Brand Positioning. An Analyze of the Romanian Chocolate Bars Market from Youngsters` Perspective

Positioning is a very important component of the marketing strategy. Positioning has an impact on the entire marketing mix and is crucial for differentiating a brand from competition and gaining competitive advantage. The evaluation of the consumer's perceptions about the positioning of the existing brands in a category is a must in order to design an effective brand positioning or repositioning strategy. This paper assesses youngsters’s perceptions about the positioning of the chocolate bar brands existing in Romania through perceptual mapping. The results of the study show that the attributes by which youngsters assess chocolate bar brands can be grouped into the following categories: quality, taste and content, physical effects, price and appearance. Therefore, perceptual mapping is a useful technique in analysing a brand positioning strategy, but also in generating a brand repositioning strategy. Keywords: Positioning strategy, brand, perceptual mapping, positioning process, chocolate bars, youngsters