IQLogo - Positioning

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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:

functional positions

solve problems

provide benefits to customers

symbolic positions

self-image enhancement

ego identification

belongingness and social meaningfullness

affective fulfillment

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:

identifying competing products
identifying the attributes (also called dimensions) that define the product 'space'
collecting information from a sample of customers about their perceptions of each product on the relevant attributes
determine each products' share of mind
determine each products' current location in the product space
determine the target market's preferred combination of attributes (referred to as an ideal vector)

the positions of competing products

the position of your product

the position of the ideal vector

select optimum position

The term was coined in 1969 by Jack Trout in his paper: Trout, J., ""Positioning" is a game people play in today’s me-too market place", Industrial Marketing, Vol.54, No.6, (June 1969), pp.51-55.