Positioning

Abstract

The previous chapter looked at literature relating to the process of segmentation, targeting and positioning and the strategic role of positioning in segmentation and targeting. This chapter suggests recognition of a difference between strategic positioning and operational positioning. The literature suggests a difference that is characterized on the one hand by a business that evolves a strategy in all areas of the company that closely matches a target market segment or, on the other hand, a business that more exclusively concentrates on the communications aspect and perceptions of the target market segment.

‘Marketing today is not a function, it is a way of doing business. Marketing is not only a new ad campaign or this month’s promotion. Marketing has to be all-pervasive, part of everyone’s job description, from receptionists to the board of directors. Its job is neither to fool the customer nor to falsify the company’s image. It is to integrate the customer into the design of the product and to design a systematic process for interaction that will create substance in the relationship.’

(McKenna, 1991: 69)