Page 72 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

64 Marketing: the Basics
5 Affordable: The benefit is affordable to the buyer and not perceived as overpriced.
6 Profitable: It makes economic sense to provide the benefit. If you are not going to make money why bother, of course in the early days of a product you don’t expect to be immediately profitable. Sometimes the product is good over the longer term, but some products just never get there. Learn to have the discipline to axe them early rather than later in the process. This takes great discipline and considerable market insight, but is one of the signs of a great marketer.
SUMMARY
• The marketing mix is designed specifically to position a product in the minds of the target market.
• Segmentation methods are used to select the target market.
• A winning positioning strategy places the product at the top of a customer’s product ladder. Brands offer a complex set of unique benefits that offer many potential sources of
competitive advantage.
CRITICAL qUESTIONS
1 List and discuss the various methods of segmenting a market.
2 Explain how companies position their products in the mind of consumers. What role does each element of the marketing
mix play?
3 What is a unique selling proposition? Should a company
position a product solely on a unique selling proposition or
more?
4 Discuss the various position strategies available to a marketer.
What are the advantages of each? What could an incumbent
do to counter these strategies?
5 Why is differentiation so important? List and describe the
five dimensions a marketer can use to differentiate a product.