An investigation of the positioning strategies used in the ice tea sector: A comparative qualitative analysis

Positioning is an important marketing element that gives businesses a competitive advantage. Noise pollution occurs in consumers' minds due to the increased communication possibilities and the diversity of communication channels. The way to overcome this pollution creates a position in the consumer's mind. Consumers who want to facilitate the purchasing process positions products in their minds and are more interested in some products than others, depending on the position they create in their minds. For this reason, the positioning process is the key to success for today's businesses. Positioning strategies are classified in different ways in the literature. In this study, positioning strategies, which act on similar phenomena, were chosen from this diversity. Eleven different positioning strategies have been selected by considering the common aspects of positioning strategy types. Ice tea brands have attracted attention with their increasing market shares in the cold drinks sector in recent years. There is a general awareness in the society that carbonated drinks are harmful to health. Therefore, the ice tea sector takes a share from the carbonated beverage market. In recent years, new companies are participating in the Turkey ice tea market. Especially after the ÇAYKUR Didi Ice Tea brand entered the market, the sector started to grow gradually. For this reason, we wanted to examine the positioning strategies of the players in this growing sector. As we said before, Didi ice tea contributed to the growth of the market. It is also a public enterprise competing in the private sector. Besides, after entering the market, it ranked second in market share. That is why it was chosen as the case study for this study. In this context, in-depth interviews were performed with the marketing managers of the selected ice tea brand. All the brand advertisements were analyzed, and focus group interviews were conducted with the consumers of the ice tea brand. The gathered data were analyzed by the content analysis method. As a result of the interviews, the brand's positioning strategies have been defined, the implementation of these strategies has been demonstrated through advertising analysis, and the position of the brand in the consumer mind has been tried to be revealed by focus group interviews. According to the findings obtained as a result of the analysis, the positioning strategies determined by the ÇAYKUR Didi ice tea brand mostly coincide with the position in the mind of the consumer. Also, some consumers' expectations that could not be met by the brand were revealed, and various recommendations were made.