Marketing : Product Positioning

Al Ries and Jack Trout popularized the concept of positioning in their book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. According to them positioning is what a marketer does to mind of the consumer and not to the product itself. Marketers communicate the changes through price, name or package and not the product actually.

According to Philip Kotler "product positioning is the way product is defined by the consumers on important attributes - the place the product occupies in consumers mind relative to competing products".

In marketing after segmentation and targeting comes positioning which allows marketers to build the kind of image they want in the mind of target customers of their products by highlighting its attributes they want consumers to remember when they think of the product. Like, Lifebuoy focuses on antibacterial or germs killing attributes of its products be it soap, handwash or hand sanitizer. On the other hand Lux positions its products soaps and bodywashes as beauty products which helps in enhancing beauty with a touch of luxury and glamour.

Thus Lifebuoy and Lux both differentiate themselves clearly even on offering the same product soap.

Product positioning strategy

Positioning Strategy includes the following steps:

1. Identifying the right competitive advantages.
2. Selecting the right competitive advantage.

The right competitive advantage can be chosen on the following bases:

1. Important
2. Distinctive
3. Superior
4. communicable
5. Pre-emptive
6. Affordable
7. Profitable

3. Communicating the right competitive advantage (i.e. positioning) effectively in the mind of  target market.

The marketer needs to identify the position its product holds in the mind of target market in comparison to its competitors. Then needs to effectively communicate the attributes which he is providing which may be superior or differentiated from their competitors to which the target market gives value like lower price, or some extra or special feature which may justify the higher price to its customers so that they feel they are getting full value in buying that product instead of buying competitor's product.

UGC NET June 2012 Management paper III solved

1. Hawthorne Experiment is related to the

(A) Systems theory
(B) Classical theory
(C) Human relations theory
(D) Scientific management theory

Answer C

2. Cost incurred in the past and is not affected by a current decision is referred to as :

(A) Sunk cost
(B) Marginal cost
(C) Incremental cost
(D) Replacement cost

Answer A

3. The principle of organisation that no employee should report to more than one superior is called

(A) Scalar principle
(B) Span of control
(C) Unity of command
(D) Unity of direction

Answer C

4. ‘Rege Committee’ is related to

(A) Working conditions in Indian Industry
(B) Social security in Indian Industry
(C) Individual differences in Indian Industry
(D) None of the above

Answer A

5. The factors affecting to P/E multiple are

(A) Dividend pay-out ratio and required return
(B) Required return and expected growth rate
(C) Dividend pay-out ratio and expected growth rate
(D) Dividend pay-out ratio, required return and expected growth rate

Answer D

6. Which of the following is not one of the benefits of E-Commerce ?

(A) E-Commerce offers greater flexibility in meeting consumer needs.
(B) E-Commerce can help to reduce cost.
(C) E-Commerce increases potential market share.
(D) E-Commerce increases the net cost per contact.

Answer D

7. Which among the following is not concerned with the PERT evolution ?

(A) Polaris Project
(B) Lockhead Aircraft Corporation
(C) Both (A) and (B)
(D) None of the above

Answer C

8. Before a company decides to target a particular market segment, which important factors are to be examined against organization’s objectives and resources ?

(A) Market size
(B) Growth rate
(C) Structural attractiveness
(D) All of the above

Answer D

9. Balance of Payment is

(A) Balance of trade + Net earnings on invisibles
(B) Foreign exchange inflow – Foreign exchange outflow
(C) Balance of current account + Balance of capital account + Statistical discrepancy
(D) Export of goods – Import of goods

Answer C

10. Factors contributing to unethical behaviour are

(A) Poor leadership
(B) Poor internal communication
(C) Lack of management support
(D) All of the above

UGC NET June 2012 Management paper II solved

1. Cardinal measure of utility is required in

(A) Utility Theory
(B) Indifference Curve Analysis
(C) Revealed Preference
(D) Inferior Goods

Answer A

2. A Right-ward shift in Demand Curve indicates

(A) A decrease in supply
(B) An increase in quantity supplied
(C) An increase in supply over the previous year
(D) Law of Variable Proportions

Answer C

3. Which of the following is the condition for equilibrium for Monopolist ?

(A) MR = MC
(B) MC = AR
(C) MR = MC = Price
(D) AC = AR

Answer A

4. Giffen goods are those goods

(A) for which demand increases as price decreases
(B) which are in short supply
(C) which have high elasticity of demand
(D) which gives rise to a Cob-Web situation.

