Product Positioning Strategy: An Comprehensive Guide (2021)

Introduction

Visibility of products to the customer is crucial for sales. Salespeople arrange the products for customers to view and choose from the shelf counters. Marketing professionals conduct a lot of research and surveys before the product is shipped for sales. The surveys and researches aid the marketing team to decide on their target audience. The sections of people who respond positively to the product are considered as the target audience. While selling, marketing professionals focus on how to position a product to the target audience. Knowing the target audience who can be potential customers, the sales team designs the marketing strategy. Read on to know more about product positioning strategy.

1. Product Positioning Definition 
2. Product Positioning Strategy
3. Types of positioning Strategies
4. Product Positioning Examples
5. Product positioning for Small Enterprises

1. Product Positioning Definition 

So, how do we define product positioning?

Product positioning is a plan on how the product will be perceived by the consumers. The consumer’s perception of the product decides the product positioning. If the consumer does not place the product in position then it does not have any significance in the market. 

The product positioning definition is a marketing strategy of showcasing the advantages of the product to the target audience. The customer responses during surveys determine the appealing features of the product. The marketing strategy focuses on these features of the product. Product positioning is a crucial part of the market positioning strategy in the sales plan.

2. Product Positioning Strategy

The product positioning strategy decides on the path to be traversed for moving product in consumer’s perception. Before designing the strategy the marketing team takes into account of 

1. The position of the product today.
2. The position the product needs to be in the future.

The product position strategy is what gets the product from 1 to 2.

The product positioning strategy for product positioning begins even before product development in the product life cycle. In case the product is already in the market then by understanding the consumer response necessary changes are done to catch the customer’s eye.

Arranging of products for visibility is done as per product positioning strategy. Taking shelf space is competitive with multiple brands vying for the attention of the customers. Marketing professionals are trying to find different types of strategies to showcase their products. In-store marketing makes decisions on the product positioning process to display products to customers. 

3. Types of positioning Strategies

The brands adapt different product positioning strategies to make their product stand out from their competitors. So, what is a product positioning strategy? It is the strategy defined by the marketing team to showcase its product with the right message for their audience. How to position a product is a process of making good sales. The three traditional types of positioning strategies commonly followed are:

A) Comparative

The number of brands is placed next to each other. A positioning strategy example for this is placing a value brand product next to an expensive brand product. The value brand will have a label ‘Compare with X’ to catch the customer’s eye. This way value brand is making a statement that products are similar and the value brand is offering at a better price. 

B) Differentiation

The brands here focus on their unique feature which makes them stand out from the rest. A good example is Barilla’s Pronto pasta. With so many pasta brands fighting for space in the shopping aisle, Barilla’s Pronto stands out. The selling point is that the pasta does not need draining. This is a focal selling point to customers.

C) Segmentation

When the product has multiple target audience groups, the positioning strategy differs from one group to another. A good product positioning strategy example is a pain relief spray. They can be made available on the shopping aisle with big and small-sized sprays. Here they are focusing on two target audiences. One section needs the spray more often than others. 

The brands try hard to get prime shelf locations to implement the above-mentioned strategies. Packaging can draw the attention of consumers to an extent. Mobile marketing will provide opportunities to highlight the differences in products. 

Mobile marketing combined with the above three traditional types of product positioning strategies will gain the attention of customers. 

D) Rewards/Incentives for Comparative Positioning

Certain brand houses do not believe in offering discounts on their products. The brand houses go for rewards which are providing value without reducing the prices. Customers consider reward points to have a higher value than the discount amount. Mobile applications provide customers to receive rewards on a scan of receipts. This aids in brand products to stand out in competition with value products.

E) Creating awareness about the unique feature of the product

The positioning in marketing example Barilla Pasta shows how mobile applications created a brand name for the product. Barilla Pasta joined hands with an online platform to create a customer base. The mobile video showcasing the uniqueness of Pasta to use without draining went on the platform. The consumers were offered reward points for watching the video. This incentive of reward points made consumers aware while shopping. Around 50% of viewers purchased the product. 

F) Data-Driven Personalization

The mobile application creates an opportunity to attract consumers in a particular location. The applications work off GPS to push notifications to customers in the area.

4. Product Positioning Examples

The marketing plan designs various ways to position a product for sale. Few commonly used product positioning in marketing are:

• Advertising: One of the most common ways is through advertising. The products are advertised in terms of TV, Radio, or a big banner display to catch the eye of the customer.

• Attractive packaging: The appealing package of the products always attracts customers to spend a few seconds in the aisle. 

• Pricing: Pricing gets customer attention when displayed in bold and big letters.

5. Product positioning for Small Enterprises

The big organizations have a huge marketing budget to conduct market surveys and research. Small enterprises lack the time and budget to gather customer responses. So, small enterprises rely on the network. The information gathered by the customers on the purchase will be the base for the product positioning strategy for the future. Small enterprises rely on collected actual customer data which is far better considered to responses from a particular group of audience. 

Conclusion

Today, traditional positioning strategies are finding a significant boost with mobile marketing. The reward points through mobile applications, GPS based alerts to customers; engaging customers with video content are creating brand awareness and creating a consumer base for the product. This awareness is created even before consumers see the product on the shelf. This brand awareness of the products helps customers to decide on purchases with confidence. The main goal of product positioning is to boost sales by increasing visibility by creating brand awareness amongst the target audience.

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