешный бренд основывается на своих фундаментальных принципах.
Эта «платформа принципов» называется позиционирование, без которой у бренда нет шансов
завладеть сознанием потребителей. Концепция позиционирования имеет свою логику и структуру;
данный концепт – это не просто определение или высказывание. Существует ограниченное
количество исследований на тему концепции позиционирования и концепции в целом до сих пор
четко не определены. Существует некий разрыв между теоретическим пониманием
позиционирования и брендом, который компании представляют потребителю. Человеческий мозг
инстинктивно ищет вещи, которые отличаются от других или являются неожиданными в своем
представлении. Таким образом, компании должны думать, что нужно использовать чтобы
привлечь, завладеть, и остаться в сознании потребителя. Новые подходы к позиционированию,
рассмотренные в данной статье могут помочь фирмам добиться успеха с позиционированием их
брендов.
Introduction
Positioning is considered by academics and practitioners to be one of the fundamental components
of modern marketing management and communications by which companies try to not only reach but also
stay in the mind of customers.Nowadays in thecentury of new technologies companies try to use as
manyways of communications as they canto reach a customer. However, in realitymany companies fail in
an attempt to deliver themessage to the customer. The main reason of it isthat themarket place is
overloadedwithdifferent communications and advertising messages, which are not prepared as a
positioning of the brand or product. Companies pay not enough attention to the brand/product, which they
try to present.
The brand has to be positioned as something different from others and be built in a customer’s mind
an image of the brand. A new approach of communication is called “positioning” – a concept that has
changed the nature of advertising. Positioning starts with a product – a piece of a merchandise, service,
institution, company or a person. Positioning is what you try to deliver to the mind of the prospect; it does
not involve only change as changes in name, price and package. Positioning has changed the way the
advertising game is being played – today we find comparatives in ad, not superlatives; anyone can get
ahead using the positioning strategy. Infer from the above, positioning is tool by using which we can be
stand out of the crowd by preparing the right message and not for using it once, but for a building a right
brand perception in a mind of customer in today’s over communicative society.
The main purpose of positioning is to achieve a place in the consumer minds as a clear image of one
brand with unique proposition, which is clearly distinguishable from competitors on the market place. One
of the most important things, which we try to show in thispaper, how brand can occupy a unique position
on the customer mind and has to be perceived by customer. What company should accomplish and use in
a building a right positioning strategy.
Conceptualization of positioning. It is assumed, that concept of positioning appeared in 1972 when
one of the specialized American journals “Advertising age” published a series of the articles under a
common heading “The Positioning Era” /1, p. 15/. However, the term “positioning” entered the
marketing vocabulary lately, in 1982, when Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote a book: “Positioning: The Battle
for Your Mind”. They claimed that positioning is not what you do to a product but is what you do to the
mind of the prospect /1, p. 5/. Below we are going to consider some definitions of other authors who
claimed what “positioning” is. Moreover, those authors suppose that positioning is not only a marketing
term but alsorelatesto other economic fields. These authors show their vision of this term.Dovel (1990)
notes that: “…Positioning shouldn’t be just a part of your strategy. It should be the backbone of your
business…”/2, p. 416/.
In contrast, Arnott (1992, 1993) formally defines positioning that: “…it is the deliberate, proactive,
iterative process of defining, measuring, modifying, and monitoring consumer perceptions of a marketable
offering…”/3, p. 436/. Treacy and Wiersema (1994) distinguish between three major types of positioning:
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product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy, which were called the “value
disciplines” /4, p.84/.
Product leadership implies that the firm offers the best product in the category, operational
excellence meansto provide the customers products or services which are reliable andwith competitive
priceswhere delivering with minimal difficulty or inconvenience, in other words, firms operates most
efficiently; and last but not least customer intimacy is segmenting and targeting markets and then
delivering the offer to match exactly the demands of those niches, so means in brief that firm responds
best to their wishes.Treacy and Wiersemarecommend firms to match one of these value disciplines and be
competent in the other two. Later, Crawford and Mathews (2001) suggesteda new classification of
positioning – based on product, price, ease of access, valueadded service, and customer experience /5,
p.16/.
Based on their study of successful companies, they concluded that a great company will dominate on
one of these, perform above the average (differentiate) on a second, and be at industry par with respect to
the remaining three. Crawford and Mathews noted that a company would suboptimize if it tried to be best
in more than two ways. Positioning is considered by academics and practitioners to be one of the
fundamental components of modern marketing management. The main contributors to this concept were
Kotler (2000); Porter (1996); Hooley and Saunders (1993); McKenna (1986) /6, p. 4653/.
A product's positioning is determined by its position on the relevant dimensions of the perceptual
space, its position on the various product attribute vectors and its position with respect to other brands /7,
p. 103/.Perception is one of the most important in positioning of the brand; it focuses on brand importance
on emotional level of understanding rather than only its physical conditions, reality and price of the brand.
