Developing or Designing or Choosing Target Positioning Strategies
Positioning is an act of designing the company’s offering and images so that they occupy a meaningful and distinct competitive position in the target market. The positioning task consists of three steps: identifying a set of possible competitive advantages upon which to build a position; choosing the right competitive advantages and selecting an overall positioning strategy. The company must then effectively communicate and deliver the chosen position to the market.
Identifying Possible Competitive Advantages
- An advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value, either through lower prices or by providing more benefits that justify higher prices.
Choosing the Right Competitive Advantages
When a company is fortunate enough to discover several potential competitive advantages. It now must choose the ones on which it will build its positioning strategy. It must decide –
- How many differences to promote?
- Which differences to promote?
Selecting an Overall Positioning Strategy
Consumers typically choose products and services that give them the greatest value. Thus, marketers want to position their brands on the key benefits that they offer relative to competing brands. The brand’s full positioning is called its value proposition- the full mix of benefits upon which the brand is positioned. In general, companies can choose from one of five winning value propositions upon which to position their products: more for more, more for the same, the same for less, less for position less, or more for less. They must then effectively communicate and deliver the chosen position to the market.
