Positioning

In marketing, positioning is the technique in which marketers try to create
an image or identity for a product, brand, or company. It is the 'place' a
product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.
Positioning is something that is done in the minds of the target market. A
product's position is how potential buyers see the product. Positioning is
expressed relative to the position of competitors.

Re-positioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the
identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market.

The ability to spot a positioning opportunity is a sure test of a persons'
marketing ability. Successful positioning strategies are usually rooted in a
product's sustainable competitive advantage. The most common basis' for
constructing a product positioning strategy are:

   * positioning on specific product features
   * positioning on specific benefits, needs, or solutions
   * positioning on specific use categories
   * positioning on specific usage occations
   * positioning against another product
   * positioning through product class dissociation

More generally, there are three types of positioning concepts:

   * 1 functional positions
        o solve problems
        o provide benefits to customers
   * 2 symbolic positions
        o self-image enhancement
        o ego identification
        o belongingness and social meaningfullness
        o affective fulfillment
   * 3 experiential positions
        o provide sensory stimulation
        o provide cognitive stimulation

Positioning is facilitated by a graphical technique called perceptual
mapping, various survey techniques, and statistical techniques like multi
dimensional scaling, factor analysis, conjoint analysis, and logit analysis.

Generally, the product positioning process involves:

   * 1 identifying competing products
   * 2 identifying the attributes (also called dimensions) that define the
     product 'space'
   * 3 collecting information from a sample of customers about their
     perceptions of each product on the relevent attributes
   * 4 determine each products' share of mind
   * 5 determine each products' current location in the product space
   * 6 determine the target market's preferred combination of attributes
     (referred to as an ideal vector)
   * 7 examine the fit between:
        o the positions of competing products
        o the position of your product
        o the position of the ideal vector
   * 8 select optimum position

The term was coined in 1981 by Al Ries and Jack Trout in their classic
marketing monograph Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

How to - Physics - History - Companies - Internet - Video Games - List of Phobias - September 11, 2001
Radio - Timelines - Chemistry - Genealogy - Family - Film - SARS - Cancer - Medicine - DVD - Calendar
Countries - Disease - Health Science - Dentistry - Economics - AIDS - Law - Autism - Statistics - Bible
Recipes - Architecture - Computers - History of the Internet - Personal computer - Apple Macintosh
War - Presidents of the United States - United States Constitution - Universe - Philosophy - Animals
Biology - United States Constitution - Marketing Topics - Sports - Television - History of Computing

Flights - Mobile Phones - Credit Card Consolidation - Wedding rings - Art Prints