Positioning

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Suite 531,
Nepean Ontario
Canada K2J 4P6
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Positioning: What the heck do you do and why should I care?

By Wayne McKinnon

We are the best!…(says who?)

These are our products!…(why should I care)

This is our pricing model!…(thanks, now I know how much I am saving by not buying)

As you can see from the statements above, the typical approach to marketing is not great. “We are the best” is simply an empty assertion. If you want to say that you are the best, who says you are the best? Compared to who? Can you prove it? If you can’t it is just an assertion.

These are our products might be useful if I am a catalogue shopper, but even catalogue shoppers are sophisticated enough to want to know something about the company before they place an order.

Your pricing model is meaningless unless I have already decided that I need your products and I want to do business with you. True, it may help position you as the best price in town, but typically you will need a bit more behind that assertion, and that is where positioning comes in.

If you are defining a new market for a class of products that has never existed before, people need to get used to the concept long before they are willing to buy. You may not have any competitors, but you are competing for the sale. The buyer may not be deciding between your product or a competitor's, but rather your product or not.

There are many ways to position your product or company. One is to position your company as an expert in your market. Another is to compare what you do to that of an existing product or service. People need something tangible to hang their hat on.

Your marketing should begin well in advance of the introduction of a new product or service. Become known, create some gravity, and create the need today! Then figure out what the next step is in the buyers decision process and design your next piece around that. It’s not a bad idea to have all of these pieces in place before your product launch.

Wayne McKinnon. 900 Greenbank Road Suite 531, Nepean Ontario Canada K2J 4P6 phone: (613) 860-1384 Fax: (613) 825-4895
e-mail:info@ITcoach.com

Reprints of these articles are allowed providing that: 1) Wayne McKinnon retains full copyrights. 2) The byline and phone number or e-mail address is included as written here. 3) Wayne McKinnon is contacted and sent a copy of the publication in which the article appears

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