a. The final step in target marketing involves market positioning. Once the company

has decided on segments to enter, it must decide what “position” it wants to occupy

in those segments.

b. A product’s position is the way the product is defined by consumers on important

attributes—the place the product occupies in consumer’s minds relative to

competing products.

c. Because consumers cannot reevaluate products every time they make a buying

decision, they “position” products, services, and companies in their minds.

1). Consumers position products with or without the help of marketers.

2). Marketers do not want to leave their products’ positions to chance.

3). They plan positions that will give their products the greatest advantage in

selected target markets, and design marketing mixes to create those planned

positions.

Choosing a Positioning Strategy

d. The positioning task consists of three steps:

1). The first step is identifying a set of possible competitive advantages upon

which to build a position.

a). The key to winning and keeping customers is to understand their needs and

buying processes better than competitors do and to deliver more value.

b). A competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors gained by

offering consumers greater value, either through lower prices or by

providing more benefits that justify competitive advantage.

c). Not every company will find many opportunities for differentiating its

product offering and gaining competitive advantage.

d). Most companies do not hope to gain a permanent advantage, only a

temporary one.

e). Specific ways that a company can differentiate its offer from those of

the competition are:

1]. Product differentiation involves differentiating a company’s physical

product. Methods include variety of standard or optional features,

performance, style and design, or attributes (such as consistency,

durability, reliability, or repairability).

2]. Services differentiation is the way the firm differentiates the services

that accompany the product. Methods include:

a]. Speedy, reliable, or careful delivery.

b]. Installation service.

c]. Customer training service.

3]. Channel differentiation gains competitive advantage through the way

the company designs its channel coverage, expertise, and

performance.

4]. People differentiation involves hiring and training better people than

the competitors do.

5]. Image differentiation requires working to establish images that

differentiate them from competitors. Symbols can be used.

2). The second step is choosing the right competitive advantage. In so doing,

the organization must decide on the following:

a). How many differences to promote? Many marketers think that

companies should aggressively promote only one benefit to the target

market.

1]. Ad man Rosser Reeves called this benefit the Unique Selling

Proposition (USP).

2]. Go for the number one attribute.

b). Others believe that more than one differentiating factor is fine. However,

avoid:

1]. Underpositioning—failing to ever really position the company at all.

2]. Overpositioning—giving buyers too narrow a picture of the

company.

3]. Confused positioning—leaving buyers with a confused image of a

company.

c). Which differences to promote? Not all differences are meaningful or

worthwhile. A difference is worth establishing if it satisfies the following

criteria:

1]. Important.

2]. Distinctive.

3]. Superior.

4]. Communicable.

5]. Preemptive.

6]. Affordable.

7]. Profitable.

3). The final step is selecting an overall positioning strategy. Once

a position is chosen, the company must take strong steps to deliver and

communicate the desired position to target consumers.

a). The company must select an overall positioning strategy.

1]. Consumers typically choose products and services that give them the

greatest value.

2]. The full positioning of a brand is called the brand’s value proposition

(the full mix of benefits upon which the brand is positioned).

3]. Typical brand propositions can include:

a]. More for more.

b]. More for the same.

c]. The same for less.

d]. Less for much less.

e]. More for less.

Communicating and Delivering the Chosen Position

d. Once a position is chosen, the company must take strong steps to deliver and

communicate the desired position to target consumers.

1). All the company’s marketing mix efforts must support the positioning

strategy.

2). Positioning calls for concrete action, not just talk.

3). Companies often find it easier to come up with a good positioning strategy

than to implement it.

4). The positioning strategy must be monitored and adapted over time to

match changes in consumer needs and competitor’s strategies.

5). Abrupt changes that might confuse consumers need to be avoided.

6). A product’s position should evolve gradually as it adapts to the ever-

changing environment.

strenghts

industries profits

compition

market value

cost lowering factors

costumer satifaction

popualrity

scale of increaing sales

WEAKNESSES

high cost of production

employee problems

opportunities

can enhance production

introduce new product lines

threats

other firms of same nature