What is a positioning strategy?
Product positioning involves tailoring an entire marketing programincluding product attributes, image, and price, as well as packaging, distribution, and serviceto best meet the needs of consumers within a particular market segment. In this way, product positioning is part of the overall process of market segmentation, but involves a narrowing of focus. “Segmentation analysis tells us how the market is defined and allows us to target one or more opportunities,” Glen L. Urban and Steven H. Star wrote in their book Advanced Marketing Strategy. “Product positioning takes place within a target market segment and tells us how we can compete most effectively in that market segment.” The key to product positioning is understanding the dimensions consumers use to evaluate competing marketing programs and make purchase decisions. It may be helpful for small business managers to create a graph in order to map consumer perceptions along several different dimensions. Once consumer perceptions are