Nevertheless, brand positioning has to be linked and compatible between emotional and reality, because if
it is not matched it means that customer will be disappointed with a brand image and switch to the
competitor ones. Today’s world is overloaded with marketing messages promoting a variety of brands,
and it is hard to succeed in overcommunicated society. Every company must create and develop
something unique that can make a “position” for their brand, it can be a service or a product, however it
has tobe deposited in the prospect’s mind. Consumers take into consideration many factors and he/she
looking for a strong brand and attractive proposition in which a consumer will look not only at company’s
strengths and weaknesses but those of its competitors,as well. A consumer selects brands based on
position in their minds and if and only if it matches how they feel about it and how close it is to their
perceptions of other things in the world. The right brand positioning helps consumers to choose the
brand,which satisfies their needs and wants on emotional and rational levels. However, a brand, which
wants to attract everyone is probably failed and catch no one, because company cannot take part in every
consumer mind. Therefore positioning must be focused in its objectives, on it's target market and what
meets their specific needs to be successful.
Nowadays, positioning describes a particular position of the corporation, or any other organization
in relation (comparison) with their competitors /8, p.9/.The “product” position delivers into the market
segment and to the customer minds.The basic principle of positioning is not to create something new and
different from the other; however it is manipulating what already “lives” in customers’ minds and how
company uses this “existence” in the mind to connect with their positioning. It doesn’t matter how good a
company’s positioning is, it will not work forever, because the consumer perceptions are changing over
time, and every day market has more and more different brands and products with new technologies or
competitors at the market place /9, p.10/.So, it means that the company has to be innovative and adaptable
to the fast changing market conditions. The company must systematically evaluate positioning of its major
brands. Some brands or products that are losing share on the market place may need to be repositioned.
However, the company has to pay much attention to this procedure and do it carefully. Rebuilding a
company’s brand may win new customers but lose some current customers who like the brand as it is.
Development of Positioning: Strategic Positioning. Positioning is important factor of brand
success, however in our modern world it is not enough to position your brand right. Company also has to
think strategically and in a long run perspective. By this I mean that company must to prepare a whole
positioning strategy for their brand. Moreover, for an effective “brand positioning” company has to
48
consider and analyze future trends which may affect on their brand and develop a plan/strategy which will
be applied through specified period of time. In this strategy companies may consider some ideas for
“repositioning” after market conditions are changed. Strategic positioning is result of related views about
the product or brand. Image is the general impression of how the product/brand is perceived by
consumers, in that time the current brand position is a pivot for a brand and for a customer. This pivot
point has to emphasize brand/productstrength and uniqueness andmoreover, make them different against
competing products/brands /10, p. 101/.
Strategy is about finding one or more characteristics,which can be used to distinguish a company’s
product or brand from competitors' products. One of the most important parts of developing positioning
strategy for a brand or product is to make it by using a clear marketing scheme for adapting to the specific
brand/product. For building an effective positioning of the brand/product a company mustaccomplish the
following four conditions /11, p. 88/. First of all, the company has to conduct a research on the basisof
which it will be able to identify the most important factors for consumers. The company has to analyze
and take into consideration two aspects of consumer choice: functional/rational factors and emotional
closeness to the brand/product.
Second, the companyidentifiesits strengths,chooses the areas with the highest level of
competitive advantage and builds its positioning concept around them/12, p. 238/.The strengths a
company will choose have to bring value to the target audience. The ideal model for the company is that a
combination of strengths withthe unique value of their value proposition. Nevertheless, company must to
know about their competitor’s strength points and their positioning strategy.
The technical factors in this stage are the important part of the scheme. It proves positioning
strategy not only based on emotional closeness but also support it by evidence in terms of technical
factors.Company must develop new approaches by using technological innovations which company can
use/10,p.103/. Whereas, company also implement new technologies based on technical conditions of the
firm, and their abilities to update old ones.
Create an effective message for their clients/consumers by using functional, technical and
emotional levels. The message has to be clear and simple, and present to the customer an interesting
advertising idea or any other communication channels. The positioning concept, which the company
creates must have a connection with customers and provide the company with an opportunity to be on one
side with target audience. If we continue to consider development of positioning concept we can notice
that time is going on and the concept is gettingnew approaches by which companies can use to succeed on
the market place. I tried to identify two major fields, which are in connection (combination) with
positioning becoming a new part of this “science”.
Combination of two somehow related fields can give a new vision of the concept and there are two
of them. The first one is linguistic approach to advertising, it can be perceived as a relatively new
approach and still has a wide field of future study. Domestic advertising theoryhas just passed the
"translation" stage of its development. Todays’ market gained independence and turned to the study of
proper language mechanisms by which the sender of the advertising message persuades the
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