Positioning a Service in the Marketplace

Positioning a Service

in the Marketplace

Presented by: Jean F. Baylon BSBA4 – Major in Mktg.-Mgnt Instructor: Mr. Abelito Quiwa

Service Marketing : Chapter 7

Achieve Competitive Advantage through Focus Four Focus Strategies Identifying and Selecting Target Segments Using Research to Develop a Service Concept

for a Specific Segment Important versus Determinant Attributes Creating a Competitive Position Copy Positioning Versus Product Positioning Positioning’s Role in Marketing Strategy Steps in developing a Positioning Strategy Using Positioning Maps to Plot Strategy: An

Example from the Hotel Industry

Positioning a Service In the Marketplace

Know the focus strategies that are available to service business

Tell the difference between important and determinant attributes for consumer choice and positioning services

Understand how to use service levels for positioning services.

Know the key concepts underlying competitive positioning strategy

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:


Know when it is appropriate to reposition an existing service offering

Understand how to develop an effective positioning strategy using market, internal, and competitor analysis.

Demonstrate how positioning maps help to analyze competitive positioning

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:


Every firm must managed to find a niche position and differentiate itself from competition.

Brand positioning can help to create awareness, generate interest and desire among prospective customers, and increase adoption of products and services


Fully focused: A fully focused organization provides a limited range of services.

Market focused: A market focused company concentrates on a few market segment, but has a wide range of services.

Service focused: Service focused firms offer a narrow range of services to a fairly broad market.

Unfocused: Finally, many service providers fall into the unfocused category, because they try to serve broad markets and provide a wide range of services.


• A market segment is one where a group of buyers share common characteristics, needs, purchasing behaviors, or consumption patterns.

• A target segment is one that a firm has selected, from among those in the broader market, and defined on the basis of several variables.


• The purpose of using the service. • Who makes the decision. • The timing of use (time of day/week/season). • Whether the individual is using the service

alone or with a group. • Who is in the group.



• Consumers usually make their choices between alternative service offerings based on the perceived differences between them.

A company must establish a position in the minds of its target customers.

The position should have one simple and consistent message.

The position must set a company apart from its competitors .

A company cannot be all things to all people—it must focus its efforts.


Positioning is a marketing concept that outlines what a business should do to market its product or service to its customers.

Provide useful diagnostic tool for defining and understanding the relationships between products and markets

Identify market opportunities Introducing new products Redesigning (repositioning) existing products Eliminate products that: Do not satisfy consumer needs Distribution strategies Pricing strategies Communication strategies


Market Analysis -The focus is on the overall level and trend of demand, and the geographic location of this demand.

Internal Corporate Analysis - The objective is to identify the organization’s, limitations, its goals, and how its values shape the way it does business.

Competitive Analysis - Analysis of competitors helps firms to understand the strengths and weaknesses competitors have.


Positions are rarely static. They need to evolve over time in response to changing market structures, technology.


”Perpetual Mapping” Useful way of representing consumers

perceptions of alternative products graphically


Managers of the Palace, a successful four-star hotel, developed a positioning map of their own and competing hotels. This helped them to develop a better understanding of future threats to their current market position, in a large city that we will call Belleville.



Figure 7.3 Positioning map of Belleville’s principal business hotels: Service Level versus Price Level


Figure 7.4 Positioning map of Belleville’s principal business hotels: Positioning map of Location versus Physical Luxury


Figure 7.5 Positioning map of Belleville’s principal business hotels, Following New Construction: Service Level versus

Price Level.

Most service businesses face strong and often increasing competition. Marketers need to find ways of creating meaningful competitive advantages for their products. Ideally, they should be targeting segments that they can serve better than other providers. The concept of positioning is valuable because it forces explicit recognition of the different attributes comprising the overall service concept. It also emphasizes the need for marketers to understand which attributes determine customer choice behavior.


Positioning maps provide a visual way of summarizing research data and displaying how different firms are performing, relative to one another, on key attributes. Combined with information on the preferences within different segments – including the anticipated demand from such segments – positioning maps may suggest opportunities for creating new services or re-positioning existing ones to take advantage of unserved market needs. If offering such a service is seen as compatible with the organization’s resources and values, the firm may be able to develop a profitable niche for itself in the market.


HAPPY GRADUATION! haha

Positioning a Service in the Marketplace

Business

Transcript of Positioning a Service in the Marketplace