Assignment 2

Assignment 2

Introduction

The paper discusses the positioning process in light of an article review. It also analyses the positing f the marketing management plan referring to the seven steps needed to implement market positioning.

Article Review

According to Tinnilä, Vepsäläinen (1995), the market positioning of a product or service is the way in which consumers define a product from its important attributes, i.e. the place product occupies in the minds of customers in terms of competitive products. Consumers get saturated with information about products and services. Consumers cannot re-evaluate products every time they take the decision to buy. To simplify the consumer purchase decision, companies need to organize products into categories, i.e. "Positioned" products, services and businesses within a place in consumer's mind.

The position of a product depends on the complex set of perceptions impressions and buyers have feelings about the product and comparing the competitive products. Positioning refers to as the image of a product in relation to products that compete directly with him and with respect to other products sold by the same company (Tinnilä, Vepsäläinen, 1995). Besides that, companies today must increasingly strive to achieve a differential advantage, just as, they must avoid differential disadvantage for their product. An example of these is the automakers U.S. during the seventies were at a disadvantage compared to products produced in Japan with regard to quality and price.

Positioning Steps

Segment the Market

Each person has different needs, a product that tries to satisfy all these needs end up being an "all for one." For this reason, the first step in positioning for the printing business is to identify existing market segments and then select the most attractive one. The segmentation is to group potential consumers in groups that clearly differ from each other but show some degree of homogeneity within the group. ...