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.