Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

CHAPTER 18 MARKETING IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
At the strategic level, however, marketing is more concerned with decisions as to which 
markets to operate in, and how to compete successfully in them. At this level, marketing 
is not a functional activity, but requires input of alternative perspectives and skills from 
across the organisation. As noted earlier, the challenge is to manage the process of going to 
market to build superior customer value, through a complex mix of resources, capabilities 
and relationships that make up the overall offering. 
Marketing needs to become, and remain, flexible and responsive to change. That entails 
distinguishing the philosophy from the trappings. At a strategic level, everyone in the organ-
isation should place customers at the forefront of their minds. 
In the highly competitive markets envisaged for the foreseeable future, the ability to 
assimilate and act on knowledge, to create strategies based on assets and competencies, 
to establish close, deep relationships with chosen market segments and, finally, the ability 
to redefine the scope and role of marketing within the organisation will be the bases for 
creating competitive advantage.
18.3 
Competitive positioning strategies 
As has been argued already, competitive positioning is about making choices that ensure a 
fit between chosen market targets and the competencies and assets the firm can deploy to 
serve those chosen targets more effectively than competitors. While there are, in reality, an 
infinite number of different ways in which firms might position themselves in their markets, 
these can be summarised on the basis of the emphasis they give to six main dimensions of 
differentiation. 
Figure 18.4 shows these six dimensions. Positioning could be based on price , techni-
cal quality (or more correctly, grade), service , innovation , benefit differentiation or 
customisation .
While individual firms may choose to position on more than one dimension simultane-
ously, they may find that these are contradictory. For example, offering a higher grade of 
product is generally incongruent with keeping costs (and hence prices) as low as possible. 
Indeed, charging low prices for a high-grade product may create confusion in the minds of 
customers. The key to creating sustainable positions is to ensure that they are built on the 
marketing assets and competencies of the firm.