What is Competitive Marketing Positioning?


<h2>Competitive Positioning: Definition & Example</h2><p>Competitive positioning is a marketing strategy that relates to how a company's marketing team can set itself apart from its rivals. The company's position is determined by how its goods and services compare to the value of similar goods and services on the market. To make their position more competitive, a marketing team evaluates several facets of their company's market, such as audience wants and current trends.</p><p>The purpose of competitive positioning is to boost sales by increasing your company's value to customers. Finding a niche for your company's products to appeal to the special demands of its clients is a common example of this. This reduces your competition and allows you to promote to a market that is interested in your products.</p><p><strong><em>Example 1:</em> Airbnb - Live and Learn with Locals</strong></p><p>For two reasons, you would always like Airbnb's tagline, "Belong Anywhere." To begin with, it expresses a lot with only two words. It begs to be explored and completely immersed in new area. Every time you read it; it makes you want to go elsewhere. The other reason you will like it so much is that it fits in so perfectly with their brand positioning approach. It turns the usual, homogenized experience of staying in a hotel upside down.</p><p>Why stay in a hotel when you can stay somewhere and with someone who makes you feel like you belong? Unlike hotels, Airbnb provides you a true sense of locality, making for a more thrilling and enriching experience.</p><p>Unlike hotels, Airbnb provides you a true sense of locality, making for a more thrilling and enriching experience. By legitimizing couch surfing and giving an authentic alternative to standard housing options, Airbnb completely transformed the game.</p><p><strong><em>Example 2:</em> Lyft vs. Uber</strong></p><p>Uber was the first to enter the market. Initially, they only had black executive Lincoln Towncars. With their elegant logo and jet-black branding. They were opulent, frigid, and exclusive. Over time, their services became more diverse, and products like Uberx and Uberpool allowed anyone to request a ride and be picked up by a Prius for a few dollars.</p><p>Lyft was on the other end of the spectrum. Originally, vehicles had a bright pink fuzzy moustache on them. Riders were instructed to take a seat at the front and converse with their drivers. Drivers were described as "fun and entertaining."</p><p>Lyft knew they had to be unique when they entered the market. They did, however, follow in Uber's footsteps in many ways. They flipped the script on their branding and culture.</p><p>This served to distinguish them and set them apart. Not in the case of Uber. Not only did this make them easier to spot, but it also helped them in the long run, since Uber was chastised in the news for its cold, rude, and cutthroat demeanor.</p><p><strong><em>Example 3:</em> Simple</strong></p><p>Traditional banks have a large number of branches and have been reluctant to develop user-friendly mobile apps. Despite the fact that Simple has no physical locations, they concentrated on their excellent mobile app at a time when most banks' apps were clumsy and inefficient. Customers used to value services like house loans, CDs, and bank tellers. Simple aimed its services at younger, more tech-savvy clientele, and is often regarded as the first 21st-century bank.</p><h2>3 Ways to Create Competitive Value</h2><p>There are three main approaches to make your products more competitive. To appeal to their audience and generate sales, each of them concentrates on a distinct facet of customer interest.</p><p>Here's a closer look at these competitive value-creation methods −</p><p><strong>Operational Excellence</strong></p><p>When you market how your firm produces a big volume of products at a low cost while keeping a satisfactory quality, you are using operational excellence to provide competitive value to your organization.</p><p>To do this, your company's management may concentrate on increasing manufacturing efficiency in order to manufacture a large number of things that can be sold quickly.</p><p><strong>Product Leadership</strong></p><p>Using product leadership to set your firm apart from the competition entails promoting the originality and quality of your items in order to boost your company's reputation and drive sales.</p><p>This may entail performing market research to find where your company can fill gaps left by competitors, as well as studying ways to improve products and introduce new features that appeal to a wider range of potential customers.</p><p><strong>Customer Relationships</strong></p><p>When it comes to providing competitive value, solid customer relationships can help your firm because loyal consumers are more likely to purchase new items, recommend products to friends, and improve product visibility on social media.</p><p>This strategy is particularly effective for promoting online stores or extremely niche products, as it allows your team to engage with customers who share like interests.</p><h2>Types of Competitive Marketing Positions</h2><p>Typically, the four chief competitive marketing positions that brands are as follows −</p><ul class="list"><li><p><strong>Market Leaders</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>Market Challengers</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>Market Followers</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>Market Nichers.</strong></p></li></ul><p><strong>Market Leader</strong></p><p>The market leader is, as the name implies, the market leader in which the brand operates. It is crucial to note that the market leader isn't always the first to market. These are pioneer brands, and they can be overtaken by later-arriving brands to take up the market leader position.</p><p><strong>Market Challenger</strong></p><p>A market challenger seeks to aggressively steal market share from the market leader, and spends time and money developing differentiators and marketing strategies that allow the brand to capitalize on chances as they emerge. If possibilities do not present themselves, the market challenger will look for ways to generate new ones.</p><p>The continuous battle between Coke and Pepsi is a famous example.</p><p><strong>Market Follower</strong></p><p>A market follower is eager in gaining market share but less so in distinguishing its brand from that of the market leader. Instead, the market follower effectively rides on the coattails of the market leader while putting its brand just far enough apart from the market leader to stand out.</p><p>Any young adult novel billed as "the next Harry Potter" is a wonderful example.</p><p><strong>Market Nicher</strong></p><p>A market nicher aims to control a small portion of the total market in which it operates. Market nichers are often smaller players and businesses that can't compete effectively with the market leader but can flourish in a specialized sector and with a specified audience by focusing on a niche-specific difference.</p><h2>Importance of Competitive Marketing Positioning</h2><p><strong>Positioning as the link between a company's identity and its image</strong></p><p>Positioning determines a company's brand identification in the marketplace. Only when the Market Positioning is correct does the customer's perception of the brand develop.</p><p><strong>Positioning as a competitive advantage source</strong></p><p>Better marketing positioning will provide the business a competitive advantage over its competitors.</p><p><strong>Market Differentiation through Positioning</strong></p><p>There are a lot of items, and there are a lot of companies that provide them. A company's positioning will help it stand out amid a sea of competitors. A defined Brand Position enables you to communicate with and reach your target audience in an efficient and successful manner. The brand and its product are more visible and appealing to buyers when they have a clear market positioning.</p><p><strong>Positioning makes it simple for customers to buy</strong></p><p>When it comes to purchasing decisions, customers expect simple answers and options. Furthermore, positioning elicits an emotional response from your target consumers, allowing them to quickly trust you, hence increasing client interest and sales.</p><h2>Conclusion</h2><p>To conclude, it is important for businesses to understand the market and the role of the company, team and audience in that market can help create strategies and find an ideal competitive position. Researching the current trends and knowing the competitors help find out what is selling well and what customers still want from the items being offered.</p>

Updated on: 22-Jun-2022

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