Market positioning

• Market mapping = the process of identifying and understanding the competitors within a market for a product or service by generating a graph or plot.
• Competitive advantage = factors that allow a company to produce goods or services better or more cheaply than its rivals.
• Product differentiation = the characteristic or characteristics that make your product or service stand out to your target audience.
• Adding value = convenience, branding, quality, design and unique selling point.
• Market positioning refers to the process a business goes through when launching a new product or service

  • The business decides where they want to position the product in the market with regard to price, quality, branding, and customer perception
• Market Map Analysis

  • If there were no spaces left on the market map, it indicates that the market is saturated
  • This means that there are no opportunities to exploit a market niche in the market
  • Competition is likely to be high and profits low
• Usefulness of market mapping:

  • Market gaps can be identified which may enable a business to come up with ideas for new products
  • Comparisons can be made between a business’ products and those of its rivals - where are the business’ products positioned about its rivals?
  • Market maps are simple to construct and offer a visual illustration of the position of a product in the market
• Limitations of market mapping:

  • A gap in the market may exist because it is not profitable to fill
  • Mapping a market may require primary research which can be expensive
  • Only two criteria can be chosen which may prove too simplistic
  • Markets are often dynamic and a market map only provides insight at a specific point in time