Strategic Positioning. A company's relative position within its industry matters for performance. Strategic positioning reflects choices a company makes about the kind of value it will create and how that value will be created differently than rivals.

Branding consists of a set of complex branding decisions. Major brand strategy decisions involve brand positioning, brand name selection, brand sponsorship and brand development. Before going into the four branding decisions, also called brand strategy decisions, we should clarify what a brand actually is.

An effective positioning strategy considers the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, the needs of the customers and market and the position of competitors. The purpose of a positioning strategy is that it allows a company to spotlight specific areas where they can outshine and beat their competition.

In general terms, there are three broad types of positioning: functional, symbolic, and experiential position.

Product price: Associating your brand/product with competitive pricing. Product quality: Associating your brand/product with high quality. Product use and application: Associating your brand/product with a specific use.

Competitive positioning is about defining how you'll “differentiate” your offering and create value for your market. ... A good positioning strategy is influenced by: Market profile: Size, competitors, stage of growth. Customer segments: Groups of prospects with similar wants & needs.

A positioning statement is a brief description of a product or service and target market, and how the product or service fills a particular need of the target market. ... They're a must-have for any positioning strategy and create a clear vision for brand positioning.

Product positioning is a marketing strategy that helps place a product perceptually in the minds of consumers. Positioning typically requires creating differences between your products or services and your competitors' offerings, but can be extended to your own products if they are marketed under different brands.

This occurs in mature businesses or products deemed unlikely to continue a growth trajectory, even with an infusion of additional capital. The objective of a harvest strategy is to maximize the profits that can be extracted from the product as its popularity winds down.

There Are Many Types of Brands. Many kinds of things can become brands. Different types of brands include individual products, product ranges, services, organizations, individual persons, groups, events, geographic places, private label brands, media, and e-brands.

Branding strategies are the action plans that organizations use to differentiate their products, services, and identities from their competitors. Essentially, a brand strategy is your long-term brand, which helps to identify what kind of image you want to build for your customers.

New brand. The final brand development strategy is a new brand. A new brand occurs when the firm is expanding is offering – by developing a new product line that they haven't not offered before – and as a result, need to build a new brand.

That's quite a positioning statement from Apple. ... The Apple brand makes a strong promise about its products. Their customers are extremely loyal because Apple backs up their brand promise with great products. It's the promise that is the key to a good positioning statement. Your promise: The Foundation of Your Position.

It is simple, memorable, and tailored to the target market. It provides an unmistakable and easily understood picture of your brand that differentiates it from your competitors. It is credible, and your brand can deliver on its promise.

Strategic positioning is concerned with the way in which a business as a whole distinguishes itself in a valuable way from its competitors and delivers value to specific customer segments (Wickham, 2001: 230).

It means, according to Porter, "performing different activities from rivals, or performing similar activities in different ways." Three key principles underlie strategic positioning: Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, which emerges from three sources: few needs, many customers - broad needs, ...

“Strategic direction” refers to the actions you are taking to achieve the goals of your organizational strategy. ... Your strategic direction includes the plans and actions you have put in place to work toward this vision of the future for your company.

Positioning can encompass branding, advertising, promotion, pricing, product development, sales, distribution and operations. The following are common types of market positioning.

Product positioning is an important element of a marketing plan. Product positioning is the process marketers use to determine how to best communicate their products' attributes to their target customers based on customer needs, competitive pressures, available communication channels and carefully crafted key messages.

A competitive map is a visualization of the competitive position of firms, brands, products, services or locations. This is often a basic graph of two variables that customers consider when making a purchase.

Product positioning map is a diagrammatic technique where the business uses perceptual mapping to visually display the position of the product against its competition.

The Positioning statement of Nike is “For serious athletes, Nike gives confidence that provides the perfect shoe for every sport”.

A positioning statement is an expression of how a given product, service or brand fills a particular consumer need in a way that its competitors don't. Positioning is the process of identifying an appropriate market niche for a product (or service or brand) and getting it established in that area.

Starbucks has a descriptively simple statement to inspire and nurture the human spirit-“one person, one cup, and one neighbourhood at a time”. Starbucks positioning strategy was customer base so that it can give the best service more than what the customers expect.

Michael Porter defined the two ways in which an organization can achieve competitive advantage over its rivals: cost advantage and differentiation advantage.

Niche marketing strategy is a focused marketing plan unlike the 'target everybody' strategy. It targets only those customers who can relate well to the product/service. The company tries to build the long term relationship with these small set of customers.

