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Strategic value of marketing
Market positioning starts by defining what is the product or service that is being offered. This requires an understanding of the underlying technology, its applications and benefits to the customer. Once this core capability is well understood, marketers can start to think about a value proposition.
This value proposition exercise is necessary to align the organization on basic questions that should be answered before an attempt to position the product/service is made. Once these things are known, you can start to think about positioning.
Positioning is an interesting concept in that it does not have clearly defined boundaries. However, it may include any of the following:
This value proposition exercise is necessary to align the organization on basic questions that should be answered before an attempt to position the product/service is made. Once these things are known, you can start to think about positioning.
Positioning is an interesting concept in that it does not have clearly defined boundaries. However, it may include any of the following:
- What price is set for the offering will define how it is perceived relative to other offerings.
- What is the messaging that will be used to position the offering?
- What is the branding that will be utilized for the visual components of the offering?
- Where will the offering be activated and in what “light”?
- How will the sales professionals be trained and what will they be told about the offering?
- What investments will be made to position the offering in the marketplace?
- The amount of investments and attention a product receives affects how it is positioned and conversely received in the marketplace.
Hence, positioning tends to be a bit of an art that often makes it a moving target. However, market positioning is very important to the success of each offering. A small launch is different from a large launch just as a small component improvement is different from a large component or system redesign. You want to make a big deal about things that are big deals. Time and people necessary to support market positioning and launches are often in finite quantities and decisions should be made about what warrants the level of time and effort that will provide substantial gains to organizations.
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What is a value proposition
