Tips for Effective Market Positioning
Positioning strategy makes possible to occupy the target customer’s minds with a positive impact and it can create a suitable image to the products or services and helps in maximizing reputation and brand image. Marketers may emphasize the features of the product or brand to the customers by giving answers to the questions such as what product is it? What are the benefits associated with this product? How it creates value? What features make it unique and different from that of competitor’s products?
Strategic formulation and implementation can create a positive memorable impact in the minds of the customers and product awareness in the target markets and maximizes brand image. Nowadays almost all the organizations are practicing various positioning strategies through advertisements and promotions, so applying a unique positioning strategy can give better results.
While framing positioning strategies marketers should take various factors into consideration because humans have a tendency to discard all the unnecessary information from their minds and they will try to engage with something new, innovative, and beneficial, etc. These factors may involve product characteristic and features such as product’s price, quality, durability, reliability, color, flavor, and repairability, etc can help in reframing the position of a particular brand in the minds of the customers.
Positioning process
Customers can decide the existence or elimination of a product or a brand from the markets. Customer’s willingness to buy and ability to pay decides the purchase of a product or service of a particular brand. The decisions during the purchase of a particular product completely depend on the perception levels of the buyers, so the marketers should give clarity about the value created by the product. Market positioning can create a successful path to reach the market leader position with very fewer efforts. Consistency in quality, performance, and clarity about the value created by the product can make the customers loyal towards the brand and it brings competitive advantage. Knowing the positioning process can help in the proper implementation of strategic thinking.
Identify the target customers
It is impossible to concentrate on entire people of the world to give advertisements and create product awareness. Identifying the group of people having similar needs and preferences or having similar demographic characteristics can make the process easy and simple, so the marketers should put their efforts to create a positive memorable impact in the minds of the target customers.
Knowledge about the product features
Before promoting a product or a service successfully, marketers should know about the product features and its value proposition in order to create a proper impact in the minds of the customers. Product knowledge helps in innovative thinking and developing a unique positioning strategy.
Competitor analysis
If the product is enjoying the benefits of monopoly then there is no need to put extra efforts to occupy the market leader position. After globalization and with the introduction of innovative and technologically advanced products into the market there arises a need for competitor analysis and developing strategies to counter attack them. To make possible, companies are trying to develop products with more advanced features, so the companies should highlight the benefits and value created by the product to the customer’s money.
Brand promotion
A brand is a promise to deliver the better products to the customers and it can act as an introducer to various product lines. Company’s vision, mission, product’s name logo, tagline, design, watermark, price, quality, graphical elements, colors, advertisement strategy, etc differentiate a product or service and creates demand for that particular product. It maximizes the brand image and helps in occupying a specific position in the minds of the customers.
Tips for effective market positioning
- Companies must know the changing needs tastes and preferences of the target customers.
- Maintaining consistency helps in maximizing brand loyalty.
- Price is one of the key factors which highly influence the customers to take buying decisions.
- Using different pricing strategies for different product lines can give additional benefits in gaining competitive advantage.
- Many researchers recommended that not to reduce prices much.
- Drastic price reductions can create a negative impact in the minds of the customers about the product quality.
- Strategic promotional activities can decide the place of the product in the market.
- Unique advertisement efforts like guerrilla marketing can create a memorable impact in the minds of the customers.
- Proper identification of target markets greatly reduces the efforts and cost of advertisements and helps in effective positioning.
- Innovative and technologically advanced features of the product can automatically create a distinguished place in the minds of the customers.
- Product’s name, logo, tagline, color, features, flavors, design, watermark, graphical representations, additional features with new innovations helps in the maximizing brand image.
- Competitor analysis can help in producing better products and providing benefits to the customers which in turn it creates a positive impact.
