Positioning Essay

Due to the globalization of the economy, there has been great competition in the business sector. The basic human desire to challenge new limits and capture as much market as it is possible has given a new dimension to the concept of marketing - brand positioning. To position a brand requires making choices; whereas having a position means people will prefer a brand over another. A brand can be positioned in several ways: offering a specific benefit, targeting a specific segment, price or distribution. Despite the fact that positioning is considered by both academics and practitioners to be one of the key elements of modern marketing management, it is surprising to uncover general paucity of consumers/customers derived studies regarding

Positioning refers to how an organization communicates the benefits of their products and services to potential customers. Positioning a product involves research, development, design, branding and advertising. NHL being a niche sport, it is currently considered as a second rate sports league behind the NFL and NBA. It has a very passionate fan base, but it is relatively small when compared to the other sports. The lack of interest and fan following is attributed to the absence of knowledge and the failure to understand the unique features that NHL offers that are absent in other sports.

By market segmentation companies attain various benefits, such as, opportunities for growth, more effective promotion, possibly higher share of the markets, and better matching of customer needs (Armstrong and Kotler,

Market positioning is “a ranking of a brand, product, or company in terms of its sales volume relative to the sales volume of its competitors in the same market or industry.” (BusinessDictionary.com)

• Market Segmenting- is known for targeting potential customers that are the best matches for services and products. This type of tool is important to businesses because it involves finding the different needs that exist with consumers. For example, some consumers prefer a fast paced environment while others are concerned with the space.

Product positioning is very hard for the firm. There is a tight price competition due to the existence of strong players in the industry. Also in the existence of these big and strong competitors, substitution is also high because each of these players offer a wide variety of products that present consumers different level of satisfaction.

Developments of a more appealing offer for each segment so that the customers are more likely to be delighted or at least satisfied. Positioning is the process of placing the product in a clear distinctive and desirable place in the mind of the competitors in order to gain an upper edge.

In order to market the product into the market successfully, marketers need to have some marketing strategy to enter the desired market and make profit. Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into subsets of consumers with common needs or characteristics (Schiffman et al., 2011). Understanding the market size and segmentation is valuable, but the keys to effective targeting is to know just how valuable specific consumer groups are, and being able to quantify the impact of consumer trends ( Berry, 1999).

1. Think about the basis of competition: competitive positioning may be based on (a) attributes or benefit, (b) use or application, (c) product or brand user, (d) product or service class, (e) competitors, and (f) price and quality. 2. Write its positioning statement

For perfect product positioning it is first required to identify the primary values of the brand and match it with the localised area. The brand's vision and mission is specified and accordingly positioning is to be done. Next step for correct positioning is to determine the competitors. Since Indian markets carries large potential the brand have to face many competitors like Zara, Levis, etc. Complete analysis of all the competitors including their values, vision, mission, offerings, market growth and reputation etc. is to be done. After evaluation the brand needs to plan strategies that would make it different from the other competitors while maintaining the culture and values (Boone and Kurtz, 2013). This may include providing different quality and styled products. The last step is to convey the brand's message and values to the customers so that the brand is able to gain public

There has never been a time where product or service marketing is geared to target a specific segment or niche than today. This is a period in history where the most successful companies are those that have identified a specific group of people in the marketplace and designed their products and services to satisfy their particular needs and tastes.

For Subway Sandwiches, the global leader in franchised subway sandwich shops, the segmentation criterion that affects target market selection varies significantly within each community, city and metropolitan area chosen for expansion. At their most fundamental level, segmentation strategies at Subway are based on a broad base of assumptions with regard to socio-economic and demographic factors including age, income, mix of genders in a given region, ethnic composition of a community, vehicle ownership versus mass transit use, and media habit including social media use. All of these factors are included in the foundational elements of the Subway Sandwich market planning, marketing strategy and store planning. Additional factors that segmentation strategies are often based on are discussed in this analysis.

Subway Sandwich, as presented in the Case Study presented in the Marketing Management MGT 551 class, is an undisputed market leader in a segment that is “firmly established as a nationwide food item for which there is plenty of room in all areas” (University of Phoenix, 2008). However, with a growing competition, changing consumer trends and increased product specialization, Subway’s real strategic marketing challenge is to be able to develop and maintain a differential advantage while sustaining sales growths and profitability.

In the book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, two authors, Ries and Trout, illustrate how efficient positioning a product can affect the recognition of the target market. In addition, it is an outside-in approach to the business marketing. In other words, the marketer considers a business with the prospect’s mind rather than the products. First and foremost, the authors introduce the concept of positioning---“Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect” (Ries & Trout, 1986). Moreover, the past strategies for marketing no longer match the present market, and Ries and Trout believe that communication itself is a big problem. Since our society is “over-communicated,” customers might receive overwhelming information. People’ s minds can only collect a narrow amount of information and it blocks out the rest of irrelevant information; therefore, this can explain the reason why some advertisements fail to attract the attention of consumers. The authors provide several statistic data to support their statement about the over-communicated world. Obviously, 57% of the world’s advertising is offered by the United States, America publishes more than 30,000 books per year, and the average of American family watches around 51 hours per week of television. Therefore, American customers receive too many messages from different mediums, such as television, books, and

target markets with respects to that product. For this reason, in this report I picked