Download Marketing Strategy: Strategies, Positioning, and

Product Positioning
Business Marketing
Learning Objectives
Marketing Strategy: Strategies, Positioning, and
Marketing Objectives
1. Describe the alternative strategies by
industry position.
2. Explain the concepts of relationship
marketing and strategic alliances.
3. Identify the reasons that have made
positioning essential in today’s business
climate.
4. List and describe the steps required for
effective positioning (the five Ds).
Learning Objectives
Marketing Strategy: Strategies, Positioning, and
Marketing Objectives
5. List and describe the six different
approaches to positioning.
6. Explain the benefits of having marketing
objectives and list the four requirements for
good marketing objectives.
Marketing Strategy
The selection of a course of action from among
several alternatives that involves specific
customer groups, communication methods,
distribution channels, and pricing structures.
It is a combination of target markets and
marketing mixes.
Target Market
A target market is a market segment
selected by a
company/organization
for marketing attention.
Market segmentation involves dividing
customers into groups (market segments)
with common characteristics.
Marketing Mix
A marketing mix includes those controllable
factors that have been chosen to satisfy
customer needs.
The four controllable factors are product,
price, place, promotion,
These are also known as the 4 Ps.
Marketing Objective
A marketing objective is a measurable goal
that a company/organization
attempts to achieve for a target market
within a specific time period,
typically one year.
Alternative Strategies for
Product Life Cycle Stages
 Introduction Stage
a. Rapid-skimming strategy (high price/high
promotion).
b. Slow-skimming strategy (high price/low
promotion).
c. Rapid-penetration strategy (low price/high
promotion).
d. Slow-penetration strategy (low price/low
promotion).
Alternative Strategies for
Product Life Cycle Stages
 Growth Stage
a. Improve service/product quality and add
new features and elements
b. Pursue new target markets
c. Use new channels of distribution
d. Lower prices to attract more price-sensitive
customers
e. Shift some advertising emphasis away from
building awareness to creating desire and
action
Alternative Strategies for
Product Life Cycle Stages

a.
b.
c.
Maturity Stage
Market-modification strategy
Product-modification strategy
Marketing-mix modification strategy
 Decline Stage
a. Reduce costs
b. Sell off or get out of the business
Positioning
Positioning is the development of a
marketing mix to occupy a specific place in
the mindsof customers within target markets.
Reasons for Increased Importance of
Positioning
1. Perceptual processes of customers
They screen out most information
2. Greater competition
More organizations competing for share
of mind
3. Growing volume of commercial messages
Advertising and promotion clutter
Steps Required for Effective
Positioning (the five Ds)
 Documenting
 Deciding
 Differentiating
 Designing
 Delivering
The 5 Ds of Positioning
 Documenting
What benefits are the
most important to your
current and potential
customers?
 Deciding
What image do you
want your current and
potential customers to
have of your
organization?
 Differentiation
Which competitors do
you want to appear
different from, and
what are the factors
that you will use to
make your organization
different from them?
The 5 Ds of Positioning
 Designing
How will you develop
and communicate
these differences?
 Delivering
How will you make good
on what you’ve
promised, and how do
you make sure that you
have “delivered?”
Positioning Approaches:
Six Major Alternatives
 Specific product features
 Benefits, problem solution, or
needs
 Specific usage occasions
 User category
 Against another “product”
 “Product class” dissociation