Comments
In the marketing function, product positioning is an important tool to gain the acceptance of customers, said Mr K. Hariprakash, General Manager, Valvoline Cummins Ltd.
Speaking at a seminar on brand positioning in the FMCG industry, organised at the Sri Sai Ram Institute of Management Studies in the Sri Sai Ram Engineering College, in association with the Business Line , he emphasised the importance of brand positioning for a company and how different companies use brand positioning in marketing their products. The event was presented by Tata Photon+.
Corporates formulate strategies at the corporate level, at the business level and the functional level. Marketing, he said, was a functional strategy relevant to the process of brand positioning.
The classic marketing strategy included elements such as situation analysis, market segmentation, target positioning, developing a market mix and managing the marketing effort.
In target marketing the first step is segmentation, which involves dividing the market into smaller groups of buyers with distinct needs. The second step is evaluating each segment and attracting or selecting one or more groups to enter into.
Market positioning is the third step that creates a competitive positioning for products.
Competitive advantage
While working out the positioning of a product, marketers have to strive to achieve the right competitive advantage.
He gave the example of PC giants such as Dell, Lenovo and HP for their technology and lower price.
Competitive advantage, he said, could be achieved through product differentiation, service differentiation, image differentiation and people differentiation.
The ‘fab four in positioning' according to him are Dettol, Sunsilk, Maruti Suzuki and Asian Paints, on the basis of consistency.
He concluded his presentation by stating the importance of communicating and delivering the chosen position to the consumers, quoting the examples of Hamam, Pears, Johnson and Johnson, Bata and so on.
Dr. K. Maran, Director, SIMS, gave the welcome address at the seminar.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.