Positioning and Targeting your market

Positioning and targeting market are two of the most important factor in our marketing strategy. The basic of that understanding are the stronger your positioning the stronger your marketing strategy. Both of positioning and target market decision are based on our understanding to customer, to company's capablity, as well as to competitor's capability.

Positioning consist of one, two or three benefits offered by our products to solve the customer problems. The benefits should be better or even can not be compared to your competitors. Positioning should consist of some benefits only, some extraordinary things which you can offer to customers. Mention only the most important benefits. Try to select among these benefits and not to mention too many as the customer will hardly remember it. With the selection you will easily to put you positioning to serve your target market. Put the 3 most important benefits and set them as your positioning. For example : the engineering company will select the benefits they are able to offer to client. The ability to offer to client the financial back up, also the most economic product compared to competitor with the same quality. In order to achieve that, the company has to limit the capacity of the plant should be equal or more than 500 m3/day. So that their positioning has been set based on that capacity.

An effective Unique Selling Point (USP) communicates your firm's unique ability to fill an obvious void in the marketplace. The USP shows your target market how your firm is uniquely qualified to solve their pain or increase their gain. A USP can be your firm's single most powerful marketing weapon.To craft a USP for your firm first make a list of all the benefits of doing business with your firm. Don't leave anything out.Then cut the list down with these guidelines.

1. What things on your list are unique versus your direct competitors.

2. Which of these benefits is most important to your clients?

3. Which of these would be difficult for other's in your industry to copy?

4. Which of these can be easily communicated?

From this set of guidelines you should be able to narrow your search to the top one or two benefits of doing business with your firm.From there it is simply a matter of injecting this chief benefit or USP into everything that you do.Craft headlines that promote your USP, put a USP statement on your stationary and business cards, build your USP into all of your sales presentations.The ultimate goal is to become known to the market as whatever your USP promotes.One final word of warning. You must deliver on the big promise communicated in your USP. Failure to do so may actually do more harm then drifting along without any marketing focus.