Understanding Positioning

Overview/Description
 In Understanding Positioning, you'll learn how to use analytical strategies to help you and your organization make objective decisions about new-product development. Learn how to examine the strengths and weaknesses of products and services and how customer perceptions can make or break your product. Examine how to recognize opportunities for your product, as well as possible threats. You'll look at how poor marketing and poor timing influence the chances for product success. In addition, you'll consider the problems produced by miscalculating or overestimating your target market. You'll even learn how to develop contingency plans to ward off possible failure. Understanding Positioning will explain how to test the assumptions on which you've based your product ideas--assumptions such as whether the resources to produce your product really exist, or what questions you need to ask yourself about your new product. The course concludes with early-warning signs you'll need to know to determine whether your product is in trouble, early-warning signs that you can use to save your project!

Target Audience
 Supervisors, managers, project developers

Expected Duration
3.0 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Using the SWOT Analysis

  • recognize the value of objectively analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to a business.
  • identify the four components of a SWOT Analysis; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
  • identify relevant information needed to determine business strengths and weaknesses.
  • recognize the information needed to assess business opportunities.
  • identify needed information to analyze threats to business.

    • Positioning: What Is It?

  • recognize the benefits of correctly "positioning" a product.
  • identify how perception relates to positioning.
  • recognize three methods of positioning.
  • identify a three-step process to preparing a positioning strategy.
  • identify four different types of positioning executions.

    • Positioning Do's and Don'ts

  • recognize the value of positioning do's and don'ts that have been previously tried.
  • identify the principle to employ when confused about how to position a product, service, or company.
  • identify the primary reason for selecting a long-term positioning strategy.
  • recognize the danger in positioning directly against the competition.

    • Putting It All Together

  • recognize how positioning research, market research, and positioning strategy all work together.
  • recognize the importance of the relationship between company goals and new product development.
  • recognize the relationship of market research to positioning strategy.
  • recognize how positioning research relates to marketing research.
  • recognize the research elements that can influence a company's positioning strategy.

    • Course Number: STGY0213