How does Positioning matters for a product??

Failure to communicate is the single & most common reason for many of the problems in this world. If people only make some efforts & communicate their feelings & explain their reasons, most of the problems would get solved automatically.

In marketing, positioning is what a marketer does to the mind of a customer. Positioning is not to create something radically different but to manipulate what is already up there in the mind. This is done with the help of right communication which helps to retie the connections that already exists. In today’s era, we come across this truism – “Customer is the king”. But in reality, the goal of a marketer is to make customer feel like a king. To achieve this objective, the customer’s perception is the most important factor & positioning helps in building this perception in the customer’s mind.

Positioning is an organized system for finding a window in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.
So, marketer aspires that customer should think of their product when they think about a product class. For e.g. when customer thinks about fruit beverages then “Dabur Real” should come into the mind of prospect. Marketers of “Kurkure” want the consumers to think about “Kurkure” when they think about snacks.

Positioning put forth the unique selling proposition which marketer wants to pitch to the customer for buying the product. A shampoo manufactures positions his product as per the different market segment needs – Shampoo appealing to customers with curly hairs, weak hairs, very hard hairs etc. One of the prime reasons behind doing this strategy is human psychology – “You taste what you expect to taste” or “You see what you expect to see”.

· Recently, Coca Cola has entered into fruit beverages category with the launch of “Minute Maid” juices. Minute Maid has been positioned as a fruit drink which is pulpy in nature. This positioning in turn makes this product earn a place in the mind of consumer which is very close to juices supplied by street vendors or made by a housewife at home.

· “Dettol Soap” has positioned itself as an antiseptic soap which kills germs & bacteria. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=SqtNjWa6Kfg&mode=related&search=) Dettol never communicate anything related to freshness as does “Liril” or soap for the fim stars as does “Lux”. So, this unique positioning helps Dettol to create a unique positioning in consumer’s mind.

· Similarly, “Emami’s Fair and Handsome” positioned itself as a fairness cream solution for men exclusively & it positions itself as an alternative to guys instead of using fairness cream meant for girls. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=5f0K9ynvzjU&mode=related&search=Advertisment)

The best way to achieve this is to clearly differentiate yourself from you competition in what you
are offering and clearly tell the consumer exactly what you are offering. Positioning has to be specific. The more specific, the better will be the positioning. People are more likely to trust specialists than generalists.

Positioning is not a macro phenomenon. With competition creeping in (thanks to the wave of globalization), positioning has potential to yield results at micro level also – e.g. local retail store. Traditionally, we have a habit of branding local store as “Jeevan Lal & Sons”. This kind of positioning helps little to store in winning new customers since customer cannot make anything about the store from name itself. On the other hand, there are organized player who are very clear in their communication & hence it’s now a necessity to understand the nuances involved (even with retailer’s name).

Positioning is not only about products & services. One can position himself/ herself as a person e.g. what people think about “Charles Shobraj”!!