Answer 

5. Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists.

                  List – I                                                        List – II
(Demand Estimation Method)                              (Steps involved)

(a) Customer Interview Method                             1. Consumers Interview
(b) Market Experiment Method                             2. Time series or Cross Section Data
(c) Regression Method                                           3. Market Stimulation
(d) Demand Forecasts                                            4. Market Experiments’ Survey

Codes :
     (a)      (b)      (c)      (d)
(A) 1         3        4         2
(B) 1         3        2         4
(C) 2         4        3         1
(D) 4         2        1         3

Answer B

6. Who divided all activities of the organisations into six groups ; Technical, Commercial, Financial, Security, Accounting and Managerial ?

(A) Peter Drucker
(B) D. E. Mc Forland
(C) Henry Fayol
(D) George R. Terry

Answer C

7. What are the elements that a Mission Statement of an Organisation should include ?

(A) Self guidelines for Business Operations
(B) Identifies the reasons for existence of a company and its responsibilities to the stakeholders.
(C) Identifies the firms’ customers and their needs and matches them to the products and services.
(D) All of the above (A), (B) and (C).

Answer B

8. Changes in population characteristics such as age, gender, race, marital status, income and education are examples of change :

(A) Demographic
(B) Cultural
(C) Geographic
(D) Diversity

Answer A

9. Which of the following is not included as Micro-Environmental Variables ?

(A) Prevailing economic and political conditions.
(B) Emerging new technologies
(C) Financial conditions and culture
(D) None of the above

Answer D

10. During his days at Midvale Steel Company F.W. Taylor saw that employees soldiering – deliberately working at a pace slower than their capabilities. He identified that, worker indulge in soldiering primarily for the following reasons :

(A) Fear of losing jobs if they increase their output.
(B) Faulty wage systems.
(C) Out-dated methods of working
(D) All of the above

UGC NET June 2012 Management paper I solved

1. Video-Conferencing can be classified as one of the following types of communication :

(A) Visual one way
(B) Audio-Visual one way
(C) Audio-Visual two way
(D) Visual two way

Answer C

2. MC National University of Journalism and Communication is located at

(A) Lucknow
(B) Bhopal
(C) Chennai
(D) Mumbai

Answer B

3. All India Radio (A.I.R.) for broadcasting was named in the year

(A) 1926
(B) 1936
(C) 1946
(D) 1956

Answer B

4. In India for broadcasting TV programmes which system is followed ?

(A) NTCS
(B) PAL
(C) NTSE
(D) SECAM

Answer B

5. The term ‘DAVP’ stands for

(A) Directorate of Advertising & Vocal Publicity
(B) Division of Audio-Visual Publicity
(C) Department of Audio-Visual Publicity
(D) Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity

Answer D

6. The term “TRP” is associated with TV shows stands for

(A) Total Rating Points
(B) Time Rating Points
(C) Thematic Rating Points
(D) Television Rating Points

Answer A

7. Which is the number that comes next in the following sequence ? 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, 42, 56, _____

(A) 60
(B) 64
(C) 72
(D) 70

Answer C

8. Find the next letter for the series YVSP ………

(A) N
(B) M
(C) O
(D) L

Answer B

9. Given that in a code language, ‘645’ means ‘day is warm’; ‘42’ means ‘warm spring’ and ‘634’ means ‘spring is sunny’; which digit represents ‘sunny’ ?

(A) 3
(B) 2
(C) 4
(D) 5

Answer A

10. The basis of the following classification is : ‘first President of India’ ‘author of Godan’ ‘books in my library’, ‘blue things’ and ‘students who work hard’

(A) Common names
(B) Proper names
(C) Descriptive phrases
(D) Indefinite description

UGC NET December 2012 Management paper III solved

1. Which of the following is not one of the important objectives of Financial Management ?

(A) Profit maximisation
(B) Wealth maximisation
(C) Value maximisation
(D) Social responsibility

Answer D

2. For ‘make or buy decision’, which cost is to be considered ?

(A) Marginal cost
(B) Total cost
(C) Fixed cost
(D) None of the above

Answer A

3. Which is the method applied for measuring GNP ?

(A) Income method
(B) Expenditure method
(C) Value Added method
(D) All of the above

Answer D

4. Which of the following project appraisal method is not based on time value of money ?

(A) Payback method
(B) Net present value method
(C) Internal rate of return method
(D) Discounted payback method

