Master Degree
Brand Positioning
ALICE M.TYBOUT and BRIAN STERNTHAL
When TiVo launched its digital video
recorder (DVR) system in 1999, the leading technology market research firm
Forrester predicted, “These hard-drive machines will take off faster than any
other consumer electronics product has before.” Forrester projected that there
would be greater than 50 percent household penetration by 2005.They were
optimistic because TiVo allowed viewers to store a library of shows tailored to
their preferences, pause or rewind live TV, and quickly skip through commercials.
In addition,TiVo was easy to program. In its initial advertising,TiVo announced
that it would revolutionize television by empowering viewers to
“Watch what you want, when you want.”
Although TiVo aficionados love it and recommend it with an almost evangelical
zeal, sales have fallen far short of Forrester’s (and others’) enthusiastic
initial forecasts. As of January 2005, only 2.3 million households (slightly less
than 2 percent) had TiVo. At the same time, the adoption rate of DVRs was
increasing as cable companies began to embrace the technology and offer
their own systems. But TiVo’s future remained uncertain.We contend that a
critical factor in TiVo’s lackluster performance was the absence of a clear
brand positioning.
Brand positioning refers to the specific, intended meaning for a brand in
consumers’ minds. More precisely, a brand’s positioning articulates the goal
that a consumer will achieve by using the brand and explains why it is superior
to other means of accomplishing this goal. In the case of TiVo, the brand
was positioned as empowering consumers, but how and why it accomplished
this goal was never clear.Was TiVo like a VCR in allowing consumers to
record programs for playback at a later time? If so, what...
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