Question

describe one of the five major contributions of marketing: The marketing concept, marketing segmentation, positioning, multi dimensional mapping, and product lifecycle. introduce a modern day example of how this concept is still being used in today's market management.

Answer 1

Multidimensional Mapping

Multidimensional mapping, market mapping, or perceptual making is a visualization and diagrammatic technique that is used by marketers for accessing/displaying the perceptions of potential customers or customers visually. Here, how the customer perceptions influence the brand positioning (and not the perceptions of a business about itself) are analyzed. For instance, a business may perceive itself as selling high quality and up market products but the consumers may view the business offerings of the firm to be of low quality and cheap, which would be influencing the sales negatively. In a typical market and perceptual map, the brand or its product line ups are usually displayed in comparison to the competing brand and their offerings. While a perceptual map may have two dimensions, it may also be multidimensional. The multidimensional maps are good at identifying the gaps between the potential partners and the markets and can be used to merge the targets as well. Many of the perceptual problems related to the brand of a company or its product are also clarified through these maps.

Modern day uses of multidimensional mapping for market management

Customers may be the most important component of a market and the perceptual and multidimensional mapping help companies understand their customers better. All the different variables related to factors including customer’s who, where, why, what, and how can be determined to the maps. The map exposes the deficit areas or the areas where the consumers do not find the business to be satisfactory. Further research and efforts are undertaken to do the needful and to cover the deficits. Because competitors are also evaluated, a more relative and realistic assessment is made. For instance, use of multidimensional and perceptual mapping is common in the laptop and smartphone industries. Perceptual maps are created by the companies in these segments for improving on precision and details, by better aggregation and analysis of data.

Multi-dimensional mapping may also define and segment the market and reveal the different business clusters that may be differentiated based on their key aspects. When the clusters defined on their attributes are located, businesses can identify the emerging as well as the partnership opportunities as well. This is so because clustering reveals the similarity between different businesses.

Therefore multidimensional mapping help in market management in many different ways. It helps companies and marketers have a better assessment of the market, to group the attributes of customers together, to identify competitor sets, and also to know how the offerings and brands are being distinguished by the consumers in the market place.

Multidimensional mapping can also be used to identify gaps in a market in many different areas. For instance, businesses can find out what customer aspirations have not been fulfilled by any of the offerings of any of the businesses and competitors. It may help them innovate a new service or product based on the current aspirations and requirements of the customers.

Multidimensional mapping has also been used by businesses for tracking their projects and accomplishing them on time. Apart from ensuring that the product is marketed well enough, perceptual maps and the visualization of perceptions of consumers also ensure that the overarching goals of branding and positioning are also met through the marketing activities. The maps also help in project management, innovation, and delivering what the market needs, which is crucial for revenues and success.