The Positioning 'Power' Struggle

Seems like just about every pharma and biotech category has a Brand making a 'power play' these days. Look through a journal and there's always at least one product being positioned as 'powerful' this or 'the power of' that. Trouble is…with so many products claiming a 'power' benefit…how meaningful can it really be?

In the January 2004 issue of Consultant Magazine alone, no less than 10 products (some even in the same category) attempted to espouse a 'power' position. With all of these Brands trying to reach the same target—the physician reader—it becomes quite clear that the message waters are extremely muddied.

Couple this with the results of a March 2002, Mohrman-Scott study designed to understand the meaning physicians attributed to the term 'power' in the acid suppression market. The findings illustrated that doctors had at least 6 different interpretations of the word within just this category: fast-acting, potent/strong, heals, symptom relief, effective/works, and suppresses acid. Now multiply that across a number of categories and you can see where this is going…'power' has so many meanings that it really has no meaning at all.

A strong position must be well defined, specific, ownable, and unique. One of the core philosophies at Brand Engineers, LLC is that the entire success of a Brand hinges upon a highly focused and tightly defined positioning. In every project, we challenge the Brand Team and ourselves to continually refine potential positionings to a much sharper point. In fact, generalized words like efficacy, safety, convenience…and yes, power…are considered forbidden fruit.

If you have or are considering a 'power' positioning for your Brand, consider bringing us in. With our proven developmental process and methodology you'll get finely tuned, credible positioning that will deliver the only powerful thing you really need…results.

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