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MM 4 4th Edition Dawn Iacobucci Solutions Manual 1
MM 4 4th Edition Dawn Iacobucci Solutions Manual 1
CHAPTER 5 – POSITIONING
KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES
CHAPTER OUTLINE
TEACHING NOTE: Ask students to say the first words that come to their mind when
the following brands are mentioned: Omega, the Gap, Starbucks, IKEA,
BlackBerry,and Target. Note down their answers on a whiteboard and then discuss
their responses. This activity will help students understand how these companies have
positioned their products in the minds of customers.
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© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
MM – Instructor Manual
Perceptual maps are graphical depictions of the positioning of particular brands with
respect to their competitors. These pictures help marketers envision how customers think
about their brands.
Figure 5.1 shows a perceptual map of four hybrid car models (Toyota Prius, Lincoln
MKZ, Lexus RX450h and Tesla Model S). Brands presented close together are perceived
to be similar (Lexus and Lincoln), whereas brands farther apart are seen as more different
(Prius and Tesla). The Lexus and Lincoln would be preferred by consumer segment 1.
But the customers in segment 2 seek nice luxury at inexpensive prices. Thus, a car
company might not find this position profitable, or the image desirable.
TEACHING NOTE: Students could be asked to draw a perceptual map for five
electronic gadget manufacturers to highlight their competitive positions. Students can
rate these companies on dimensions such as affordability, quality, innovativeness,
durability, and the like.
This figure is a perceptual map of cities in which a large, global hotel company has
resorts. The company wants to know more about its customers’ travel needs, because
they’re trying to redesign some of their vacation packages. The factors considered here
are price, beaches, and points of interest. The map also identifies two customer segments.
Analyzing the map in detail will help understand the hotel’s current positioning and the
needs of its customers.
TEACHING NOTE: The instructor could ask the students to redraw Figure 5.2 by
retaining the price dimension and changing the other dimension to “seasons of the
year.” Ask them to observe the changes that occur in the figure and discuss how this
would impact the positioning of each of the resort.
TEACHING NOTE: Should a firm change its positioning depending on the market?
What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of doing this? Ask students for
their viewpoints and discuss.
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© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
MM – Instructor Manual
Figure 5.3 contains descriptors for a single service provider, a health club. Patrons have
rated the gym on a number of qualities: the convenience of the location, the variety of the
machines it offers, are there plentiful new machines so that there’s never a long wait, and
finally, whether the staff is helpful, friendly, and trained to give good work-out
instructions. Customers have also given their judgments on the importance of each of the
qualities when choosing a gym. The figure tells us that the gym is conveniently located
but people don’t care much about this attribute. The staff isn’t great, but people are ok
with this too. What people really care about is the number of machines and this particular
gym is not well stocked in that respect. So, the gym has to do something in this regard.
This figure allows us to determine the perceived strengths and weaknesses of Gym 1
compared with gyms 2 and 3. Gym 1 is seen as relatively expensive. On the attribute of
machines, it is dominated by both gyms 2 and 3.
One of the limitations of perceptual maps is that they typically look at only two attributes
at a time.
The figure is a bar chart comparing the three gyms on four attributes – price, location,
staff, and number of machines. This figure shows that there are alternative ways of
conducting a competitor analysis. The graph clearly shows that Gym1 has a competitive
advantage in terms of location, but not in terms of staff or machines.
This figure shows the juxtaposition of product and price. The basic 2×2 matrix shows that
a match of low-low and high-high makes sense. Brands that offer high quality at low
prices and vice-versa have a short life.
This figure shows an analogous 2×2 matrix for promotion and distribution. If a company
promotes broadly and heavily, they are probably looking to move a lot of merchandise,
and so it would be smart to make the goods widely available. Similarly, if a brand has a
more exclusive image and distribution chain, it would make better sense not to overly
promote it.
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© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
MM – Instructor Manual
Figure 5.8 Marketing Management Framework: All 4Ps: Product by Price by Promotion
by Place
The figure suggests eliminating the “low price” and “exclusive distribution”
combinations.
This figure indicates the possibility of eliminating the combinations that involve the
“high price” and “low quality” strategies.
The figure suggests that the “heavy promotions” and “exclusive distribution”
combinations should also be eliminated.
The figure shows that the “good value” purchases—high quality at relatively low prices
—is a position that is hard to sustain.
This figure shows that the “wide distribution” and “light promotion” combinations are
rather inactive strategies.
Figure 5.14 Quality and Price Tend to Realign (see Figures 5.10 and 5.12)
This figure shows that we don’t often see overpriced or good value products. We more
often see “basics” (low price, low quality) or “high-end” products (high price, high
quality).
Figure 5.15 Promotion and Distribution Tend to Realign (see Figures 5.11 and 5.13)
This figure shows that we usually see a match on heaviness of promotion with greater
availability in the marketplace.
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© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
MM – Instructor Manual
This figure shows that many brands may be classified in the extreme upper-left and
lower-right cells—the optimal combinations. But there can be exceptions. Some brands
appear in all the other suboptimal combinations.
There are other management strategies that are consistent with the two basic positioning
strategies proposed.
Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema in The Discipline of Market Leaders identify three
basic corporate strategies to creating value and achieving market stature:
• operational excellence (Dell and Southwest Airlines),
• product leadership (Johnson & Johnson and Sony), and
• customer intimacy (Nordstrom and Amazon)
In the matrix, operations and products would map roughly onto the low costs and high
quality cells, respectively. Customer intimacy is simply good service so that can be
classified in the high quality cell as well.
Michael Porter in his books on Competitive Strategy discusses generic strategies driven
by keeping costs down and prices competitive, leading by differentiation or when
appropriate, niche positioning. The latter is merely a matter of exclusivity and size, and
the first two can be mapped onto the low price vs. high-quality basic combinations.
Once a company has decided upon its positioning, either for the corporation as a whole,
or for one of its brands, it must be able to communicate succinctly the parameters of that
position to a number of different audiences (to customers, employees, shareholders,
general public, etc.).
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© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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Mutta ei!
Tukus oli ja tupa täynnä savua n’otta syslungin piti mennä pihalle
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— Eikö verä?
Syslunki sihtas silmä kovana takan perästä ylhä ja samas tuli jotta noki
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sais följätä mua hautaha asti, — puheli Tuppuraane vesis silmin. — Ja
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s’oon oikee mun himoruakaani. Mäkö en silakkaa söisi? Mutteihän mun
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Koitti se vähä reijästä koperoota että jos olis saanut hännästä kiinni
niin — kyllä mä sun tuhannen kuvaasen opetan täs menhön — — —
— Kissi piru!
KÖPI PÖNTIKKÄÄ SOORRETHAN.
No nii.
No nii.
Mutta ensin sen piti tiätysti oppia puhujaksi ja niin kans lähti heti
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