Should it be STP or STPP?

What’s the additional P?

Foundation of any marketing or branding campaign is undoubtedly the S-T-P process (Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning). The marketing or branding campaigns completely rely on how well the segment is identified and how well the creation of a unique image is executed in the minds of the target consumer. Conventionally this process is known as S-T-P in theory but practically it’s not fair for it to be referred to as S-T-P as it needs to have an additional P for S-T-P to be effectively executed. Needless to say that S-T-P is highly hypothetical and it’s mostly based on research findings or may be at times it may stem from an individual’s sixth sense.

Either way, it needs to be incubated in the minds of the strategist and then to be executed or bring it to life by means of product, price, place and promotion which is also referred to as the Marketing Mix. If it’s going to be a service, it needs to consider additional three Ps which are referred to as: People, Process and Physical evidence. What it essentially means is that, the S-T-P plan could be in the minds of individuals or may be sitting in a computer hard-disk or may be printed on a paper.

Nevertheless, this IMAGINATION will come on to the shelf as it gets executed – in other words what the consumer sees, hears, experiences is the Product which comes at a particular price, which is distributed in certain channels and communicated through certain media. Hence, it’s obvious that if Branding is a strategy, first half of it is; hypothetical and the second half of it is actual or it really is going to be experienced by the consumer.

If this is explained through an example; imagine there is a new fashion brand which is

The real challenge now is to create one image which will suit all 1MN ladies in the target market. Is this practical? Is this doable? This is the challenge a brand marketer would take in her job. It’s impossible for her to create 1MN different images in the minds of 1mn ladies in the target market. Instead the brand can make one image which cuts across many ladies and they all fall in love with the brand as they get exposed to brand communication.

going to be launched targeting women who are in the age of 25-40. Essentially what it says is that they are females and are in the given age range.

However, does it mean that all the ladies in the age of 25-40 are going to be in this target market? Answer would be; No…

Out of all the ladies between the ages of 25-40 who live around the country, only the working crowd is targeted and from them, only those who live in urban and semi urban areas will be considered as others will not be attractive for this brand. Among the rest of them, if this brand is going to be launched for middle and upper markets, it will further exclude certain fraction of the ladies who are in the given age category however are not fitting in with the income brackets. Imagine only 1 000, 000 ladies fall within these given criteria what it means is that, it has to be considered as the target market for the brand.

Now that the target market is defined, the next task is to position the brand in the minds of the selected target market. Some may argue on the fact that, there are 7mn smart phones in circulation in Sri Lanka hence it’s safe to assume that all these 1mn ladies use a smart phone and the most feasible strategy would be to reach out to them on social media using social media profiles. Hence, the brand awareness can be created about the brand in the target market by using social media.

It shouldn’t be considered however as branding instead it can be considered as mere communication and creating awareness of the existence of the brand.

What is positioning then? It’s about creating an image in the minds of the ladies.

How is this image created? Imagine the brain of your consumer is a filling system which has different files allocated for different purposes. One of the files among them is allocated for readymade fashion/ garment brands. Task of the new brand now is to get into this file/ folder which contains all the fashion brands that have managed to get access to this file which is in the mind of the consumer. Therefore, the brand now needs to create awareness of its existence and at the same time needs to give a compelling reason for the consumer to consider buying this brand.

The reason could be an emotional reason or a logical reason. As some consumers are left-brained; they might go for logical reasoning whereas some are right-brained consumers who would go for magical reasoning. The communication campaign at very basic level needs to take one of these routes. If it was a food and beverage brand or may be a cosmetic brand, it would have the privilege of being positioned based on sensory appeals ( Smell, taste, texture etc)

What is the real challenge?

The real challenge now is to create one image which will suit all 1MN ladies in the target market. Is this practical? Is this doable? This is the challenge a brand marketer would take in her job. It’s impossible for her to create 1MN different images in the minds of 1mn ladies in the target market. Instead the brand can make one image which cuts across many ladies and they all fall in love with the brand as they get exposed to brand communication. This is where the additional “P” comes in to the equation. ‘’Profiling’’ needs to come at this stage giving direction on what kind of a profile can represent 1MN ladies.

Hence the brand marketer or the agency will describe one lady who fits in to the given criteria set, which will be representative to all 1mn ladies.

A typical profile would be written as… “Chameli who lives in Nugegoda who loves to wear saris to work as she thinks sari can give her a better overall appearance and enhances her image, who would pay a little bit of extra money to buy a sari which is un-common, which carries a rare color combination, which looks simple yet elegant and are not common for anyone in the market to buy…..etc…

After reading this intro, it has to create an image of a lady in her mind which is the image that the brand wants to create in the target audience. But there is an issue… among the 1MN ladies there may be few chamelis who may or may not live in Nugegoda… who may or may not work in the private sector etc… But the challenge is to create one image which is appealing to all 1MN ladies.

It’s at this point, the creative or advertising agency would choose one profile which is assumed to be appealing to all the ladies in the target audience.

What’s next?

The next step would be to find a model who can portray the image of Chameli in the advertising commercial. The creative agency along with the production house would find the suitable character for this role and she will be acting as Chameliin the TV commercial. Depending on the strategy, the brand marketer will have to choose the right Pont of Difference (POD) or Proposition to be communicated to the target market.

As you may see, the most important element is to develop a profile to represent the target audience as without a representative for the target audience, the task is going to be difficult. This profile that is developed by the brands team will be communicated to all external suppliers such as; the research partners, advertising partners, media partners, digital partners, activation partners, etc as they all need to know the exact profile of the target audience for them to plan their work.

Therefore, it’s important to understand how important Profiling in the process of S-T-P. thought this process in theory may be referred to as S-T-P, in a more practical sense, it makes perfect sense to call it S-T-P-P as without developing a profile there can’t be any practical positioning that can take place in the market.

May this be a tribute to all the research, advertising, media planning, digital media and activation companies which are servicing brands in Sri Lanka and also this will be useful for the upcoming markets who are going to join the marketing fraternity of Sri Lanka.