Marketing management

1. MARKETING
MANAGEMENT
TABESH UNIVERSITY
Sir Hayatullah Ashna

2. YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT
 POSITIONING THE MARKET OFFERING THROUGH PLC
 DEVELOPING AND COMMUNICATING A POSITIONING STRATEGY
 PLC MARKETING STRATEGIES

3. POSITIONING THE MARKET OFFERING THROUGH PLC
Market positioning:
In marketing, positioning is the process by which marketers try to create an
image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or
organization relative to competing products. Its objective is to occupy a clear,
unique, and advantageous position in the consumer's mind.

4. Re-positioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of
competing products.
De-positioning involves attempting to change the identity of competing products,
relative to the identity of your own product. It will have strong sales, and it may
become the go-to brand for people who need that particular product. Poor
positioning, on the other hand, can lead to bad sales and a dubious reputation. A
number of things are involved in market positioning, with entire firms specializing in
this activity and working with clients to position their products effectively.

5. Positioning in the introduction stage:
When a company’s product is in the introduction stage, so the company must do
strong advertisements to create awareness in the mind of people about
company’s product and services. It is fact because companies offer new
products/services how we know about them? The answer of this question is that
we know it throw electronic media and paper media.
Positioning the market offering through product life cycle

6. Positioning in the stage of growth:
A stage where companies product/services are becoming popular among the
target market and there exists an opportunity to capture more market shares.
How companies capture more market shares? Simply by increasing their
distribution channels, distribute your products in those areas where it is
unknown. May be the customers want to purchase/buy your products/services
but they are not aware of it.

7.  During this stage, the firm uses several strategies to sustain rapid market growth
 It improves product quality and add new product feature and improved styling
 It adds new models, product of different sizes, flavors
 It enters new market segments
 It increases its distribution coverage and enters new distribution channels
 It lower prices to attract the next layer of price-sensitive buyers

8. Positioning in the maturity stage:
A stage where each and every companies wish to be in. in this stage companies don’t need
to expend a lot on advertisements because what they were trying to capture they have
captured so now in this stage they are supposed to retain their captured customers. They
can do this by modification in their products or using a new market segments.

9. Market modification:
 The company might try to expand the market for its mature brand. For example
Johnson and Johnson successfully promoted its baby shampoo to adult users.
 Volume can also be increased by convincing current users to increase their
brand usage For example: Safe Guard and life boy Gold convincing their
users to wash hands frequently.

10. Product modification:
 Managers also try to increase sales by modifying the product’s characteristics through
quality improvement, feature improvement, or style improvement.

11. Positioning in the declining stage:
Maintaining the product in hope that competitor will exit, reduce cost and find new
uses for the product.
 Harvesting
 Divesting

12. Positioning strategies can be conceived and developed in a variety of ways. It can be
derived from the object attributes, competition, application, the types of consumers
involved, or the characteristics of the product class. All these attributes represent a different
approach (differentiation concept) in developing positioning strategies, even though all of
them have the common objective of projecting a favorable image in the minds of the
consumers or audience.
DEVELOPING AND COMMUNICATING A MARKET
POSITIONING STRATEGY

13. THERE ARE SEVEN APPROACHES TO POSITIONING STRATEGIES
(1) Using Product characteristics or Customer Benefits as a positioning strategy.
This strategy basically focuses upon the characteristics of the product or customer benefits.
For example if I say imported items it basically tells or illustrates a variety of product
characteristics such as durability, economy or reliability etc. Let’s take an example of
motorbikes some are emphasizing on fuel economy, some on power, looks and others stress
on their durability. Hero Cycles Ltd. positions first, emphasizing durability and style for its
cycle.

14. Con…
At time even you would have noticed that a product is positioned along
two or more product characteristics at the same time. You would have
seen this in the case of toothpaste market, most toothpaste insists on
‘freshness’ and ‘cavity fighter’ as the product characteristics. It is
always tempting to try to position along several product characteristics,
as it is frustrating to have some good characteristics that are not
communicated.

15. (2) Pricing as a positioning strategy - Quality Approach or Positioning
by Price-Quality – Lets take an example and understand this approach
just suppose you have to go and buy a pair of jeans, as soon as you enter
in the shop you will find different price rage jeans in the showroom say
price ranging from 350 rupees to 2000 rupees. As soon as look at the
jeans of 350 Rupees you say that it is not good in quality. Why?

16. Con…
Basically because of perception, as most of us perceive that if a product is
expensive will be a quality product where as product that is cheap is lower in
quality. If we look at this Price quality approach it is important and is largely
used in product positioning. In many product categories, there are brands that
deliberately attempt to offer more in terms of service, features or
performance. They charge more, partly to cover higher costs and partly to let
the consumers believe that the product is, certainly of higher quality.

17. (3) Positioning strategy based on Use or Application – Let’s understand this with the
help of an example like Nescafe Coffee for many years positioned itself as a winter
product and advertised mainly in winter but the introduction of cold coffee has
developed a positioning strategy for the summer months also. Basically this type of
positioning-by-use represents a second or third position for the brand, such type of
positioning is done deliberately to expand the brand’s market. If you are introducing
new uses of the product that will automatically expand the brand’s market.

18. (4) Positioning strategy based on Product Process – Another positioning approach
is to associate the product with its users or a class of users. Makes of casual
clothing like jeans have introduced ‘designer labels’ to develop a fashion image. In
this case the expectation is that the model or personality will influence the
product’s image by reflecting the characteristics and image of the model or
personality communicated as a product user.

19. Con…
Let’s not forget that Johnson and Johnson repositioned its shampoo from one used
for babies to one used by people who wash their hair frequently and therefore
need a mild people who wash their hair frequently and therefore need a mild
shampoo. This repositioning resulted in a market share.

