Positioning

Once segments have been selected and targeted, the firm must position its products and services in the minds of its customers. Positioning a product or service involves designing a marketing program, including the product mix that is consistent with how the company wants its products or services to be perceived. The strategy a firm adopts is driven then by the desired positioning. Positioning aims to influence or adjust customer perceptions of a product or brand. An effective position lets a brand occupy a preferred and unique position in the customers’ minds while being consistent with the firm’s overall marketing strategy. As such, positioning involves the selection of target segments and the formulation of product attributes that make up the brand. Recently, Snackwell’s successfully halted dramatically falling sales volume by repositioning itself. This repositioning included product reformulation, an increased marketing budget, and a drastic shift in advertising redirected toward the brand’s new core audience – women. Nabisco is also building its relationship with its primary target market by creating a Web site directed at women and an ongoing direct-mail campaign augmented by women - targeted promotions.

Positioning a new brand requires distinguishing it from other brands. Customers must perceive it as sharing important attributes with other brands in the product category but as being superior on differentiating attributes. Repositioning, called for when a firm wants to shift consumer opinions about an existing brand, requires development of new marketing programs.

Product attributes, price, and image enhancements are major components in positioning. Perceptual maps, spatial representations of consumer perceptions of products or brands, are often used to evaluate brand positions in a market. A brand’s market position can shift. Perceptual maps often show positions for competitors’ brands. They also convey to a company how much it must change consumer perceptions in order to achieve parity with or differentiation from competitors. By combining segmentation and positioning research, a company can learn which segments are attractive and how consumers in specific segments perceive the company’s products relative to competing products and brands.

Comprehension questions:

1. What is positioning?

2. What does positioning involve?

3. What does positioning a new product require?

4. What are perceptual maps?

5. What can company learn by positioning research?