What are the 9 positioning strategies in marketing?

Answer 1

1) Positioning as a niche. A niche is a unique need where a product, service or brand is especially well suited. The key to niche positioning in PR is proving that the niche is worth attention because it has some broader implication. By definition, a niche does not meet the needs of the masses.

2) Positioning as David vs. Goliath. Brains over brawn is a classic marketing strategy. Everyone wants to root for the little guy, and better still when the little guy does it with ingenuity over brute strength. What often goes unsaid is the re-positioning of the competition without saying it aloud. Goliath was a bully and nobody likes a bully.

3) Positioning as a dark horse. News by definition defies expectations, and the dark horse that comes out of nowhere to win a race is news. The dark horse is a good technique for companies doing interesting things that haven't yet earned greater interest; it works for large brands too. One of the standouts in history is perhaps the "think small" campaign for the Volkswagen bug. In an era where big cars were in style, VW took a perceived weakness, made it central to their positioning, and turned it into a strength.

4) Positioning as an unlikely success. This position is a come from behind win - an idea that has been vetted and discounted but is now proving the pundits wrong. Bonus if we have at least three pundits - because three is a trend.

5) Positioning a mission impossible. This is a variation of the "unlikely success" the difference is that the unlikely success has tackled a good idea with a method the pundits have said cannot work. Mission impossible is just that: It cannot be done. Those that are doing it anyway are doing it out of sheer determination.

6) Positioning as a personal passion. For a charismatic business leader, this position humanizesa brand and puts a personal face on a story. People identify with people because we are by our very nature social creatures. The caveat is that the position is lost if a brand has but one face.

7) Positioning as reinvention. It's all a misunderstanding. Hollywood and rappers are incredibly adept at remakingthemselves. Brittney Spears has reinvented herself several times over. Miley Cyrus is shaking away her Disney roots. George Takei is now Tech Trek. Arnold transformed from Terminator to governator. Reagan went from actor to corporate talker to President. It was Howard Stern's pitchwhen his movie was release; he's a nice guy that sometimes says naughty things.

8) Positioning as first. In the classic marketing book, Positioning: The Battle for your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote, "History shows that the first brand into the brain, on average, gets twice the long-term market share of the No. 2 brand and twice gain as much as the No. 3 brand." The authors seefirstas the positioning of leadershipthough I think the technology market has challenged some of these long-held principles. Google was just a better AltaVista. Microsoft wasn't first and the company seems to be proving that innovation doesn't last forever. It took a long time for Apple - and a reinvention along the way - to make a return on being first.

9) Positioning as customer-centric. If you can't win on price or innovation, service just might be the ticket. It's how Zapposgrew to fame, but doing it well is a hard standard to maintain. Quick - think of how many companies do customers service well? It's a lonely position and therein lies its strength.