Assignment # 4: Faisal Riaz

Faisal Riaz
Assignment # 4
Submitted to: Dr Amjad Ali
Submitted by: M Faisal Riaz 15007005002

Faisal Riaz
Abstracts:
There are market forces already working against your brand. That’s why successful
marketing initiatives aren’t created in a vacuum, and a market positioning strategy is more
important than ever. You know you have a great product to offer your customers, and have
crafted a unique value proposition, but getting that message to your customers isn’t easy.
No matter your market, it’s likely saturated. Some claim consumers see as many as 4,000
advertisements per day, directly or indirectly. How are you going to differentiate your brand
from the crowd?
Despite saturation, there are consumers out there whose needs aren’t being met. You have an
opportunity to meet those needs. The question is, how do you reach them?
Introduction:
The concept of positioning was made famous by the 1981 book, "Positioning: the Battle for
Your Mind" by Al Ries and Jack Trout.
The book presents the idea that the positioning that matters most is the position that your
product holds in the mind of your market. The important lesson from the book is that if you
want to succeed in business you'd better get into the mind of your customers. The customer's
mind might be complicated but it prefers to hold on to simple thoughts. That means that the
marketing message that establishes your position in the customer's mind must be simple and
easy to state and remember.
Market positioning is how a company changes or creates a consumers preception about the
Company relative to its competitors.The objective of market positioning is to establish the
image or identity of a brand or product so that consumers perceive it in a certain way.
For example; A battery maker may position its batteries as the most reliable and long-lasting.
And a fast-food restaurant chain may position itself as a provider of cheap and quick
standardized meals. A coffee company may position itself as a source of premium upscale
coffee beverages.
Discussion:
A market positioning strategy is a plan for differentiating your brand from your competitors.
It’s also a way to identify niche markets where your brand will resonate, and ultimately
increase opportunities for sales.
You need to enhance the identity of your brand in the eyes of target consumers. A broad
sweeping approach to marketing will cost you and your message will fall on deaf ears.
There are several factors that influence the success of your strategy. These include customer
motivations, needs, market conditions, and the behavior of your competitors. You need to
consider all them to get a successful return on your marketing investment.
Identify Your Value Proposition

In today’s economy, you aren’t just selling your product. You’re selling your trustworthiness
and your values. You might be selling a lifestyle as well.
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Faisal Riaz
Your value proposition is a statement to customers about what they’re getting from your
brand. Determining your value proposition is simple. Ask yourself who you are as a brand
and what you stand for. The most unique aspects of your business will set you apart from the
competition. Identify your ideal customers. Before you look at the market, build personas for
the customers most likely to engage with your brand. Consider their demographics, buying
power, interests, and more.
Analyse Your Target Market

Knowing who your ideal customers are will give you an idea about where their niche is in the
market as well.It’s time to learn as much as you can about them.This is a group of people, or
companies, that will benefit the most from what you’re selling. Your marketing team should
use this information to build your market positioning statement.
Forbes says, “You need to break down exactly who your customers are and where to find
them. This breakdown is called target market segmentation. Once you know those things, you
can put out the proper bait to lure them in and reap the benefits of target marketing.”
Analyse Your Competitors

Imagine your customers are at a fork in the road. One path leads to you, each other leads to a
competitor. Which will they take?
The travelers on the road are your target market. Eventually, they will need to make a choice.
That’s why you can’t differentiate yourself without knowing about your competitors.
First, you should ensure your brand name is unique. Losing customers due to confusion about
your brand is a deadly mistake.
You need to analyze competitors’ products, services, and brand messaging to succeed. You
should also learn about their returns policies, customer service practices, and any other
functions that overlap with those of your company.
Differentiate Yourself from the Competition

To start, build a competitive grid that rates the quality of your company versus others. List
your competitors on the Y-axis. Include your brand there as well.
Now, write all of the value items every brand needs across the X-axis. You will be rating
each company’s success in these areas on the grid.Which brands are succeeding in what
areas? Why are they succeeding? And, how does your company measure up? If you have a
lot of competitor success in one column, how will you differentiate yourself?
By working through this, you can identify trouble spots and opportunities you can take
advantage of immediately.
Develop a Strategic Plan

Strategies vary greatly from company to company. If your target market stretches across the
country, you will need digital placements. If your market is a small local town, you might
focus more on signage or local ads.
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Faisal Riaz
The first step is to identify which channels you will use to engage with your customers. This
can be digital channels like social media, digital advertising, SEO, and others. It can also
include print advertising, signage, events, etc.
The most important aspect of a marketing plan is content. Most companies use content as part
of an inbound marketing strategy.That means customers engage with your brand by accessing
content that has inherent value. Your job is to nurture those customers until they convert.
Then, continue to delight them until they become brand advocates.
Prepare Your Team

As you are developing your market positioning strategy, you may notice you need
additional human resources. Launching your campaign without a cost-effective team can
spell disaster for your business.You might end up paying for resources you don’t need. You
also might end up making last-minute decisions because you don’t have enough staff.
Most companies’ greatest struggle is with producing enough content. That’s why building an
editorial calendar for targeted content is so important. You should ensure your team can
produce what you need in a timely way.But the most important part of preparing your team is
ensuring they internalize your positioning statement.
Conclusions:
Once you have a strategy and are fully prepared, you’re ready to execute your plan. The most
important part of this stage is consistency.Too often marketing efforts fizzle out when results
are either very poor or very good. If you have too many or too few resources, you’ll run into
inefficiencies as well.
Your marketing machine is just that–a machine. It requires maintenance. Based on the results
of your campaigns, it might require very serious adjustments. For better or for worse.
Why ‘for better or for worse’? If your products or services don’t perform the way you’ve
planned, maybe they are performing in others. Glean what you can from the results of your
campaigns.
Be flexible. Adjust your market positioning strategy until it works. With good positioning,
you only stand to win
References:
https://www.opstart.ca/strong-brand-positioning-strategy-key-business-success/
https://www.focusgrouptips.com/product-positioning.html
http://www.corporate-eye.com/main/5-factors-of-brand-positioning/
http://www.ignitestrategic.com/strategy/positioning/
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Faisal Riaz
Q6.4: Why is it not necessarily a good idea to advertise a product in a commercial

where a really popular song plays in back ground?
Ans: You have an understanding of how your brand fits into your competitive space. You
also understand what you need to do to differentiate yourself. But it’s not all about products
and services.
Before you invest money in marketing campaigns, you need to test if your positioning
resonates with your target market. There are formal and informal approaches to this stage.
For example, many companies invest in focus groups as a means of testing products and
brand appeal. This strategy can be costly, but it can produce practical, real-world data.
You can use this data to identify overlapping characteristics in your market. For example,
certain age groups with specific interests might strongly favour one product. Another
demographic with similar interests might not.
A cost-effective alternative is market research mobile apps. These companies partner with
thousands of consumers ready to help companies with testing. Many of these apps allow you
to target key markets as well.
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Faisal Riaz

Submitted to: Dr Amjad Ali

Submitted by: M Faisal Riaz 15007005002

Identify Your Value Proposition

Analyse Your Target Market

Analyse Your Competitors

Differentiate Yourself from the Competition

Develop a Strategic Plan

Prepare Your Team

Q6.4: Why is it not necessarily a good idea to advertise a product in a commercial

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