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Introduction
Brand positioning has emerged as a key strategy for competitive differentiation in the marketplace clutter (Aaker, 2004). Successful brand positioning is an important capability for firms to deliver their unique offerings and plays a critical role in the formulation of optimal marketing strategies by clarifying the brand’s essence in customers’ minds (Larsen, 2018). An effective brand positioning strategy guides marketing strategies by clarifying what the brand is all about (Gaustad et al., 2018), how it differs from other competing brands (Batra et al., 2017), its uniqueness (Shin et al., 2017) and why customers should favour a particular brand (Sharma et al., 2016). In essence, brand positioning is a fundamental basis for marketing activities and product strategies, which play a significant role in the overall brand management and marketing performance of firms (Larsen, 2018).
The alcoholic beverage industry in Ghana is very competitive (Africa Foresight Group, 2019). The various categories of alcoholic beverages have different branding positioning strategies. In respect of beers and liquors, the story of craftmanship, conceptualisation and origin help to create an inspired product design whilst for wines, good label designs become a game-changer with regard to consumer choice (Nielsen Design Audit Report, 2015). Despite the differences in branding tactics, a point of convergence for nearly all categories of alcoholic brands has been a careful integration of the brand name into a visually appealing design artwork that projects a unique brand appeal (Wegert, 2016).
Industry watchers project an increment in beer consumption from 226 million litres in 2012 to 326 million litres in 2020 (Global Agriculture Information Network, 2019). Craft beer production and popularity is gradually gaining consumer attention and presents growth potential with its small and customised differentiation and positioning strategy. This phenomenon has resulted in attempts by several alcoholic brands to differentiate their offerings through brand positioning as a winning competitive strategy (Domie, 2013). These efforts are further accentuated by the rising spate of alcohol consumption partly driven by the steady growth of the hospitality and tourism sectors, growing urbanisation, expanding middle and upper classes and the expatriate community (Ghana Tourism Authority, 2012). With a per-capita consumption rate of between 2.5 to 4.9 L from 2015 to 2017, industry estimates put the total consumption rate of...