TABLE OF CONTENTS About this chapter
The subject of targeting and positioning builds on the segmentation techniques that were covered in Chapter 5. This chapter now explores criteria by which the attractiveness of a market segment can be judged. The targeting process is then examined before a discussion on a range of product positioning techniques is undertaken. Central to this discussion is the issue of brand strategy.
At a fundamental level marketing strategy is about markets and products. Organizations are primarily making decisions about which markets to operate in and which products/services to offer to those markets. Once those essential decisions have been taken the company then has to decide on what basis it is going to compete in that chosen market. Segmentation is therefore at the heart of strategic marketing decision-making. In essence it is a strategic rather than an operational issue and has to be treated as such.
Initially any organization has to identify how it can, in general, gain competitive advantage. The stage that we will now explore is concerned with creating a specific competitive position. The first crucial step is to decide in which specific market segments to operate. Chapter 5 examined the criteria that can be used to identify discrete segments within a market. Once segments have been identified they then have to be evaluated in order that an organization can decide which particular segments it should serve. Target marketing, or targeting, is the common term for this process.
Once target markets have been chosen an...
