'Straddle' to Success

According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word' straddle' means "to sit or stand with your legs on each side of somebody/something" - e.g. you straddle the horse or you straddle the motorbike. 

Apart from the word's literal use, we also use it in different other situations. For example, a yoga learner practises the 'straddle pose' or an options trader uses a 'straddle strategy' to make (or lose) money in the stock market. 

The brand marketers, too, have used a 'straddle' for an advanced form of brand positioning. Simply put, here the marketer creates a dual image of the product in the minds of the customer and targets two customer segments at once.

If you remember, positioning according to Kotler " “...the act of designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market.” Now, positioning has two components: POP/Points of Parity which refers to attributes or benefits that are not unique but shared with other brands (e.g. every smartphone has a touch screen, camera) while POD/Points of Differentiation means attributes or benefits that consumers believe they could not find in a competitive brand (e.g. aesthetics of an Apple iPhone is impossible to find - which I'm sure all Apple 'fanboys' will endorse)

Based on the above, straddle positioning focuses on two frames of reference with one set of PODs and POP for each frame. The PODs in one category then become the POPs in another and vice versa. An example will make it clear.

In the 1980s, BMW, US positioned itself as 'The Ultimate Driving Machine'. A dual positioning focusing on 'both' luxury and performance. Then, luxury cars used to focus 'only' on luxury and not on performance and high-performance cars' anchor point was...you guessed it right - performance, not luxury. BMW ushered in the "best of both worlds" with a straddle positioning (luxury + performance) and maximized both attributes and benefits. Its dual positioning looks like below.

• BMW luxury category positioning: POP=Luxury and POD=Performance

• BMW performance category positioning: POP=Performance and POD=Luxury

Closer home, Mahindra Scorpio's 'luxury + adventure' twin positioning harps on the same concept. 

So, why every brand does not attempt it?

Because, brands may end up being "stuck in the middle" (remember Michael Porter) after failing to hit the 'sweet spot' with dual value propositions. Hence, brands should be super cautious in executing this strategy and should be pay close attention to the POSs and PODs to make them credible enough to both categories.