What is Positioning. Description
Positioning is a marketing method for creating the perception of a product,
brand, or company identity. Starting from 1969, two young marketing guys,
Jack Trout and Al Ries, wrote, spoke and disseminated to the advertising and
PR world about a new concept in communications which they called positioning.
The term was actually first mentioned in a paper by Jack Trout: Positioning
is a game people play in today's me-too market place, Industrial Marketing,
Vol.54, No. 6, June 1969, pp.51-55. Their 1981 book about Positioning: "The
Battle for Your Mind" became a bestseller. Until then, advertising agencies
had primarily been basing their media campaigns on internally conceived benefits
of the client's product.
According to Trout and Ries, "positioning is not what you do to a product.
Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position
(place) the product in the mind of the potential buyer". Since that time in
marketing, positioning is the technique in which marketers try to create an
image or identity for a product, brand, or company in the perception of the
target market. What matters is how potential buyers see the product. It is
expressed relative to the position of competitors. Typical positioning tools
include graphical perception mapping, market surveys, and certain statistical
techniques.
Competitive Edge and Positioning
A successful positioning strategy is usually based on a
sustainable competitive
advantage of a company. Positioning can be based on several things, including:
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Product features
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Benefits, needs, or solutions
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Use categories
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Usage occasions
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Placing and comparing it relative to another product
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Dissociation of the product class
Three bases of positioning can be distinguished
- Functional (solve problems, provide benefits to customers)
- Symbolic (self-image enhancement, ego identification, belongingness
and social meaningfulness, affective fulfillment)
- Experiential (provide sensory stimulation; provide cognitive
stimulation)
Steps in Product Positioning. Process
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Identify competing products
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Identify the attributes, also called dimensions, that define
the product 'space'
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Collect information from a sample of customers about their
perceptions of each product on the relevant attributes
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Determine the share of mind of each product
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Determine the current location of each product in the product
space
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Determine the target market's preferred combination of attributes.
These are called: an ideal vector.
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Examine the fit between: the positions of competing products,
the position of your product and the position of the ideal vector
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Select the optimum position
Three Positioning Strategies by Youngme Moon
In an HBR article of May 2005, Youngme Moon introduced three
variations of Positioning that can be used to break free from
Product Life Cycle thinking.
Companies can change how consumers perceive them. By Positioning or often
Repositioning their products in unexpected ways. Three positioning strategies
that marketers use to cause a mental shift at consumers are Reverse, Breakaway,
Stealth Positioning:
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Reverse Positioning. This method removes "sacred"
product attributes. Simultaneously new attributes are added that would typically
be found only in a highly augmented product. For example IKEA is not delivering
to your home the products which you have bought, and it offers no sales
consultancy. But IKEA added: children drop-off, cafe, toys). Recommended
for: Services companies.
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Breakaway Positioning. This method associates the
product with a radically different category. By manipulating the cues of
consumers of how they perceive and categorize a product, a firm can change
how consumers frame a product.
(ex. Swatch > no longer in category Swiss Watches, but in Fashion Accessories).
Recommended for Packaged Goods companies.
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Stealth Positioning. This variant gradually interests
consumers for a new offering, by hiding the product's true nature. For example
Sony's AIBO robot was positioned as a lovable pet. This shifted consumer's
attention away from its major limitations as a household aide. It apparently
even turned elderly people into early technology adopters. Recommended for:
Technology companies.
Book: Jack Trout
and Al Ries - Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind -
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Compare with Positioning: Marketing
Mix | Extended Marketing
Mix (7-Ps) | Product/Market
Grid | Co-Creation
| Porter Competitive
Advantage | BCG Matrix
| Product Life Cycle
| McKinsey Matrix |
Innovation Adoption
Curve | Profit Pools
| Four
Trajectories of Industry Change |
Disruptive Innovation
| Framing
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