Q. Explain the concept of product positioning?
Ans : As rightly said by Al Ries with Jack Trout (who introduced the concept of Positioning in the early 1970's in their series of articles called The Positioning Era for Advertising Age) Positioning isn't what you do to a product and Positioning is what you do to the minds of the prospect". It is described as the consumer perception of a product or service as compared to its competitors. In marketing Positioning has come to signify the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product and brand or organisation. It is the comparative competitive comparison their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.
It has as well explains the terms Re-Positioning and De-Positioning which states that Re- Positioning involves changing the identity of the product and relative to the identity of the competitors products in the collective minds of the target market where De-Positioning engages attempting to change the identity of competing products relative to the identity of your product in the collective minds of the target market.
As someone said -Positioning theory is a new discipline-based school of thought about the strategic marketing process. It is the revise of the principles, strategies, governing laws and models of how the consumer's mind systematically sorts or ranks and files concepts in the minds directly related to the competitors.
Product Positioning is how the company desires' its potential buyers to see the product for which the company requires to decide its niche market - taking into consideration its pricing promotion, packaging, distribution, location and competitors strategy as well as the desires, needs, wants of the customers. For instance BMW, Mercedes, Rolex is positioned as a luxury brand.