Differentiation is the act of designing a set of meaningful differences to distinguish the company's offering from competitors' offering.
Product Differentiation
a) Form
b) Features
c) Performance Quality
d) Conformance Quality
e) Durability
f) Reliability
g) Reparability
h) Style
i) Design
Service Differentiation
a) Ordering Ease
b) Delivering
c) Installation
d) Customer Training
e) Maintenance and Repair
Personal Differentiation
Companies can gain a strong competitive advantage through having better-trained people.
Channel Differentiation
Companies can achieve competitive advantage through distribution channel's coverage, expertise and performance.
Image Differentiation
a) Symbols
b) Media
c) Atmosphere
d) Events
Developing and Communicating a Positioning Strategy
Positioning is the act of designing the company offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the target market's mind.
-Positioning is not what you do to a product, it's what you do to the mind of the prospect. That's the way you should position the product in the mind of the prospect.
4 Strategic positioning alternatives:
a) Strengthen the current position in the consumer's mind
b) Grab an unoccupied position.
c) Deposition or re-position the competition
d) Use an exclusive club strategy.
Number of differences to Promote
-A company should develop a unique selling proposition (USP) for each brand and stick to it.
Different positioning strategies available are:
1) Attribute Positioning
2) Benefit Positioning
3) Use or Application Positioning
4) User Positioning
5) Competitor Positioning
6) Product Category Positioning
7) Quality or Price Positioning
Differences to Promote
When considering the difference to promote, should think about;
-How the target market would feel about improvements in the chosen attributes?
-Whether it can afford to improve its product?
-Whether it can make the improvement fast?
-Whether the competition can easily match the improvement to be made in the chosen attribute.
Communicating the Company's Positioning
Once the company has developed a clear positioning strategy, it must communicate that positioning effectively.
The Concept of the Product Life Cycle
1) Introduction- Slow sales growth product and profits are nonexistent because of heavy expenses incurred.
2) Growth- Rapid market acceptance and substantial profit improvement.
3) Maturity- Slowdown in sales growth because it as achieved acceptance by most potential buyers. Profit stabilize or decline because of increased competition.
4) Decline- Sales show a down ward drift and profits erode.
Marketing Strategies: Introduction Stage
4 Strategies that management can pursue for launching the new product:
a) Rapid Skimming- High price and a high promotion level.
b) Slow Skimming - High price and a low promotion level.
c) Rapid Skimming -Low price and spending heavily on promotion.
d) Slow Penetration- Low price and low level of promotion.
Marketing Strategies: Growth Stage
Several strategies to sustain rapid market growth as long as possible:
a) Improves product quality, add new product features and improved styling.
b) Adds new models and flanker products.
c) Enters new market segments.
d) Increase distribution coverage and enters new distribution channels.
e) Shift from product-awareness advertising to product-preference advertising.
f) Lower prices to attract the price-sensitive buyer.
Market Strategies: Maturity Stage
Common strategies are:
a) Market Modification -
i) Convert nonusers.
ii) Enter new market segments.
iii) Win competitors customers.
iv) Convince current brand users to increase their usage of the brand.
b) Product Modification-
i) Quality improvement
ii) Feature improvement
iii) Style improvement
c) Marketing Mix Modification-
i) Price
ii) Distribution
iii) Advertising
iv) Sales Promotion
v) Personal Selling
vi) Services
Marketing Strategies: Decline Stage
i) Some firms withdraw from market.
ii) Those remaining may reduce number of products they offer.
iii) They may also withdraw from smaller market segments and weaker trade channels.
iv) They may cut their promotion budget and reduce their prices further.
