What is Strategic Positioning

And how does it impact the rest of the business?

• Do you see business making this conscious decision?
• What benefits come from this?
• What is the cost or loss?
• Examples welcomed.

While researching the topic of Strategic Positioning I surveyed people in my Linkedin Network. I found it helpful to learn how other experts perceived this topic. My thanks to all of them for their thoughtful replies. Here are a few of those replies.

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Robert "Alan" Black
NSA, CSP Prof Member, speaker/consultant/trainer/author
Athens, Georgia Area

When I taught Fundamentals of Marketing courses for the American Management Association around the US at various AMA centers from 1984 to 1986 the book POSITIONING by Al Ries and Jack Trout had already been a best seller and Strategic Planning was also a popular selling topic; first to business and industry and then to governments and agencies.

You are asking about STRATEGIC POSITIONING in the era of BRANDING.

hmmmm?!

Strategic thinking....chosen thinking, deliberately chosen planning

Positioning....getting the mindset you want into the minds of your customers/clients/patients that you want them to have.

One of the problems of becoming too STRATEGIC and too specific about a POSITION is what do you do when the situation changes such as the past couple years with the international global financial disasters.

Do you change your strategy(ies)?

Do you change your position?

One of the lessons, I believe, I got from Ries & Trout is often POSITIONS or POSITIONING happens in the mind/s of customers/clients/patients even when you are trying to establish or create other Positions.

Then the question becomes HOW TO UN-POSITION OR RE-POSITION you, your products, your company or FINDING NEW CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS/PATIENTS OR NEW MARKETS.

hmmm?!

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Paul Weber
CEO Entrepreneur Advertising Group
Kansas City, Missouri Area


There is no better case study than Southwest Airlines. Both in strategic positioning and in brand positioning, they have been the only airline in 25 years that created a recognizable differentiation based on consumer preferences. Fast, friendly, fun, low fares....

These are always the words that describe consumers' experience with the airline. No other airline has ever had a recognizable position that was identifiable to the general public.

I am speaking from more of a marketing and brand perspective but I'm sure that their operational strategies ran similar. Southwest, without a doubt, one of the better examples of positive positioning against the competition.


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Arun Prakash Maruthavanan
Principal Consultant at GETCXO
Chennai Area, India

Strategic positioning is the way you position your company, business model and offerings by analyzing your marketplace, rapidly changing environment, futuristic trends, competition, consumers and leveraging it to your advantage.

The strategic position of a business is its perceptual location relative to others. Awesome benefits like competitive edge,overall efficiency, early entry advantage, huge sales,brand loyalty and positioning; shall be reaped resulting in excellent growth of the business.

Unfortunately the majority of business are not making this conscious decision due to the lack of leadership, vision, market intelligence, professional support and their inability to accept, implement "Change".

The cost is directly proportional to the size of the business and the domain/marketplace in which it operates. A loss shall happen if this type of positioning is implemented in a wrong way resulting in a disaster.

I believe that the decision making capabilities of the business leadership plays a crucial role in the outcome of Strategic positioning.
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George Torok

Marketing Expert & Speaker

Executive Briefing for your Management Team