Question

What is positioning? List three postioning strategles and elaborate on one. Provide an example. What is segmentation? List three segmentation bases and elaborate on one. Provide an example. What are some advantages and disadvantages of each of the target market strategles (Undifferentiated, Differentiated/concentrated , Multi-segment, You can draw as a table if you like. Marketing Research an example of a research What are the steps of marketing research? Elaborate on one and provide question you could answer with this process. (You can make something up). ust three primary and three secondary sources of data.

Answer 1

Positioning can be defined as that position where a company's product or service stands in the marketplace as well as in the mind of customers or consumers in relations to other companies which are offering same product or services. positioning is one of the key ingredient for the success of a product or service as it gives the unique selling preposition to the product or service. a good position of a product or service allows flexibility to the brand in distribution, extensions and advertising.

positioning strategy can be defined as that organizational attempt which a company put to set its brand apart from the crowd so that thier target audience will perceive them. it allows companies to spotlight that area of their brand by which they can beat the competition. positioning strategies are

1. pricing as a positioning strategy

2. based on product class

3. based on use or application

4. based on competitors

positioning strategy based on competitors' base strategy. in this, firm either use the same strategy which is using by their competitors or elaborate the new strategies by using the competitors strategy as the base strategy.

for example, COLGATE and PEPSODENT

when Colgate entered in the market with the concept of family protection then Pepsodent entered in the market with their concept of providing 24 hours of family protection basically with kids protection. so, to compete with Pepsodent, Colgate also uses the strategy of kids teeth protection just because of competition which they receive from Pepsodent.

Market segmentation can be defined as the process of dividing the market into various different groups according to some characteristics of potential customers. company uses this strategy because by using this they can create custom mix of marketing for each and every segment and tackle them accordingly. the members of each segment can share almost same characterstics or can be same on one or more than one aspects.

segmentation can be done according to some set basis. these basis are

gender, age group, lifestyle, usage, occupation, income etc.

gender is the most important basis of market segmentation as the choices, needs and the interests of males and females differ at many levels. so marketers can use different marketing and communication strategies for both segments.segmentation on the basis of gender can be done in the case of jewellery, cosmetics, clothing and shoe industry.

Advantages of Undifferentiated Target Market Strategy

1. it helps organization to use its resources to maximum possible extent.

2. in this, there is no need to prepare different marketing strategies and policies for segmentation.

3. it allows organization so that they can adopt the theory of standardization, theory of division of work etc.

4. it provides large scale production.

Disadvantages of Undifferentiated Target Market Strategy

1. this strategy is only product oriented not the consumer oriented.

2. it cannot be used in long run.

3. today's market is consumer oriented market. so the effectiveness of this strategy is very limited.

Advantages of Differentiated Target Market Strategy

1. it helps in the proper and the best utilization of available resources of the company.

2. it uses the concept of segmentation so it will help to attract more and more customers by providing different products according to their needs.

3. it helps to enhance the profit of organization as it attracts more and more customers.

4. it is customer oriented strategy so it helps to gain customer loyality.

Disadvantages of Differentiated Target Market Strategy

1. it is only useful in long run.

2. as it uses the concept of segmentation so the company has to produce different types of products according to the needs of the customer.

3. it increases the expenses of organization such as marketing research cost, physical distribution, promotional activities cost.

Advantages of multi segment strategy

1. small firms can adopt this strategy because the numbers of segments are small.

2. it helps organization to use its available resources at maximum extent so that company can earn maximum profit by using these resources.

3. it helps to decrease the cost of production and management.

Disadvantages of multi segment strategy

1. it increases competition in the market because there is the maximization of profit by using this strategy so more and more organization try to join this type of segment.

2. there is a lot of risk in using this strategy as if there is the selection of wrong segment as target market then the existence of organization is very complicated process.

Steps of Merketing research process

1. identifying and the definition of marketing research problem

2. selection of method of inquiry

3. selection of method of research

4. plan of research design

5. choosing the techniques of data collection

6. sample design

7. collection of data

8. analysing the data

9. making interpretation

10. making the research report

11. follow up

Data collection techniques:- this is the main step in the process of marketing research as the result and outcome of our research completely dependent of data which we collect to intrepret the final outcome. there are many ways to collect the data such as survey method, experimental method, panel method and observation method.

survey method includes mail survey, personal interview, phone interview.

experimental method includes field experiment, laboratory or artificial experiment

panel method includes consumer panel. suppliers panel, dealer panel, fixed vs variable panel, permanent vs temporary panel etc.

observation method includes structured vs unstructured, live vs recorded, direct vs indirect, human vs mechanical etc.

example of research question is

1. are company charging the exact price and if there is lowering and raising the prices then what would be impact on the sale of their product.

2. why are customers or consumers choosing their competitors?

Primary and Secondary sources of data

primary sources  of data are surveys and interviews, legal documents, statistical data, experiment results etc.

secondary sources of data are books, literature reviews, books, documentaries, television broadcasts, opinion pieces etc.