Consumers' responses to product design: Using a Semantic Priming Task to assess automatic understanding of product positioning

Imene Belboula, Claire-Lise Ackerman, Jean-Pierre Mathieu and Caroline Cuny

Lack of understanding of new products' positioning is one of the reasons proposed for their failure.

Introduction

This article aims to investigate whether an implicit measure can be used to assess automatic understanding of product positioning that is conveyed by product design. Positioning is the act of building a credible, attractive, and distinctive place in the consumer's mind (Fuchs & Diamantopoulos, 2012; Ries & Trout, 1986). It is an offshoot of differentiation, which is the approach by which a firm aims to develop unique products that are clearly distinguishable from similar offerings on the market (Porter, 1985; Wang, 2015). Effectively positioning a product in the minds of consumers has been identified as one of the strategies...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands