Before moving towards the different types of product positioning and its strategies, it is important to know the product positioning definition? Product positioning can be defined as the position or place a product resides in the consumer’s mind with respect to the competing product.
It is a process used by marketers to determine the best possible way to promote the product attributes to the target market according to the customer needs and wants, competitive structures and advertising media. The survival of the product in the market requires a sustainable competitive advantage and a unique selling proposition.
Creating an identification of the product in the market is simply called product positioning. Below are the various types of product positioning strategies.
Product Positioning Strategies
The tried and tested Product Positioning Strategies are listed below. As an entrepreneur and a business student, you must well familiar with all of them.
- Competition Strategies
- Reducing Competition Strategies
- Product benefits strategies
- Product Attributes strategies
- Product Categories
- Usage Occasions Approach
- Pricing Approach
- Users Approach
The manufactures to design and choose the Product Positioning Strategies according to the manufactured products and the unique features of that product. Choosing the right strategy for the product is crucial for brand success.
- Competition Strategies
These Product Positioning Strategies require a unique or superior product attribute in regard to a competing product. Positioning a Product against the Competitors product requires a claim of superiority. A very good example to understand this concept is of Avis Rental Cars. The superiority claim was, “We are number two. We try harder”
- Reducing Competition Strategies
This concept of Product Positioning Strategies can help to differentiate a product in the dominant market of an already well-established brand.
- Product Benefits Strategies
In these Product Positioning Strategies, the company focuses on defining and communicating the product benefit, unique features that the product offers to the targeted customers. In this strategy, the companies emphasize on the various product benefits. The product features include durability, availability, economy or reliability can be illustrated in this type of product positioning.
- Product Attributes Strategies
Positioning a product based upon a specific attribute can also be compelling to the targeted audience.
- Product Categories
Positioning your product by differentiating it from other products based upon a category is a very effective way to resonate with the key message in the targeted audience. A product can be positioned along with two or more characteristics at the same time.
- Usage Occasions Approach
This concept is used when marketers positioned there product based upon the usage situation of the product by the tarred audience. These types of Product Positioning Strategies are done intentionally to expand the market for a particular brand. Introducing new and different uses of the same product will automatically expand the horizons for the product, increase the market share and will lead to more sales.
- Pricing Approach
Using the price and quality approach to position a product can ensure easy sales of a product. In this concept, the marketers play with human perception and the thinking of associating quality with price. The customer often perceives that there is direct relation in quality and price i.e. the higher the price the greater the quality of the product. The Marketers use this Price – quality approach to positioning the products and can easily charge higher margins of profits.
- Users Approach
Another interesting form of a product positioning strategy is to focus on the specific characteristics of the users of the product. In this case, the makers of a specific brand use a personality or a model to effectively influencing the product image in the minds of the consumer. This type of positioning resulted in an increased market share.
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Attributes
Companies can position the product based upon its attributes. Some of the product attributes are mentioned below:
- accessibility
- durability
- reliability
- reparability
- Good quality
- The lowest price
- Highest-end luxury
- Exclusivity
- Comfort
- Design
- Ease
- Affordability
Effective positioning defines how strongly the key message resonates with the customers and what compelling posting it holds in the mind of the consumer. The stronger the Product Positioning will ensure the effectiveness of the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) strategy.
The Brand Repute is strongly influenced by the effective product positioning consumers’ minds. A well-positioned product has the tendency to accommodate the consumer needs, offers to differentiate features to its users in regard to its competitors.
What does Target Market think about a Product?
Product positioning answers the question “what comes to mind when your target market thinks about the manufactured product in comparison with the competing product?”
The most crucial ingredient in the overall Marketing plan ineffective product Positioning. Creating and influencing the market perception about the Brand is of utmost importance. Concise, Meaningful and Clear Product Positioning helps you to beat the competition, winning the Loyal Customers and generate Brand equity.
Objectives and Goals
Effective product positioning must achieve the following objectives.
- Differentiate the Manufactured from the competing products
- Identifying Customer Buying Preference
- Define and articulate key product attributes
The objectives must fulfill the following criteria:
- Purposeful and should convey the Primary message
- Meaningful and should attracts the targeted audience
- Have the capability to differentiate the strengths of the product against the competitors
- Should be enough significant for a large targeted audience
- Should resonate with the customers
- Should be believable for the targeted audience
- Should be clearly substantiated your claims
Hello everyone! This is Richard Daniels, a full-time passionate researcher & blogger. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics. He loves to write about economics, e-commerce, and business-related topics for students to assist them in their studies. That's the sole purpose of Business Study Notes.
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