Discuss the concept of market positioning.
Once the market segment is identified by the company to be targeted, it needs to be positioned in the mind of the prospective customer. Positioning is creating an identity in the minds of the target market. Positioning as a concept, in marketing was popularised by advertising professionals Al Ries and Jack Trout through their bestseller book “Positioning – a battle for your mind”. This concept was first published in 1969 by Jack Trout in the paper ‘Positioning is a game people play in today’s me-too market place’ in Industrial Marketing.
Al Ries and Jack Trout said that ‘Positioning starts with a product. A piece of merchandise, a service, a company, an institution or even a person…………… But positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect.’
Positioning is all about how does the customer perceive your product? For example, when Tata launched their first car – Indica, their tagline was ‘More car, per car’ and Tata Motors tried to give more value to the consumers through lower price, more space, more features and more comfort. Following this tradition they launched Tata Indigo and then through a modifications, Tata Indigo CS, the cheapest sedan in the world.
Going further, they launched Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world. Again they came up with Tata Indigo Manza with all the creature comforts in C segment at a price, which is too competitive to be true.
Now they have launched Bolt and Zest to compete with the cars in the hatchback segment like Swift, Grand i10, Sail, Brio to sedans like Swift Dzire, Mahindra Logan, Ford Fiesta, Fiat Linea and Honda Amaze, which costs between Rs. 4.6 Lacs to Rs. 8 Lacs. Similarly Maruti Suzuki says ‘Count on Us’. And millions of customers are counting on Maruti Suzuki by buying different cars from the Maruti stable.
The success of the positioning strategy lies in making one or two characteristics of the product or service stand out in the minds of the consumers. Positioning also takes the form of taglines or slogans that gets attached in the minds of the consumers. Amul’s ‘Utterly, Butterly Delicious’, Nokia’s ‘Connecting People’, Nike’s ‘Just do it’, LG’s ‘Life is good’, Aaj Tak’s ‘Sabse Tej’, ICICI Prudential’s ‘Jeetey Raho’ are few of the popular taglines that is engraved in the consumers mind.
Fevicol has been very successful in positioning the brand through its engaging television commercials (TVC); whereas the character zoozoo has become a rage in India through its Vodafone TVCs. Thus, Positioning helps in differentiating the products from the competition and also leads to top of the mind recall.
