in addition segmenting and targeting,
another key concept his how are you going to
position your product in consumers' minds?
and so when we talk about positioning a
product -- product positioning -- we are not talking about
where the product is on store shelves
or where it is available for purchase. when we talk about positioning,
we're talking about how what image
the product holds in consumers' minds.
and some common positioning strategies
might be to position your product based
value -- that the benefits they get the exceed
price. another common positioning strategy
would be based on quality and here we have to be able to specifically
tell what makes are product better
another positioning strategy might be service
or price or a variety
product attributes. let's look at
what we call creating a perceptual
map to illustrate this concept
of positioning. we are
in the beverage market. you've already done some research in the previous assignment
about the bottled water industry. but
say you're wanting to see if there's a market
need out there for a beverage and one of the
things you're wanting to consider is
whether there's more opportunity for healthy
or unhappy beverage targeted to children
or adults. so on this particular example let's look at some beverages
and see where they would fit. from
looking at these attributes -- whether it's a child's
average or adult beverage or a healthy beverage
or an unhealthy beverage -- let's create a
perceptual maps for some beverage. what about water
all water? it is a relatively healthy average for both children and adults.
it might skew a little bit more toward adults --
and again i'm not an expert in this
industry -- this is where water
is located on the perceptual map to show
where it is positioned in consumers' minds. what about white milk?
milk is concerned relatively healthy.
milk is probably drunk more frequently by children than adults.
so we're gonna position it right here on this
perceptual map. what about chocolate milk?
would that skew a little bit more toward a children's beverage and because it's chocolate
be a little bit more unhealthy? maybe it would be positioned here.
what aboaut soda pop or soft drink?
they would probably be more of a unhealthy beverage
that's probably used fairly
equally between children and adults perhaps. so i'm going to position it here.
i am doing this without
marketing research. what about coffee?
coffee is probably what? an adult beverage
seen as relatively unhealthy. tea?
-- oops, i skipped ahead -- let's look at te.
tea might be considered a little bit more healthy because of all the
anti-oxidant green tea things
that we hear. I get skipped past juice
which is probably consumed more by children
than adults -- especially apple juice or something like that -- probably
considered somewhat healthier than chocolate milk --
i'm not exactly sure on that one.
but here in you can see
a perceptual map that shows the
position of various products in the minds of consumers.
and this is might identify areas for product
growth. for example it seems to me like we need more healthy
beverages for adults. so I hope
this has illustrated clearly to you the
market interpretation concepts
of segmenting, targeting and positioning.