Positioning for Advantage: Techniques and Strategies to Grow Brand Value by Kimberly A. Whitler, Ph.D.

About the Book

Most of us have an intuitive sense of superior branding.

We prefer to purchase brands we find distinctive―that deliver on some important, relevant dimension better than other brands. These brands have typically achieved positional advantage.

Yet few professionals have had the formal training that goes beyond marketing theory to bridge the “theory-doing gap”―understanding the specific techniques and strategies that can be used to create brands that attain positional advantage in the marketplace.

Positioning for Advantage is a comprehensive how-to guide for creating, building, and executing effective brand strategies.

Kimberly A. Whitler identifies essential marketing strategy techniques and moves through the major stages of positioning a brand to achieve in-market advantage.

Introducing seven tools―from strategic positioning concepts to strategy mapping to influencer maps―Whitler provides templates, frameworks, and step-by-step processes to build and manage growth brands that achieve positional advantage.

This book presents real-world scenarios, helping readers activate tools to increase skill in creating brands that achieve positional advantage.

Brimming with insights for students and professionals alike, Positioning for Advantage helps aspiring C-level leaders understand not only what superior branding looks like but also how to make it come to life.

About the Author

Dr. Kimberly A. Whitler is currently the Frank M. Sands Sr. Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Previously, she spent nearly 20 years in general management, strategy and marketing roles within the consumer packaged goods and retailing industries, managing global, U.S., and Eastern European-based businesses.

She spent most of her career at Procter & Gamble and more recently served as the general manager of the Breakfast Division for Aurora Foods, the CMO of David’s Bridal, the country’s leading bridal apparel retailer, and as an officer of PetSmart, the U.S.’ largest pet specialty retailer.

She has written over 350 articles as a Forbes senior contributor and has published in Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, The Washington Post, Ad Age, and numerous academic journals and other publications.

Her Forbes articles have garnered over 3,500,000 views, and she has been ranked as a Top Five influencer of CMOs, a Top 10 influencer of Tech B2B CMOs, and a Top 100 MarTech influencer.

She has been interviewed, cited, or quoted over 2,100 times, including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, New York Times, NBC, ABC, USA Today, Entrepreneur, Fox Sports, Huffington Post, and a variety of international media outlets.

And, interesting fact – she is an avid UVA men’s basketball fan!

Listen to the Interview…

Links…

• Positioning for Advantage: Techniques and Strategies to Grow Brand Value by Kimberly Whitler
• Kimberly A. Whitler, Ph.D. (University of Virginia)
• Kimberly Whitler (LinkedIn)
• Kimberly Whitler (Forbes)
• Beyond Product: How Exceptional Founders Embrace Marketing To Create And Capture Value For Their Business by Jill Soley and Todd Wilms (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• Buyer Personas: How to Gain Insight into Your Customer’s Expectations, Align Your Marketing Strategies, and Win More Business by Adele Revella(Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• The Ultimate Start-Up Guide: Marketing Lessons, War Stories, and Hard-Won Advice from Leading Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors by Tom Hogan and Carol Broadbent (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• UnBranding: 100 Branding Lessons for the Age of Disruption by Alison Stratten and Scott Stratten (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• Adam Goodman (Ballard Partners)
• The Digital Pivot: Secrets of Online Marketing by Eric Schwartzman (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• Digital Influence: Unleash the Power of Influencer Marketing to Accelerate Your Global Business by Joel Backaler (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• The Age of Influence: The Power of Influencers to Elevate Your Brand by Neal Schaffer (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• The Influencer Code: How to Unlock the Power of Influencer Marketing by Amanda Russell (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• Winfluence: Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand by Jason Falls (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance by Bob Buford

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