Answer A

5. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 is related to

(A) Industrial Policy
(B) Investment Limit
(C) Business Opportunities
(D) None of these

Answer B

6. Selection is the process in which candidates for employment are divided into two classes – those who are to be offered employment and those who are not.” This is stated by

(A) Dale Yoder
(B) Milton M. Mandell
(C) R.D. Agarwal
(D) Edwin Flippo

Answer A

7. Who defines advertising as “any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor ?

(A) Philip Kotler
(B) C.K. Prahlad
(C) Chartered Institute of Marketing
(D) American Marketing Association

Answer D

8. The exchange rate between the currencies of two countries will be equal to the ratio of the price indices in these countries is explained by

(A) Inflation adjustment
(B) Purchase power parity
(C) Interest rate parity
(D) Transaction exposure

Answer B

9. The ultimate mission or purpose is to relate human resources to future enterprise needs, so as to maximize the future return on investment in human resources. It is referred as

(A) Demand and Supply
(B) Forecasting
(C) Human Resource Planning
(D) Human Resource Development

Answer C

10. Other things being equal an increase in income leads to a decrease in demand for

(A) Superior Goods
(B) Inferior Goods
(C) Both (A) and (B)
(D) None of the above

UGC NET December 2012 Management paper II solved

1. The term Opportunity Cost refers to

(A) Variable Cost
(B) Short-run cost
(C) The cost forgone in favour of production of another product
(D) Cost related to an optimum level of production

Answer C

2. If two commodities are complementary, then a rise in the price of one commodity will induce

(A) A rise in the price of the other commodity
(B) An upward shift of demand curve
(C) No shift in demand for the other commodity
(D) A backward shift in demand for the other commodity

Answer D

3. What is the characteristic of a purely competitive market ?

(A) Large number of buyers and sellers
(B) A few sellers
(C) A few buyers
(D) Abnormal profit

Answer A

4. Willingness to pay minus actual payment is called

(A) Consumer’s surplus
(B) Producer’s surplus
(C) Utility cost
(D) Supplier’s surplus

Answer A

5. Match List – I with List – II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists :

                 List – I                                                                      List – II

a. Cost Function                                                         1. Kinky Demand Curve
b. Supply Function                                                     2. Isoquants
c. Production Function                                               3. Engineering Method
d. Oligopoly                                                               4. Factor Prices

Codes :

       a      b      c      d
(A) 3      4       2      1
(B) 4      3       1      2
(C) 3      2       1      4
(D) 1      2       3      4

Answer A

6. When analysing your business and its environment, it is useful to carefully inspect

(A) Threats
(B) Opportunities
(C) Strengths and weaknesses
(D) All of the above

Answer D

7. Which of the following is an example of an external threat ?

(A) Decreased competition
(B) New Trade Regulations
(C) Global Sales Potential
(D) Economies of Scale

Answer B

8. Expectancy Theory of Motivation was propounded by

(A) Porter and Lawler
(B) McGregor
(C) Vroom
(D) J. Stacy Adams

Answer C

9. Which one of the following is not a step in planning ?

(A) Establishing objectives
(B) Developing premises
(C) Determining alternative courses
(D) Identifying needs of employees

Answer D

10. Planning is looking ahead and control is

(A) Scanning environment
(B) Looking back
(C) Setting targets
(D) Defining objectives

UGC NET December 2012 Management paper I solved

1. The English word ‘Communication’ is derived from the words

(A) Communis and Communicare
(B) Communist and Commune
(C) Communism and Communalism
(D) Communion and Common sense

Answer A

2. Chinese Cultural Revolution leader Mao Zedong used a type of communication to talk to the masses is known as

(A) Mass line communication
(B) Group communication
(C) Participatory communication
(D) Dialogue communication

Answer A

3. Conversing with the spirits and ancestors is termed as

(A) Transpersonal communication
(B) Intrapersonal communication
(C) Interpersonal communication
(D) Face-to-face communication

Answer A

4. The largest circulated daily newspaper among the following is

(A) The Times of India
(B) The Indian Express
(C) The Hindu
(D) The Deccan Herald

