The document discusses product differentiation and positioning strategies for companies. It defines differentiation as designing meaningful differences between a company's offering and competitors' offerings. Companies can differentiate their products, services, personnel, channels, and image. Positioning is designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in customers' minds. When positioning, companies must decide how many benefits to promote and avoid errors like underpositioning or overpositioning.

1. Answer from the pre-class reading only.
Negative marks will be applicable for wrong answers.
Answer in one or two sentences.
 Presidency Business School,
QUIZ no. 4
 Name : Date:
 Sem: 1(MKU) Marketing Management

2. Two marks each
 1.Which are the two factors the firm must look into
while evaluating different market segments ?
 2.What is the use of concentrating on a single
segment ?
 3. Which pattern of target market selection has the
advantage of diversifying firm’s risk ?
 4.When is the product specialisation come under
risk?
 5. In which type of marketing the firm focuses on a
basic buyer need rather than on differences among
buyers ?

3. Product Differentiation
 Companies constantly need to think up
new value-adding features and benefits
to win the attention and interest of
choice-rich, price prone consumers.
 Most competitive advantages last only a
short time as they get copied as soon
as possible.
 Company must differentiate its offering.

4.  Differentiatiation is the act of
designing a set of
meaningfuldidfferences to distinguish
the company’s offering from
competitors’ offerings
 Product Differentiation
 Services Differentiation

5.  Product Differentiation: Physical products vary in their potential
for differentiation.
 Form
 Features
 Performance Quality
 Conformance Quality
 Durability
 Reliability
 Repairability
 Style
 Design: Integrating Force

6.  Services Differentiation: When product cannot be
differentiated easily adding value services and
improving quality becomes the key to differentiation
 Ordering Ease
 Delivery
 Installation
 Customer training
 Maintenance & Repair
 Miscellaneous Services

7.  Personnel Differentiation:
In an age when competitors can knock off productsa or
services in an instant, sosme savy companies are
marketing their employees’ unique know how.
 Competence
 Courtesy
 Credibility
 Reliability
 Responsiveness
 Communication

8.  Channel Differentiation:
 Companies can achieve
competitive advantage thro’
the way they design their
distribution channels’
coverage, expertise and
performance.

9.  Image Differentiation
 Buyers respond differently to company
and brand images.
 Products’ character and value
proposition
 Convey's this character in a distinct
way sop as not to confuse with
competitors
 It delivers emotional power beyond a
mental image.

10.  Symbols: strong signals
 Media:must be worked out into ads and
media
 Atmosphere:physical space occupied.
 Events: events it sponsors

11. Positioning
 Positioning is the act of designing the
company’s offering and image to occupy a
distinctive place in the target market’s mind.
 It is not what you do to the product, but what
you do to the mind of the prospect.
 Positioning requires that every tangible
aspect of product, price, place and promotion
must support the chosen positioning strategy.

12.  How many differences to promote?
 Each company must decide how many
differences to promote to its target
customers.
 Many marketers advocate promoting only one
central benefit (Unique selling proposition)
 Double benefit positioning may be necessary
if two or more firms claim to be the best on
the attribute.

13.  The companies must avoid four major
positioning errors
1. Underpositioning
2. Overpositioning
3. Confused positioning
4. Doubtful positioning