Business Marketing Principles. 5 Market Positioning Process. 5 Bases For Market Segmentation.

Positioning is the process of reaching market segments. It distinguishes a branded product or service from its competitors so that it becomes the preferred brand in defined segments of the market. Positioning can focus on new brands but may also involve repositioning existing brands.
Positioning is a means of achieving marketing objectives by ensuring that the right product is developed at the right price in the right segment of the market.

The Positioning Process

The five sequential steps in the process of positioning are:
    Carry out market research to gain understanding of consumer wants and needs and to identify gaps (gap analysis)  which existing, modified or new company products or services could fill.
    Develop segmentation and targeting strategies.
    Establish the relevant attributes that are used by customers in the segment evaluating and choosing between brands in this market.
    Analyse these attributes by 'brand mapping' to assess the current perceived position of existing brands in the market.
    Determine the positioning strategy.

A market segment is a group of customers sharing particular wants or needs. Market segmentation divides the total market available to the company into segments that can be targeted with specially developed and marketed products and that can form the basis for positioning the product in the market.
Segmentation concentrates the minds of those responsible for marketing policies and plans to look for specific marketing opportunities and to develop an appropriate marketing mix that fits in with the requirements of identified market segments and the resources and skills of the company.

Bases For Segmentation

The main bases for segmentation are as follows:
    Consumer preferences – for specific product attributes.
    Benefits sought by customers – for example, quality, prestige, durability and economy.
    Demographic variables – the market can be segmented according to demographic variables such as age, sex or social class. The following socio-economic group classification system is often used:
o    A Upper middle class – higher managerial, administrative or professional people.
o    B Middle class – intermediate managerial, administrative or professional people.
o    C1 Lower middle class – supervising, clerical and lower managerial administrative or professional people.
o    C2 Skilled working class – skilled manual workers.
o    D Working class – service and unskilled manual workers.
o    E Pensioners, widows and casual or lowest-grade workers.
    Buying behaviour – where people buy, their readiness to buy (degree of awareness of the product), the amount they buy (light, medium and heavy users) and their loyalty to the brand (hard core, shifting, switchers).
    Lifestyle – a person's lifestyle is his or her pattern of living in the world. Lifestyles are assessed by psychographics, which list variables under three dimensions: activities, interests and opinions. These are analysed to reveal lifestyle groups.

Business Marketing Principles. 5 Market Positioning Process. 5 Bases For Market Segmentation.

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5 Advanced Dialogic Skills to engage you in deeper and more Productive Interpersonal Conversations

Dialogic Skills

Practicing Dialogic Skills, helps learners acquire
and then practice a set of advanced dialogic skills to help them engage in
deeper and more productive interpersonal conversations.

The five advanced skills of reflective practice — being, speaking, disclosing, testing, and probing.

Although the skills may be difficult to master, the
interpersonally competent individual can learn each of these skills, observe
them in an interpersonal situation, and deploy them when called for. It is
not necessary for all the parties to a dialogue to practice these skills at the
same time; rather, it is merely important that the skills be available in one’s
toolkit to help overcome obstacles or to enrich the dialogue.

Skill Descriptions
Being
Definition: Creates a climate for reflection. It asks that we
experience or describe situations, even our own
involvement in them, without imputing meaning
Behavior: View with empathy and with open-hearted acceptance,
as if you are a close friend or family member
View as strange—to display deep interest and curiosity
Invite questions and comments
Acknowledge one’s own and others’ vulnerability
Consider positions as hypotheses to be tested
Pause—Reflect—Contemplate
Self-Inquiry: What can I learn here?
How am I acting to constrain what is possible?
Example: “It looks like we have pretty much endorsed the direct
marketing approach for this advertising campaign.
As you know, I have pushed for it as well, but we all
remember what happened on the Do-op project. I have
to admit that direct marketing feels right to me, but to be
honest with you, I still have some reservations. Do you
think we should take one more look at this? I’m afraid I
might have overlooked something.”

Speaking
Definition: Calls for speaking with a collective voice to find
collective meaning; attempts to characterize the state of
a group of colleagues at a given time
Behavior: Suggest group norms
Articulate meaning, such as by summoning an image
Be willing to bring out uncertainties and unfounded
assumptions
Self-Inquiry: What can I say to help us understand ourselves?
What social practices are we engaging in right now?
What is emerging in our collective consciousness that I
can articulate?
Example: “Jamie, your concern left me with an image that seems
to characterize our effort right now. It is like we’re a
cargo plane having to make our destination to Istanbul
but with one engine knocked out.”

Disclosing
Definition: Asks that members find and speak with their own voice
in order to disclose their doubts and assumptions as well
as voice their impatience and passion
Behavior: Disclose one’s feelings at a given moment, based on what
has transpired
Present one’s story to reveal the depth of one’s
experience
Self-Inquiry: What am I holding back that needs to be aired?
What might I say to help others know me better?
Example: “I wasn’t planning on telling you about this. I know I
have seemed distracted lately and the way I just dealt
with Linda is a case in point. Well, frankly, I am having
some marital problems. I’ve moved into an apartment
and can’t get my mind off my kids.”

Testing
Definition: Makes an open-ended query to others to attempt to
uncover new ways of thinking and behaving; asks
members of a group to consider their own process,
including their norms, roles, and past actions
Behavior: Make a “meta-inquiry” to focus on where the group is
right now
Ask whether the group would be willing to test some
taken-for-granted assumptions
Self-Inquiry: Are we helping each other right now?
What can I ask to help us all focus on our process right
now?
Example: “I guess we’re at an impasse. In fact, it looks like we’re
split right down the middle on this one. Can we come up
with some way to resolve this to everyone’s reasonable
satisfaction? What do you all think?”

Probing
Definition: Inquires directly with others to understand the
facts, reasons, assumptions, inferences, and possible
consequences of a given suggestion or action; commits to
a nonjudgmental consideration of another’s views
Behavior: Ask about another’s impressions and perceptions
Inquire about one’s attributions of another’s behavior
Explore the consequences of an alternative
Self-Inquiry: What is the basis for another person’s point of view and
feelings?
Can I explore with others even though their position
may be different from my own?
Example: “Frank, you’ve said several times that you believe that
the workers in your unit should take the ball and run
with it. Yet you say they are dependent and continue to
check with you on every new initiative. Is there anything
you might be doing or saying that might be blocking
their sense of independence? Might you be unwittingly
giving them the sense that you’ll be critical if they screw
up, for example?”

5 Advanced Dialogic Skills to engage you in deeper and more Productive Interpersonal Conversations