Assignment:
(1) Choose a branded product (good or service) OR choose a company where you know the owner/manager personally.
(2) Tell your reader your branded product in the first section of your paper (Branded Product Analyzed).
(3) In the section labeled Strategies/Marketing,
Describe how the market for your product is segmented. Then describe the target market for your product.
Describe a sample person in the target market, in detail. Go beyond "upper class women" or "middle class families." For example, if you are describing a Revlon cosmetic target, you might write: "Cara is a 27 year old administrative assistant, living in Chicago. She earns about $40,000 a year and spends a lot of her income on clothes and shoes. She reads fashion magazines and watches Survivor. She likes to go out several times a week ... "
Explain WHY you believe your characterization is accurate. You won't know for sure but make a logical argument.
Lastly explain if perception of your product is a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, or Threat. Defend your position on this issue. For instance, you can defend your position on this issue based on
How your product is packaged
Where your product is advertised
The product's advertising message
The product's price (relative to competitive products)
Where your product is distributed
(4) In the section labeled Marketing Environments/Competitors, list your product's top 2 or 3 competitors. Is the financial situation of your company relative to its competitors a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, or Threat? Defend your position on this issue.
[NOTE: Every branded product has competition. For instance Ben and Jerry's ice cream competes against all of the other ice creams.]
(5) In the section labeled Marketing Environments/Buyer Decision-Making and Behavior, explain the differences customers perceive between your product and the products of competitors. Don't just list facts (e.g., A is priced at $11.50 and B at $15.00). Analyze the differences. Is how your product is perceived a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, or Threat? Defend your position on this issue.
(6) In the section labeled Strategies/Marketing, create a product positioning map for your product.
List what you believe are TWO PRIMARY ATTRIBUTES on which your business competes (such as durability and power).
Create and include in your SLP under 'TARGET MARKET and PRODUCT STRATEGY' a positioning map showing where you place your branded product relative to its primary competitors on these TWO criteria.
You should NOT choose quality and price. Many textbooks follow this approach but this usually results in a linear arrangement of the products on a diagonal, with two empty cells! Either the products are of high quality with a commensurate high price or of low quality with a commensurate low price. It is hard to imagine finding products with high quality and a low price or low quality and a high price, i.e. Price and Quality are highly correlated and this invalidates a fundamental assumption of positioning maps, namely that the dimensions used are independent.
When your brands line up on a straight line, you've got ONE dimension, not two. Therefore, choose more interesting and useful dimensions. For example, if you are describing the market for colas, you might choose TWO of the following: carbonation, sweetness, and type of sweetener. Or if you are describing the market for ice cream, you might choose TWO of the following: creaminess, sweetness, and type of sweetener. Though meaningful positioning is multi-dimensional (that is it requires more than two dimensions, for this exercise, so that you get a feeling for the process, you are being asked to use only two dimensions.
Remember to use dimensions that are very important to the consumer - not qualities that the consumer won't notice.
(7) In the section labeled Strategies/Marketing, briefly summarize your product's positioning strategy. Is your product's position a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, or Threat? Defend your position on this issue.
(8) In the section labeled Strategies/Marketing, based on the discussion of brand personality in the Fournier article,
Briefly create a brand personality for your brand. Then, choose one of your brand's competitors and describe that brand's personality.
Briefly contrast the two brand personalities you created.