Service Management

Date: 07th Dec 2011 Time: 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm Faculty: Prof. Rajesh Nair

Topic: Positioning and Differentiation of Services

Positioning is defined as the process of establishing and maintaining a distinctive place in the market for an organization and or its individual product offerings Different positioning strategies:

1) Attribute positioning-based on attribute e.g. Allahabad Bank positions itself as oldest bank 2) Benefit positioning internet banking e.g. ICICI Bank with good number of ATMs and

3) Use /application positioning-e.g. SBI for educational loans 4) User positioning-for e.g. India as a destination for pilgrimage centers 5) Competitor positioning-Service is positioned against competitors e.g. IIPM against IIMs 6) Category positioning- e.g. Disney world as entertainment park 7) Quality/price positioning for e.g. Oberois as high quality, high price hotels

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Differentiation The attributes for Differentiation are as follows:a) Important b) Distinctive c) Superior d) Communicable e) Preemptive-cannot be copied f) Affordable g) Profitable

Level of Positioning:

1) Service level-LIC offering different life policies 2) Corporate level- LIC as Trustworthy and Reliable company 3) Category level-LIC as insurance company with various investment options

Basis for Positioning:

1) Objective positioning- physical attributes of product or service 2) Subjective positioning-customers image of service or both

-By Satish Pathak

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