Chapter 9 - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
© 2014 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution
in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
9-19
6. Think about the various energy drinks that you and your friends drink (e.g., Coca-
Cola, Pepsi, 7-Up, Gatorade, and Powerade).How do those various brands position
themselves in the market?
Market positioning involves a process of defining the marketing mix variables so that
target customers have a clear, distinctive, desirable understanding of what the product
does or represents in comparison with competing products. Positioning strategies focus
on either how the product or service affects the consumer or how it is better than
competitors’ products or services. Companies position their products using values,
salient attributes, and symbols. Students should discuss which of these tools the different
energy drinks use to differentiate themselves from competitors. For example, 5-hour
energy might use salient attributes, while Red Bull might use symbols.
7. Put yourself in the position of an entrepreneur who is developing a new product to
introduce into the market. Briefly describe the product. Then, develop the
segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategy for marketing the new product. Be
sure to discuss (a) the overall strategy, (b) characteristics of the target market, (c) why
that target market is attractive, and (d) the positioning strategy. Provide justifications
for your decisions.
This exercise challenges students to proceed through the entire segmentation /targeting
/positioning process described in the chapter.
For example, the new product is a self-propelled, robotic lawn mower, similar to the
robotic vacuum cleaner that is on the market today.
• Overall strategy: Segment the market into those consumers who own homes with
lawns and those who do not. Segment those with lawns into geodemographic markets
to identify the segments most likely to see value in such a new product. Focus
marketing efforts—most likely, television advertising, Internet banner ads, and
newspaper inserts—specifically on those segments.
• Characteristics of the target market: The target market includes middle- to upper-
middle-class households with no children and at least 20 square feet of lawn to mow.
• Attractiveness: These households likely can afford the product, do not have children
to mow the lawn as a chore, and possess enough lawn space to justify the purchase
for the sake of ease and convenience. This segment is easy to identify and is
significantly different from other segments.
• Positioning strategy: The product positioning should use both value (under $200) and
salient (self-propelled, does not need supervision, senses the boundaries of the lawn
automatically, and saves energy because it stops when it finishes mowing) attributes.