Positioning Re-positioning Measuring the positioning

Positioning

Benefits, It’s about defining the story, what wants will the product satisfy?

If you start with Segmentation +  Differentiation = positioning. 

How are we going to position our products....high end?  value?  if you are selling cachaca from Brazil in overseas markets, are you offering an alternative to vodka?  a tropical drink?  What are the "intangibles" that we are going to use to market our product?   

First identify target customers.  Who am I convincing that I'm the best (Segmentation).  Identifying customers with (a) ability to buy (measure thru demographics), ....It doesn't matter what you think your better at….just what customers think, and if they care about it ....a "mind game".  

What does nike do?  Its not about how made, not about material.  Its positioning based on intangibles….if you base it just on features, every competitor can match you.   If you get story right, and convince customers…is  very difficult to dethrone you.

the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. It is the 'relative competitive comparison' their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.  "A product's position is how potential buyers see the product", and is expressed relative to the position of competitors.   Positioning is something (perception) that happens in the minds of the target market. It is the aggregate perception the market has of a particular company, product or service in relation to their perceptions of the competitors in the same category. It will happen whether or not a company's management is proactive, reactive or passive about the on-going process of evolving a position. But a company can positively influence the perceptions through enlightened strategic actions. 

Re-positioning

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

Measuring the positioning

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.