Download Positioning & Differentiating The Market Offering Through the

POSITIONING & DIFFERENTIATING
THE MARKET OFFERING THROUGH
THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
Lecture 9
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
How can a firm choose and communicate an
effective positioning in the market?
 What are the major differentiating attributes
available to the firms?
 What marketing strategies are appropriate at
each stage of the Product Life Cycle?
 What marketing strategies are appropriate at
each stage of the market’s evolution?

POINT?
NO company can win if its products and offerings
resemble every other product and offering!
 Today, most company's are guilty of strategy
convergence – namely, undifferentiated
strategies!
 Companies must pursue meaningful and relevant
positioning & differentiation

DEVELOPING & COMMUNICATING A
POSITIONING STRATEGY

Marketing strategies are built on:
Segmentation
 Targeting
 Positioning

A company identifies the different needs and groups in a
market place, targets those needs and groups that it can
satisfy in a superior way, and then positions its offerings
so that the target market recognizes the company’s
distinctive offering and image
POSITIONING
It is the act of designing the company’s offering
and image to occupy a distinctive place in the
mind of the target market
 Value proposition is the end result of positioning;
a reason as to why the target market should buy
the product

Company &
Product
Target
Customers
Benefits
Price
Value
Proposition
Nandos –
Chicken
Quality
conscious
consumers of
chicken
Healthy
15% premium
Healthy, tender
chicken at a
moderate
premium price
Domino’s Pizza
Convenience
minded pizza
lovers
Delivery speed
and good
quality
12% premium
Hot, tasty pizza
delivered to your
door at a
moderate price
POSITIONING – HOW MANY IDEAS TO
PROMOTE
How many ideas (benefits / features) to convey in
its positioning to its target customers. Most
marketers advocate promoting only one.
 USP
 Better communication, organizational aligning
becomes easier

POSITIONING – HOW MANY IDEAS TO
PROMOTE
Not everyone agrees that single benefit
positioning is always the best.
 Multiple benefit positioning may become more
attractive
 The challenge is to convince the customer that all
the benefits are being delivered!

POSITIONING ERRORS
Under positioning
 Over positioning
 Confused positioning
 Doubtful positioning

TYPES OF POSITIONING
Attribute positioning
 Benefit positioning
 Use or application positioning
 User positioning
 Competitor positioning
 Product category positioning
 Quality or price positioning

HOW TO CHOOSE WHICH POSITIONING TO
PROMOTE?
Customer
 Competition

COMMUNICATING THE POSITIONING
STRATEGY
To communicate a company or brand positioning,
a marketing plan should include a positioning
statement
 This statement should be as follows:

To (target group and need) our (brand) is (concept)
that (point of difference)
 E.g. ‘To busy professionals who need to stay
organized, Palm Pilot is an electronic organizer that
allows you to back up files on your PC more easily
and reliably than competitors products’

COMMUNICATING THE POSITIONING
STRATEGY

Next, the company should communicate that
positioning effectively through all the elements of
the marketing mix
FURTHER DIFFERENTIATION
Differentiation is the process of adding a set of
meaningful and valued differences to distinguish
the company’s offering from competitor’s offering
 E.g. IKEA

DIFFERENTIATION VARIABLES
Product
Services
Personnel
Channel
Image
Form
Ordering
Ease
Competence
Coverage
Symbols
Features
Delivery
Courtesy
Expertise
Media
Performance
Installation
Credibility
Performance
Atmosphere
Conformance
Customer
Training
Reliability
Durability
Customer
Consulting
Responsiveness
Reliability
Maintenance Communication
& Repair
Repairability
Style
Design
Events
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MARKETING
STRATEGIES
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MARKETING
STRATEGIES
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MARKETING
STRATEGIES