Assignment:
• The mid-term paper should be no less than 400 words and no more than 800 words. (NOTE: One page, double-spaced is about 300 words.) A good rule of thumb for references is to have one reference in the reference section per total number of pages written. Therefore, if your paper is 5 pages total including the title page and reference page, you should have 5 references in your reference page. Where those references fall within the body of your paper is up to you but you should have as many in your reference section as you have pages of paper. The paper should give some background about value propositions and positioning statements, their purpose and how they are used. Include an example from another organization. From this base, the paper should communicate the value proposition you chose for Jim's Gyms and why it is significant followed by your positioning statement and how it matters. All of this followed by a conclusion section that wraps the paper up in a nice bow. APA formatting is required so be sure to follow APA guidelines - here is a template for you. A great source for making sure your reference page is in APA compliance is www.citefast.com. As always do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Background Information
Value propositions answer the question: "Why should I buy your brand rather than a competitor's?" So, value propositions reflect how companies differentiate and position their brands in the marketplace.
A little bit about value propositions
Review Figure 6.4 in the text on page 186.
There are just five value propositions:
• more for more,
• more for the same,
• more for less,
• the same for less,
• less for much less.
Remember that a value proposition is one of those five phrases. Each one is explained in the text on pages 194 and 196. The text points out that "the brand's value proposition [is] the full mix of benefits upon which the brand is differentiated and positioned."
All about positioning statements: what they do, how they do it (required form) and an examples
OK, so now let's talk a bit about the positioning statement itself. The text covers the positioning statement in Chapter Six on page 188. But, of course all of the material in the text is relevant, not just the small portion devoted to the positioning statement! In fact, differentiation on pages 189-196 and the value proposition discussed on pages 194-196 are very important, which is why they are mentioned above and why you might see something about the differentiation and positioning task on the first quiz.
A positioning statement summarizes company or brand positioning and takes this form:
To (target segment and need) our (brand) is (concept) that (point(s)-of-difference).
The text gives this example:
To busy, mobile professionals who need to always be in the loop, BlackBerry is a wireless connectivity solution that gives you an easier, more reliable way to stay connected to data, people, and resources while on the go.
• A positioning statement is a single statement (a single sentence).
• A positioning statement is an internal rallying cry, not an external advertising message. It's worded very intimately, in a first-person fashion, only to draw everyone within the value chain into the value proposition, not to "sell" targets. In other words, it is not an advertising tag line or slogan!
• A positioning statement's "to" element has two parts: the target segment portion and theneed portion