A harvest strategy or harvesting strategy is a business plan for either canceling or reducing marketing spending on a product. The management has decided that it would cost too much to boost sales. In other words, they could not justify the expense after considering likely future revenues from the product.

Branding consists of a set of complex branding decisions. Major brand strategy decisions involve brand positioning, brand name selection, brand sponsorship and brand development. Before going into the four branding decisions, also called brand strategy decisions, we should clarify what a brand actually is.

Branding often takes the form of a recognizable symbol to which consumers easily identify, such as a logo. Common examples include the Nike "swoosh," the golden arches of McDonald's and the apple used by Apple Computers.

Just like the cost of a website, branding pricing ranges from a drop in the bucket to quite spendy—$1,000 to $30,000 depending on if you need to start from square one or make a few tweaks here and there.

A company can choose to limit itself to one brand for each performance segment (one brand strategy) or offer several brands in each segment (multi brand strategy). With a one brand strategy, one brand is aimed exclusively at one market segment. It reflects the depth of the brand strategy.

The Positioning Statement definition is comprised of 4 parts; the target, the category, the differentiator, and the payoff.

Apple's tagline has been “Think different.” This position statement appeals to the changing trends in technology and consumer tastes. Once the iPod and iPhone took off, that tagline took on a life of its own. The Apple brand makes a strong promise about its products.

A positioning statement is a brief description of a product or service and target market, and how the product or service fills a particular need of the target market. ... They're a must-have for any positioning strategy and create a clear vision for brand positioning.

Positioning statement: Amazon's positioning declaration is: To always be Earth's mainly customer-centric corporation, wherever consumers can discover and find out something they may desire to purchase online, and activities to suggest its consumers the lowly probable cost.

Brand positioning is defined as the conceptual place you want to own in the target consumer's mind — the benefits you want them to think of when they think of your brand. An effective brand positioning strategy will maximize customer relevancy and competitive distinctiveness, in maximizing brand value.

In marketing and business strategy, market position refers to the consumer's perception of a brand or product in relation to competing brands or products. Market positioning refers to the process of establishing the image or identity of a brand or product so that consumers perceive it in a certain way.

Here is a more specific brand positioning statement on climate change from the Coca-Cola Company. Sustainability is an issue that is important to their brand, and they express this through one of their Climate Protection Reports. A brand's tagline is different from its position statement, but they influence each other.

McDonald's Positioning. Strategic Positioning is defined as doing different activities than your competitors or doing the same activities differently. This is the way your company becomes a superior performer in the industry.

A positioning strategy is when a company chooses one or two important key areas to concentrate on and excels in those areas. ... An effective positioning strategy considers the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, the needs of the customers and market and the position of competitors.

Product positioning is a very important tool for an effective marketing strategic planning. ... With well-defined target segments, product positioning enables a company to meet very specific needs of a particular market segment, offering value that may not be provided by competitors.

The positioning statement helps your business carve out its space in the marketplace. It establishes your brand's differentiation from competitors in a way designed to attract customers. ... With a user positioning theme, you emphasize that you specialize in catering to a particular type of customer.

Product positioning improves competitive strength of a company. Normally, consumers consider product advantages before they buy it. So, product positioning proves superiority of company's offers over competitors. It may also help consumers in choosing the right product.

In general terms, there are three broad types of positioning: functional, symbolic, and experiential position.

One of the best-known models is the 4Ps of Marketing, which helps you define your marketing options in terms of product, place, price, and promotion. Use the model when you are planning a new venture, or evaluating an existing offer, to optimize the impact with your target market.

Product price: Associating your brand/product with competitive pricing. Product quality: Associating your brand/product with high quality. Product use and application: Associating your brand/product with a specific use.

A best-cost strategy relies on offering customers better value for money by focusing both on low cost and upscale difference. The ultimate goal of the best-cost strategy is to keep costs and prices lower than other providers of similar products with comparable quality and features.

Strategic objectives are long-term organizational goals that help to convert a mission statement from a broad vision into more specific plans and projects.

Strategic positioning is concerned with the way in which a business as a whole distinguishes itself in a valuable way from its competitors and delivers value to specific customer segments (Wickham, 2001: 230).

A company must configure the way it conducts manufacturing, logistics, service delivery, marketing, human resource management, and so on differently from rivals and tailored to its unique value proposition.