Positioning
Positioning Basics
Creating the future
Differentiation
Positioning and
Customer Franchise

Related Information

Customer Franchise

Customer Experience

Word of Mouth

Brand Architecture

Positioning relates to all aspects of a business' value delivery system.

Positioning for Competitive Advantage

Positioning Strategy and Creating the Future

A well-positioned business is closely aligned to the needs of its target segments, both current and emerging. Companies which anticipate and shape market trends have the best opportunity for long-term prosperity.

In business, often the best way to predict the future is to create it, and companies are often able to position themselves in ways which set and exploit the basis of competition to their advantage.

There are two ways in which a business can gain competitive advantage by establishing a favourable basis of competition:

• Influence customers' perceptions, their expectations, and the benefits & value which they are prepared to pay for (driving customers towards preferences in which your company has a competitive advantage in delivering against).
  
• Establish a raw competitive advantage over rivals (present and future).

The first method is obviously about shaping the nature of market demand to generate a desired market positioning. The second method - establishing raw competitive advantage - is about using the delivery or supply side of business to establish a market positioning that is usually quite tangible.

Marketing innovation can be used to drive opportunities in both types of positioning. The key elements of each type of positioning strategy are illustrated in the following table.

Customer Franchise

Customer franchise and the occupation of marketing space (example) have been placed in the "raw competitive advantage" column (more on ownership of words & phrases). Although these are customer-related, these are areas which an individual business can drive through its investments. They are things which a business can "own", rather just influence in the market. This is reflected by these factors being monetised in some "brand equity" calculations.

Beyond having a strong customer franchise in the marketplace, gaining access to a strong customer relationship (also under "raw competitive advantage") is a favoured tactic, particularly among direct sales forces.

Sales people and their teams compete to become the "trusted business advisor" to key executives in their business customers. Because an executive is likely to only engage with one (or at most, a couple) of his or her suppliers in this way, establishing such relationships provides sales teams with a powerful competitive advantage, denying their competitors the opportunity to directly influence these executives.

Greatest success goes to a business which establishes "the rules" which give them a highly differentiated, and if possible - unique, position in the market - and which establishes barriers to entry for competitors and rivals.

More on Customer Franchise

back to top

Register Now

Minds Eye (newsletter)

Marketing Cheat Sheet

Disclaimers / Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy About UsContact Us