20. (5) Positioning strategy based on Product Class - In some product class we have
to make sure critical positioning decisions For example, freeze dried coffee needed
to positions itself with respect to regular and instant coffee and similarly in case of
dried milk makers came out with instant breakfast positioned as a breakfast
substitute and virtually identical product positioned as a dietary meal substitute.

21. (6) Positioning strategy based on Cultural Symbols - In today’s world many advertisers are using
deeply entrenched cultural symbols to differentiate their brands from that of competitors. The
essential task is to identify something that is very meaningful to people that other competitors are not
using and associate this brand with that symbol. Air India uses maharaja as its logo, by this they are
trying to show that we welcome guest and give them royal treatment with lot of respect and it also
highlights Indian tradition. Using and popularizing trademarks generally follow this type of
positioning.

22. (7) Positioning strategy based on Competitors - In this type of positioning strategies, an
implicit or explicit frame of reference is one or more competitors. In some cases, reference
competitor(s) can be the dominant aspect of the positioning strategies of the firm, the firm
either uses the same of similar positioning strategies as used by the competitors or the
advertiser uses a new strategy taking the competitors’ strategy as the base. A good example
of this would be Colgate and Pepsodent. Colgate when entered into the market focused on
to family protection but when Pepsodent entered into the market with focus on 24 hour
protection and basically for kids, Colgate changed its focus from family protection to kids’
teeth protection which was a positioning strategy adopted because of competition.

23. Product also has various stages of life as human beings. From the time a product is
introduced, till it is withdrawn from the market, it goes through 5 stages. Analysis
of these stages for the purpose of repositioning the product in the market is called
Product Life Cycle management. The following are the stages in a product life
cycle.
1. Introduction Stage
2. The Growth Stage
3. The Maturity Stage
4. The Saturation Stage
5. The Decline Stage
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE:

24. 1. Introduction Stages: In this stage, a new product is introduced on a
large scale for the first time. Market reacts slowly to the introduction. In
other words, consumers take time to accept the new product. Initially,
the company may suffer losses, sales improves gradually. Most of the
products fail in this stage itself.

25. Following are the characteristics of this stage:
 Consumers do not have the knowledge of the product
 Consumers may or may not be strongly in need of the new product.
 If there is a need for the product, the company gets readymade demand.
Otherwise, it increases slowly.
 Sales are minimum
 The competition is less, in fact the company, which introduces new product is
called as a Market Pioneer.
The cost of it is very high because the company spends money heavily on Research
& Development, Sales, Promotion, etc.

26. Marketing Strategies during the Introduction Stage: A company has to prepare the
policies very carefully in the stages because it has a great impact on the image of a new
product. Even a minor mistake results in the premature death of a product. The following
are the strategies that the company may adopt in this stage:
1. It may spend heavily on promotion & fix high price. This meets two objectives. Firstly,
heavy promotion creates large demand & high price, brings immediate profits. This strategy
also helps to create brand preference in the minds of the consumer. It is normally followed
when there is a great need for the product, when the product belongs to the richer class &
when products are consumer specialties.

27. 2. This second strategy is to fix high price but to spend less on promotion.
This is preferred when the product has limited market, in which people have
knowledge about the product & the competition is completely absent.
3. Another strategy is to charge low price & spend heavily on promotion. This
is preferable when consumers are sensitive to the price & market is wide
enough. This strategy brings good returns in the long run.

28. 2. Growth Stage: It is called the market acceptance stage. Following
are its features:
 Consumers & traders accept the product
 Sales & profit increase
 More competitions enter the market
 The focus of competition is on the brand rather than the product
 Competitors may introduce new features to the product
 Distribution network increase
 The price will be reduced marginally

29. 4. The company may charge low price & spends less on promotion. This
is preferable when the consumers are informed about the product,
market is very large & there is no competition for the time being. In the
introduction stage, the competitors are very cautious. They do not enter
the market immediately. They study the strategies of a company &
watch the reaction of the consumers. This helps them to find out the
defects of the company’s strategy.

30. Marketing Strategies in the Growth Stage:
• The company tries to impress upon the consumers that its brand is superior
• It may introduce new models or improve the quality
• It may enter new market & sell its products with new distribution channels
• To attract more buyers, it may reduce the price.

31. 3. Maturity Stage: This stage indicates the capacity to face the competition,
sales increases at a decreasing rate. Competition becomes severe. It is
reflected in various ways such as offering discounts, modifying products etc.
• Marketing Strategies during Maturity Period/Stage: In this stage, the
manufactures have to take responsibility to promote his product. This
strategy aims at creating brand loyalty.

32. 4. Saturation Stage: This is the stage when the sales reach the peak point. Competition intensifies
further & profit begins to decline. Small competitors may withdraw from the market because of their
incapability to face the competition.
• Marketing Strategies: This is the stage where the marketing manager must try to reposition his
product. Most of the strategies in this stage are offensive in nature. Each manufacture tries to cut
down his competitor’s market share by aggressive promotion policy. The objective of marketing in
this stage is to retain the present sales level.

33. 5. Decline Stage: For all products, sales invariably declines as new products enter the market. In this
stage, there is a sharp decline in the profits, cost increases & market share comes down. Most of the
manufactures withdraw from the market. Some may reduce production & concentrate only on a
limited market
• Marketing Strategies: This stage offers one of the greatest challenge to the marketing manager. He
has to decide whether or not to continue with the product. The main task of marketing manager is
to revitalize the demand instead of discontinuing the product immediately. It is better to withdraw
gradually. Those channels of distribution, which are costly & unproductive maybe removed. In the
meantime, the weak points of the marketing mix maybe identified & altered as required.

34. THE END