Positioning (marketing)

In marketing, positioning is the technique in which marketers try to create an image or identity for a product, brand, or company. It is the 'place' a product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market. Positioning is something that is done in the minds of the target market. A product's position is how potential buyers see the product. Positioning is expressed relative to the position of competitors.

Re-positioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market.

The ability to spot a positioning opportunity is a sure test of a persons' marketing ability. Successful positioning strategies are usually rooted in a product's sustainable competitive advantage. The most common basis' for constructing a product positioning strategy are:

• positioning on specific product features
• positioning on specific benefits, needs, or solutions
• positioning on specific use categories
• positioning on specific usage occations
• positioning against another product
• positioning through product class dissociation

More generally, there are three types of positioning concepts:

• 1 functional positions
  • solve problems
  • provide benefits to customers
• 2 symbolic positions
  • self-image enhancement
  • ego identification
  • belongingness and social meaningfullness
  • affective fulfillment
• 3 experiential positions
  • provide sensory stimulation
  • provide cognitive stimulation

Positioning is facilitated by a graphical technique called perceptual mapping[?], various survey techniques[?], and statistical techniques like multi dimensional scaling[?], factor analysis, conjoint analysis, and logit analysis[?].

Generally, the product positioning process involves:

• 1 identifying competing products
• 2 identifying the attributes (also called dimensions) that define the product 'space'
• 3 collecting information from a sample of customers about their perceptions of each product on the relevent attributes
• 4 determine each products' share of mind
• 5 determine each products' current location in the product space
• 6 determine the target market's preferred combination of attributes (referred to as an ideal vector)
• 7 examine the fit between:
  • the positions of competing products
  • the position of your product
  • the position of the ideal vector
• 8 select optimum position

The term was coined in 1981 by Al Ries and Jack Trout in their classic marketing monograph Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

see also marketing, marketing management, target market, product management, market segment, product differentiation, marketing plan, sustainable competitive advantage

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