POSITIONING IN

SERVICE MARKETING
INTRODUCTION TO SERVICE
MARKETING

What is a service?

• A service is an act or performance offered

by one party to another.

• Services are economic activities that create

value and provide benefits for customers.
 Basic Differences Between Goods & Services

GOODS SERVICES

• Goods are physical • A Service is essentially

objects intangible.

• Goods are devices that • A Service does not

provide benefits for normally result in
customers through ownership of any of the
ownership or use factors of production.
WHAT IS SERVICE MARKETING?

• Services marketing is marketing based on

relationship and value.
• It may be used to market a service or a product.

Marketing a service-base business is different from

marketing a goods-base business.
There are 4 major differences :
1. The buyer purchases are intangible.
2. The service may be based on the reputation of a single
person.
3. It's more difficult to compare the quality of similar services.
4. The buyer cannot return the service.
Levels of Marketing Strategy

Segmentation
Segmentation

Targeting
Targeting

Positioning
Positioning
Levels of Service Marketing Strategy

Market segmentation: is defined as the

process of splitting customers, or potential
customers, in a market into different
groups, or segments.

Market targeting: Market Targeting is the

process in which intended actual markets
are defined, analyzed and evaluated just
before the final decision to enter is made.
 What is Positioning?

Positioning is the act of

designing the company’s offering
and image to occupy a distinctive
place in the mind of the target
market.
How do I begin to Position my Brand?

Why? For Whom?

When ?
Against whom?
In order to Position a Brand…

• …you must decide :-

– Who the Target Consumer is

– Who your main competitors are
– How the Brand is similar to your
competitors
– How the Brand is different from your
competitors

• Where do you get this information?

– Your BRAND INVENTORY!!
FOCUS OF POSITIONING

• Attributes and benefits of the product

• Competition

• Product user

• Product use or application

• Product class

• Cultural symbols
 STEPS IN POSITIONING
• Identify Competitors.
• Determine most important attributes
consumers use in choosing a brand.
• Determine consumers’ perceptions of
competitors.
• Determine perceptions of your brand
• What is the ideal brand for your market segments?
• Assess best positioning strategy
• Track image of brand over time
Positioning Strategies of
various companies using
punch lines or tag lines
Banks

• SBI - With You all the Way

• ICICI Bank - Hum Hai Na
• HSBC – World’s Local Bank
• Central bank of India – Build A Better Life
Around Us
• Syndicate Bank - Your Faithful & Friendly
Financial Partner
• Karur Vysya Bank - Smart Way To Bank
Telecom Companies

• Airtel – Express yourself

• Reliance – Kar lo duniya muthhi mein.

• Cell One – The One for Everyone

• Idea – An Idea Can Change Your Life

• Vodafone – Happy To Help

POP and POD

Points-of-difference –unique brand values

• Desirable
• Deliverable

Points-of-parity–shared brand values

• Necessary
• Competitive
 Point of Difference Questions….

• Is the key benefit important to our

customer?
• Can we deliver the benefit?
• Can we own this point of difference over
time?
• Is this point of difference sustainable
over our competition and their
directions?
•Craft the Brand Positioning Statement

Relevant.

differentiated and

single-minded!
Three Elements

• Target Audience

• Compelling benefit

• Reason Why (Kitchen Logic)

 All Elements

• Packaging, Pricing, Distribution,

Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing….

• All work in unison to the beat of the

brand positioning statement.
 The Cornerstone

• The brand positioning statement is

the single most important item in all of
marketing.

• It defines EVERYTHING about what

your brand is to the consumer.
 Going From Strategy to Idea

Creative Leaps
Advertising Idea

Strategy / Positioning

Product

Consumer Understanding
 Going From Strategy to Idea

Advertising Idea:
Some Definitions. . . Transforms the strategy
into a powerful,
motivating, and
consumer relevant
selling idea.
Brand Positioning
Provides the strategic
framework for how we
are going to
differentiate our brand
vs. competition.
 Brand Positioning

• Perceived fit • Positioning is

between a defined relative
particular to:
product offering – competitive
and the needs of offerings
target market – consumer needs
 Brand Positioning

Physical Positioning
• How a firm’s product compares to the
competition’s on some set of objective
physical characteristics

Perceptual Positioning
• How a firm’s product compares to the
competition’s on some set of subjective
characteristics
 A brand can be positioned in
several ways:

• Benefit positioning.

• Target positioning.

• Price positioning.

• Positioning by distribution.
 Similar concepts
• Unique Selling Proposition (USP; Reeves and Bates)
– Advertisers should give a compelling reason to buy a
product that competitors could not match
• What component of the IBM reflects this?
• Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)
• The advantage of delivering superior value in the marketplace
for a prolonged period of time
• Further, SCAs can result from any component of the firm
– Similar to notion that Principle exists in every part of the firm
 CONCLUSION….

Adopting a strong position is not a

passive act; rather it is a deliberate
attempt to influence events. It requires
ignoring certain business targets in
favor of others, and if successful, will
yield growth in sales and profits and a
consumer franchise who believe that
your brand has no adequate substitute,
even if it costs more.
 CONCLUSION (cont.)….

• Neither innovation or quality are, by

themselves, sufficient to guarantee
that a brand will achieve all that it is
capable of in the market place.
PRESENTED BY :-

Prashanth
Rakesh
Neha
Bhargavi
“THANK YOU FOR HEARING”