Understanding Marketing Frame of Reference and its Benefits

In marketing, a frame of reference is a point of comparison that helps your marketers position and differentiate your product within the marketplace. Specifically, it refers to how customers see your product in relation to other products of a similar type. For example, if you owned a soft drink company, your frame of reference would be a series of other soft drink companies. Establishing a frame of reference helps your marketers understand how your product fits into the market, and how to make it stand out in your customer’s eyes when compared with your competitors.

Frame of reference is a tool that enables marketers to identify effective messaging that can give your product a competitive advantage. Frame of reference offers advantages for marketers for a number of reasons:

• Parity: Frame of reference can help you identify points of parity—or similarities—between your brand and successful competitors, equating your brand with companies that people already trust and see as effective. Especially for a new product or brand, emphasizing points of parity with other brands can elevate your brand position.
• Differentiation: Understanding the frame of reference for your product helps you identify the positive ways that it differs from other similar products on the market.
• Consumer insight: Locating your frame of reference helps you understand the target audience you're trying to reach, which can help inform your brand strategy. You can use these consumer insights to discover what your target market values, and tailor your brand messaging to prioritize these values.
• Brand positioning: Positioning your brand within a frame of reference offers your consumers a value proposition by giving them the ability to weigh the points of difference and points of parity of your brand with your competitors.

Frame of reference in marketing is all about the perception of a brand. There are several forms of frame of reference that your brand might look at for marketing strategies:

1. 1. Immediate competitors: Your primary competitive frame of reference includes direct competitors that offer the same kind of product or service as your brand. If your product is a soft drink, your immediate competitors would be other soft drink brands.
2. 2. Greater competitors: A larger frame of reference is made up of other brands offering complementary products or services to your brand, but are not in direct competition. For instance, if your brand is a quick service restaurant (or QSR) chain that serves coffee, your greater competitors are other QSR chains that may serve burgers, fried chicken, or tacos.
3. 3. Perceived connections: Even if two brands aren’t immediate or greater competitors, there can be a frame of reference between them if consumers perceive a connection. Many of the tech or app-driven Silicon Valley businesses fall in a larger frame of reference because of their public core beliefs, or similar business models.

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