reposition business definition
To change consumer perception of a product so as to place it in a different market segment. For example, a household products company may introduce a premium toothpaste and, at the same time, reduce the price and discontinue most advertising for an existing brand that it wishes to reposition as a popular entry in this category.
Case Study Marlboro, the world's best-selling cigarette and what many consider its most valuable brand, was the subject of what is almost certainly the most successful product repositioning in history. Having initially marketed it as a cigarette for women (“Mild as May," with ads featuring sophisticated females) following its 1924 introduction, manufacturer Philip Morris decided to reposition Marlboro with a more masculine image following cancer health warnings in the 1950s. In the middle of the decade, Marlboro ads began featuring tattooed men who were portrayed as rugged and independent. The firm's advertising touting “man-sized taste" and a flip-top box initially utilized different types of Marlboro men, but eventually settled on the cowboy as its featured character. The cowboy's rugged lifestyle in Marlboro country, backed by music from “The Magnificent Seven," attracted an increasing number of male smokers, to make Marlboro number one.
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