Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org
[3] “Niche Marketing,” BusinessDictionary.com,http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/niche-
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[4] Leon Schiffman and Leslie Kanuk, Consumer Behavior, 10th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010), 80.
[5] Dan Sewell, “P&G May Make Changes as it Faces Challenges,” The Associated Press, June 9, 2009.
[6] Jonathan Wheatley, “Business of Beauty Is Turning Heads in Brazil,” Financial Times, January 20, 2010, 5.
[7] Daniel, McGinn, “Cheap, Cheap, Cheap,” Newsweek, February 2010, 10.
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5.4 Positioning and Repositioning Offerings
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Explain why positioning is an important element when it comes to targeting consumers.
- Describe how a product can be positioned and mapped.
- Explain what repositioning is designed is to do.
Why should buyers purchase your offering versus another? If your product faces competition, you will
need to think about how to “position” it in the marketplace relative to competing products. After all you
don’t want the product to be just another “face in the crowd” in the minds of consumers.
Positioning involves tailoring your product so that it stands out from the competition and people want
to buy it.
One way to position your product is to plot customer survey data on a perceptual map.
A perceptual map is a two-dimensional graph that visually shows where your product stands, or should
stand, relative to your competitors, based on criteria important to buyers. The criteria can involve any
number of characteristics—price, quality, level of customer service associated with the product, and so on.