Social representations and brand positioning in the sporting goods market

This paper examines the use of social representations as a strategic tool to understand better and measure how consumers arrive at their identification of brand positioning (legitimacy and differentiation) in the brand's market. By considering the market as co-produced by brands and consumers ('B&C approach'), this study classifies free-word associations connected to the brands into units of meanings, which constitute the core of a brand's market. We applied this tool to the four main brands in the French sporting goods market (i.e., Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Puma). Results show that the differentiation of brand positioning depends on legitimate elements of the market, such as advertising and quality, and also on specific elements, such as logo and territory. Using social representations provides interesting findings to enrich the 'B to C approach' of brand positioning and to improve measurement of a brand's legitimacy and differentiation.