Answer A

5. The pioneer of the silent feature film in India was

(A) K.A. Abbas
(B) Satyajit Ray
(C) B.R. Chopra
(D) Dada Sahib Phalke

Answer D

6. Classroom communication of a teacher rests on the principle of

(A) Infotainment
(B) Edutainment
(C) Entertainment
(D) Power equation

Answer B

7. The missing number in the series : 0, 6, 24, 60, 120, ?, 336, is

(A) 240
(B) 220
(C) 280
(D) 210

Answer D

8. A group of 7 members having a majority of boys is to be formed out of 6 boys and 4 girls. The number of ways the group can be formed is

(A) 80
(B) 100
(C) 90
(D) 110

Answer B

9. The number of observations in a group is 40. The average of the first 10 members is 4.5 and the average of the remaining 30 members is 3.5. The average of the whole group is

(A) 4
(B) 15/2
(C) 15/4
(D) 6

Answer C

10. If MOHAN is represented by the code KMFYL, then COUNT will be represented by

(A) AMSLR
(B) MSLAR
(C) MASRL
(D) SAMLR

UGC NET September 2013 Management paper III solved

1. The elasticity of demand is greater than unity, when

(A) Percentage change in demand is equal to the percentage change in price.
(B) Percentage change in demand is more than the percentage change in price.
(C) Percentage change in demand is less than the percentage change in price.
(D) There is change in price.

Answer B

2. GDP includes which of the following measures ?

(A) The size of a population that must share a given output within one year.
(B) The negative externalities of the production process of a nation within one year.
(C) The total monetary value of all final goods and services produced within a nation within one year.
(D) The total monetary value of goods and services including barter transactions within a nation in one year.

Answer C

3. If the equation y = 5 + 0.6x was graphed, the

(A) Slope would be – 5
(B) Vertical intercept would be + 0.6
(C) Slope would be + 5
(D) Slope would be + 0.6

Answer D

4. Match the following :

                 List – I                                                                  List – II

(a) The producers will offer more of a                               (i) Market in equilibrium
product at a higher price.
(b) The quantum that producers want to                            (ii) Law of supply
sell is equal to the quantum that consumers
want to buy.
(c) The sensitivity of consumers to price changes.           (iii) Co-efficient of price elasticity of                                                                                                               demand.
(d) Percentage change in quantity demanded to               (iv) Price elasticity of demand
percentage change in price.

Codes :

      (a)      (b)      (c)      (d)
(A) (ii)      (i)     (iii)      (iv)
(B) (iv)     (i)      (ii)      (iii)
(C) (ii)     (iv)    (iii)       (i)
(D) (ii)      (i)     (iv)      (iii)

Answer A

5. Statement I : The slope of an indifference curve is the Marginal Rate of Substitution in the consumption (MRSc), which is increasing.
Statement II : The slope of the budget line is ratio of the prices of two goods and is the Marginal Rate of Substitution in exchange (MRSe)

(A) Statement I and II are correct.
(B) Statement I is correct, but II is incorrect.
(C) Statements I and II are incorrect.
(D) Statement I is not correct, but II is correct.

Answer D

6. Forming a fixed opinion or attitude towards a single person or object is termed as

(A) Perceptual defense
(B) Stereo typing
(C) The Halo effect
(D) The perceptual set

Answer C

7. Which of the following best describes the theory X ?

(A) People are committed to their responsibilities.
(B) Motivation is a result of rational behaviour towards attaining goals.
(C) The perceived relationship between a given level of efforts and an expected performance.
(D) None of the above.

Answer D

8. Hawthorne experiments were conduced at

(A) Hawthorne Electric Company
(B) Western Electric Company
(C) General Electric Company
(D) Eastern Electric Company

Answer B

9. Match the following :

            OD Interventions                                                               Proposed by
            Grouping Term

a. OD Cube                                                                                 1. French and Bell
b. Consul cube                                                                            2. Freneh and Bell
c. Intervention families                                                               3. Blake and Mouton
d. Four quadrants                                                                        4. Schmuck and Miles

Codes :

       a      b      c      d
(A) 4      3      2      1
(B) 3      4      2      1
(C) 2      1      3      4
(D) 1      2      4      3

Answer A

10. Match the following :

a. Stability                                    1. Number of subordinates that report to one supervisor.
b. Strategy                                    2. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
c. Synergy                                    3. Plans for the allocation of firm’s scarce resources to reach                                                                      identified goals in time.
d. Span of control                        4. Employees should not be moved frequently from one job to                                                                    another
Codes :

       a      b      c      d
(A) 4      3      2      1
(B) 3      4      1      2
(C) 2      3      4      1
(D) 1      2      3      4