Market positioning is a very important part of any marketing strategy. It refers to a process of building an image or the identity of a brand. Proper product positioning requires a sound understanding of consumer requirements, especially in a market like India. Working with different brands over the years, we felt the need to create the ultimate guide for market positioning in India - with types of positioning, advantages & examples.
Who is it for?
This guide aims to help decision makers and marketers in selecting the right customer channel and ensure that the right message reaches the customer. Product positioning therefore, also helps the marketers to take into consideration how their contributions are different from that of others that consumers must choose from.
Types of Market Positioning
1. Pricing: This is the most common type of market positioning. The organization with the lowest product prices and a reasonable level of quality usually achieves success in different product areas.
2. Differentiation: If the product or service offered by you is different from that of your competitors then it will certainly set you apart from your rivals. Differentiation is the key, always! The customer should be able to identify the difference between your product from other competitors.
3. Convenience: Consumers always look for products and services that make their life easy. This includes location, usability, and terms. The best example of this type of market positioning is e-commerce. Any e-commerce website today offers many advantages such as getting more variety, convenient mode of ordering and a sound returns policy all at affordable prices.
4. Brand recognition: To give your brand a unique identity in a crowded market, you need to make use of the visual element – the visual branding. The most common types of visual branding are shapes, symbol, colours, logo, typography, and much more.
5. The problem solver: There are some brands that focus more on positioning their products and offer a ready solution to any problem. They usually tend to focus on problems faced by the consumers in their communication and other marketing strategies.
Product positioning: Advantages
Product positioning offers those advantages that drive the attention of the consumers. Advertising is the best example of product positioning. It is a medium that helps in driving the attention and interest of the consumers.
A new product can be introduced in the market by an organization through product positioning.
Companies can create goodwill and can also win the loyalty of customers by systematic product positioning. It also helps in popularizing the brand in general.
Product positioning proves the superiority of an organization’s offer over its competitors. It will also help consumers in selecting the right product. Whenever a company changes its quality or features of the existing products, then such improvements can be positioned against the products offered by its competitors.
A product or the brand which is perfectly positioned and has many advantages against its competitors will drive the attention of the consumers and then they will see a lot of value. They will also become less sensitive to competitive sales promotions and prices.
Successful market positioning examples
In our view, two companies stand out as market position successes globally:Tesla & Chipotle.
The electric car maker Tesla introduced their luxury sports car Tesla model S and entered the electric vehicle marketplace. Tesla decided not to compete with other companies on several fronts and completely focused on the high-end market.
When Chipotle entered the market, they focused more on the quality instead of the price. Their soda cups had printed jokes on it. Earlier Taco Bell held the largest market share for fast food Mexican restaurants before Chipotle made its entry. The consumers looked to Taco Bell for Mexican food. Then the consumers started focusing on the brand Chipotle. The idea of Chipotle was to build the identity of the brand.
Market positioning thus requires a lot of research, introspection, and reflection. It is all about formulating competitive positioning for a product and a comprehensive marketing mix. At Good Relations India (GRI), we have helped brands enter the Indian market since 1988. The perfect example is that of technology company Apple where GRI used effective communication tools to increase the market share of Apple via strategic market positioning. This helped Apple become one of the most preferred technology brands in India.
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