This blogpost by the experts of Assignmenthelpexperts.com would explain about what is market positioning and how a company select a particular positioning for its product.
Marketing positioning refers to a process through which marketers try to establish an image or identity in the minds of their target market in regard to their product, brand or company. It is an act of designing a firm’s product and image to attain a significant place in the minds of its target market (Cant, Strydom & Jooste, 2009). The aim of this positioning is to locate a specific brand in the minds of consumers so that potential benefits for firm can be maximized. An effective positioning helps a firm in its marketing strategy by elucidating the brand’s access, how its helps consumers in attaining specific goals and by explaining that how it will do so in a distinctive manner (Darling, 2001).
How a company selects a particular positioning for its product
Marketing positioning is a firm’s use of its own marketing strategy to establish and maintain a specific image in the minds of its target market consumers. Subsequent to the identification of a target market, marketers try to affect that how consumers see their product or brand and how that company is perceived in comparison to the existing competition (Darling, 2001). All marketers are aware with the fact that consumers formulate mental positions for specific products that are based on a single characteristic or imperfect experience.
In this regard, marketers carry out research to understand that how its consumers develop positions and what are the positions of their offerings among consumers. To develop a positioning, marketer of a product normally makes use of a three-step process. Initially, marketer selects a positioning concept that assist in finding out what is significant to consumers (Kurtz, MacKenzie & Snow, 2009). Like Domino’s Pizza company knows that for its consumer’s delivery, speed and good quality is important so its positioning concept is “A good, hot pizza delivered to your door within 30 minutes of ordering (Kotler & Armstrong, 2008).
Subsequent to the selection of a positioning statement, marketers design the dimension or attributes that can significantly express the position to the target market consumers. A product position can be expressed with the help of different product elements like its appearance, brand name, slogan and the place where it is sold and as well as in several other ways. Like Benson & Hedges position its cigarettes in regard to taste and lightness whereas While Edgars is recognized for its high quality garments (Cant, Strydom & Jooste, 2009).
All these attributes and elements need to be adjusted or changed for developing a positioning strategy in accordance to changing consumer needs and competition. In addition to above discussed elements, a marketer can also position its product in regard to several alternatives (Kotler & Armstrong, 2008). One key alternative used in present is to position a product directly against the competition. For instance, Southwest Airlines has significantly positioned itself as the low-cost alternative in comparison to the major airlines (Peter & Donnelly, 2002).
Subsequent to positioning a product on specific attributes and aspects, it is essential to distinguish specific product or brand and create differential advantage that can be done on the basis of its price and quality (Hassan & Craft, 2005). Nowadays most of the hotel chains distinguish themselves from their competitors on the basis of price and quality offered. In present some dry cleaning stores promote their offerings on the basis of their use of environment friendly cleaning agents that depict that how a marketer can position its product.
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References
Cant, M.C., Strydom, J.W. & Jooste, C.J. (2009). Marketing Management (5th ed.). Juta and Company Ltd.
Darling, J.R. (2001). Successful competitive positioning: the key for entry into the European consumer market. European Business Review, 13 (4), p. 209-220.
Hassan, S.S. & Craft, S.H. (2005). Linking global market segmentation decisions with strategic positioning options. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 22 (2), p. 81-89.
Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2008). Principles of Marketing (12th ed). Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Kurtz, D.L., MacKenzie, H.F. & Snow, K. (2009). Contemporary Marketing (2nd ed.). Cengage Learning.
Peter, J. P. & Donnelly, J. H. (2002). A Preface to Marketing Management (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill Professional.