Lecture Four: Positioning

Once the company has their target audience it is then up to them to differentiate their product from the competing ones and position themselves correct that customers will buy their product over others. Kotler et al (2008) defines a products position as "the way the product is defined by consumers minds relative to competing products." so you can understand that the position that a companies product holds with the market and the consumers mind can either make the product a huge success or just a product wasting space on the shelf.

Now the way the position is decided by the consumer is down to the important attributes that the products hold and the values that come with that. From that the consumer then categorises it and positions them in their minds by comparing the perceptions, impressions and feelings that they have of the product. This is all to simplify the buying process for the consumer because it's not possible to constantly re-evaluate products every time.

This might sound like the position of a product must be left up to chance; this is not the case though as companies will have strategies on how to position and differentiate themselves. For example a luxury car maker will keep with the fact that they are luxury if they know that the market is looking for it. This however can take a very long time to then just fail at the end. In summery positioning is most probably the most complex and difficult section of the STP theory but if you get it right will reap you rewards.