Market positioning

Department of Management- Market Positioning
Why Positioning?
What is Image
Current Image
Mirror Image
Errors in Positioning
Doubtful Positioning
Positioning Strategies
Competitor Positioning
Attribute Positioning

1. MAHTAB ALAM Assistant Professor Management Department Market Positioning

2. Market Positioning Meaning & Definition Positioning means the activity of making position or image in the minds of customers. Positioning is the process of portraying a picture of company’s product and its customer relation in the minds of customers. “Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinct place in the target’s mind.” --Philip Kotler --

3. Why Positioning? (1)To create a distinct place of product& service or corporate in the minds of customers. (2) To provide a competitive edge to a product or an attempt to convey attractiveness of the product to the target market. (3) To give the target market reason of buying our product/service and then formulation of all strategies according to the customer perception.

4. What is Image? Image is the picture of an organization and its products & services perceived by target group, Images are of following types: Types of Images Current Image: The way that a company is being seen by customer. Mirror Image: The way that a company think it is being seen by customers Wish Image: The way that a company would like to be seen by customers.

5. There are some common errors of positioning which is committed by firms due to in effective marketing programmes . These errors are as follows: (1) Under Positioning: This errors occurs when marketers take little steps for promotion of product due to which buyers are very less aware about the brand and its product’s performance & popularity. This error is done by those company’s either do not have capacity to promote their product or do not have marketing caliber of performing such roles.   e.g : “ASUS Laptop” Errors in Positioning

6. (2) Over Positioning: It refers to the error when firm position itself for some s pecific group but due to over positioning that particular groups believe that it is not for their class, it is for some higher class customer group. e. g : “ Aquaguard introduced Aquasure , People start believing due to over positioning that it is made for upper class, where as the product was priced only at Rs 1600/-“ (3) Confused Positioning: Some time buyers may have confused image of the brand. This may occur as a result of frequent changes in the positioning statement.

7.   (4) Doubtful Positioning: This error occurs when doubt arises in the minds of buyer regarding the company’s claims of benefits through the product. Customer have doubt whether firm can fulfill their promises or not.   e.g : “Hair Gain Oil” & “Weight Loss medicines”

8. Positioning Strategies ( 1)Attribute Positioning: A company position itself on the basis of an attribute which creates their separate identity such as size, no. of years of existence etc. e.g : “ Raymonds Since 1925” (2)Benefit Positioning: Corporate may position itself as a leader in a certain benefit which they provides to their customers. e.g : “ Maruti ---Service Station” (3)Use or Application Positioning: Positioning can be done on the basis of use or application of the product. Corporate position their product as best for some use like café coffee day position itself for discussion & meeting point. e.g : “Café Coffe Day—a lot can happen over a coffee”

9. (4)User Positioning: When firm position itself and its products as best suited for a particular user class is called user positioning e.g : “Johnson & Johnson----for babies” (5)Competitor Positioning: In this category firm claims to be better in some product or service than a well-known competitor. e.g : “ Thums up against Pepsi” (6)Value Positioning: This strategy focuses on company’s positioning as offering the best product at lower price or we can say best valued product. e.g : “McDonald Burger @ Rs 25 only/”