AFBL: BRAND POSITIONING AND BRAND VALUE CHAIN

Akij group of industries is considered to be one of the most aged industries that is still sustaining with great success and prosperity. It was more than fifty years that company emerged into the market. Under AFBL, they have launched different products in their product line such as

• MOJO
• LEMU
• FRUTIKA
• CLEMON
• SPEED
• SPA
• CHEESE PUFFS
• O' POTATO (Vegetable Masala, Magic Masala)
• FARM FRESH UHT MILK

The tagline of AFBL is 'brings quality in life' i.e they have more focused on providing  quality products & services to their customers effectively and more efficiently as to gain their objectives. Every company has been more focused on positioning and AFBL is no exception than that. Positioning is creating a very distinctive image in the consumers mind so consumers can relate themselves with your product as a basis of their personality and perception. If we take MOJO and SPEED as our products for analyzing their positioning level, we can conclude that mojo is the no.1 cola category of Bangladesh and has attained a good market share in the beverage market and speed holds the second biggest market share as an energy drink. As we know that there are 3 levels of positioning starts with product attributes, product benefits and creating values and beliefs. MOJO is positioned itself on the basis of product attributes as its a cola flavored carbonated soft drink and AFBL is a first company that provides full sleeve bottle packaging that made the product more attractive and more hygienic than other competing brands. SPEED is positioned on the basis of product attributes and product benefits as it provides more energy to the consumers and the packaging is more attractive and sporty that one can relate their sporty characteristics with the product benefits and attributes.

Establishing a brand positioning require three dimension and it starts with market segments, competitors and nature of competition and pop's and pod's. As Bangladesh is a very competitive market in the beverage industries, AFBL has established a unique personality for their products so they target very specific markets for their specific products where they can convince their consumers to have their products in an affordable price or they can serve unique features to the consumers as different consumers have different preferences when it comes to choosing brands. AFBL also focused on POP's and POD's as they establish their brand strategies on providing unique benefits to the consumers that is the POD of their brands such as they provide  better packaging for mojo, speed, clemon and promote & serve different taste for their products (SPEED). Also they create a unique logo for their products so the consumers can easily recognize the brand and their products. Cheese puff is a cheese based snack that is more crunchy and enjoyable so it is another USP for AFBL as it attracts the children's which is an specific target market for their products. Company also follows competitive pop's and category pop's for their different product lines such as they choose category pop's for their farm fresh brand which consists of UHT milk,pasteurized milk, chocolate milk and clarified butter and follow competitive POP's for the tango tomatoes as it has the taste of sour tomatoes that gives you extra delight of crunchy chip. It helps to build the recall factors when choosing the brands from the market based on product category wise.

AFBL is the second largest distributor company in Bangladesh as their distribution channel is so prompt and feasible that they communicate with their suppliers and customers more effectively and successfully that helps to increase their shares in the market. As their quality judgement criteria is based on uniqueness, more relevant with the consumers and they maintained their excellence by providing standard products to the customers that helps to increase their brand equity. Also they able to put a strong impact on the market with their distinct IMC campaigns that helps the customers to gain the trust and value for the brands. This brand value will help the customers to gain brand awareness by the recall and recognition factors and also they can associate more with the products in the competitive market. This will also help to create a strong relationship with the brands and will provide more positive WOM as a references and in this way the consumers will become more loyal to AFBL. These multipliers will help to gain a huge market share and will aid in the expansion process and to make more profits by serving a larger market in Bangladesh.
    Acccording to my observation if AFBL wants to be more successful in the market , AFBL should be more focused on-

• Co-relational POP's as many brands will serve similar benefits to the customers in the same market
• Concentrate on interactive marketing to grab more customers as its a growing sector in the marketing strategies. 
•  Need to promote their brands globally by involving in the PR activities as it helps the companies to communicate with the customers more closely and company will know what are the customers expectation from the brand and which things we need to add with our products to satisfy customers.

Reference :

1. http://www.akijfood.com/Default.aspx?Page=Mojo&MenuId=2001
2.http://www.akijfood.com/Default.aspx?Page=Farm_Fresh&MenuId=2006
3.http://www.akijfood.com/Default.aspx?Page=Speed&MenuId=2004