To ensure that the brands can successfully reach and attract their target customers in retailing industry, brand positioning should be developed. Positioning can be defined as a clear and distinctive image, which marketers try to create and reinforce, to be identified in the target customers’ minds relative to other competitors.
However, once the brands’ existing positioning is no longer appropriate because of the internal or external factors, strategic repositioning should be launched to change the identity of the brands and products to the target markets is essential to maintain business health.
According to the article provided, “Evaluating…Repositioning Strategies, Marcel & Peter”, repositioning can be classified as 3 main types: namely, Zero, Gradual and Radical.
2.1 Zero repositioning
Zero repositioning represents a company remain unchanged when there is changing retailing environment. This may cause business failure if the gap between market expectation and the brand offerings is large.
2.2 Gradual repositioning
Gradual repositioning can be referred to the regular and small change continuously to catch up with the market requirements. A typical example can be stated as Marks and Spencer, who changed its positioning from “High Quality & High Price” to “High Quality but Affordable” in recent years when focusing into Asian Market.
2.3 Radical repositioning
Radical repositioning is the major and discontinuous change of original positioning. Sometimes it is essential to do so if the positioning gap is large. It seems to be risky but the effect can be titanic. For example, McDonalds’ expanded its McCafe