Principles of Marketing

(Unit-I) (Dt. 21.09.2024)

By Dr. Saraju Prasad
Introduction to marketing, Functions:
 Marketing process brings goods and services to satisfy the needs and wants of the people.
 It helps to bring new varieties and quality goods to consumers.
 By making goods available at all places, it brings equipment distribution.
 Marketing converts latent demand into effective demand.
 It gives wide employment opportunities.
 Efficient marketing results in lower cost of marketing and ultimately lower prices to
consumers.
 It is vital link between production and consumption and primarily responsible to keep the
wheel of production and consumption constantly moving.
 It creates to keep the standard of living of the society.
Core concepts of marketing such as Need, Want, Demand:
A human need is a state of felt deprivation of some basic satisfaction. People require
foods, clothing, shelter, safety, belonging, esteem etc. these needs exist in the very nature of
human beings.
Example: Salt, Potato Chips
Human wants are desires for specific satisfiers of these needs. While people’s needs are
few, their wants are many.
Example: Raymonds, Colourplus
Demands are wants for specific products that are backed up by an ability and willingness
to buy them. Wants become demands when backed up by purchasing power.
Example: Tata Salt, Colgate Toohpaste
Products: Products are defined as anything that can be offered to someone to satisfy a need or
want.
Example: Fan, Refrigerator
Customer Value:
Value is the consumer’s estimate of the product’s capacity to satisfy their requirements.
Customer Value= Benefit-Cost
If Benefit = cost then Customer Satisfaction
If Benefit > cost then Customer Delight
Exchange: Exchange is the act of obtaining a desired product from someone by offering
something in return.
Example: Buy back of Cellphone companies
Transaction:
A transaction involves at least two thing of value, conditions that are agreed to, a time of
agreement and a place of agreement.
Example: Product with monetary value
Customer Satisfaction, Customer Delight, Customer Loyalty:
Consumers choose among the products, a particular product that give them maximum
value and satisfaction.
Marketing v/s Market:
A market consist of all the existing and potential consumers sharing a particular need or
want who might be willing and able to engage in exchange to satisfy that need or want.
Selling versus Marketing:

BASIS FOR
SELLING CONCEPT MARKETING CONCEPT
COMPARISON

Meaning Selling concept is a business Marketing concept is a business

notion, which states that if orientation which talks about
consumers and businesses remain accomplishing organizational goals
unattended, then there will not be by becoming better than others in
ample sale of organization's providing customer satisfaction.
product.

Associated with Compelling consumer's mind Directing goods and services towards
towards goods and services. consumer's mind.

Starting point Factory Target Market

Focuses on Product Customer needs

 BASIS FOR
SELLING CONCEPT MARKETING CONCEPT
COMPARISON

Perspective Inside-out Outside-in

Essence Transfer of title and possession Satisfaction of consumers

Business Planning Short term Long term

Orientation Volume oriented Profit oriented

Means Heavy selling and promotion Integrated marketing

Price Cost of Production Market determined

Concept of Marketing:
The production concept holds that consumers will favour those products that are widely
available and low in cost. Management in production oriented organization concentrates on
achieving high production efficiency and wide distribution coverage.
The product concept is somewhat different from the production concept. The product concept
holds that consumers will favour those products that offer the most quality, performance and
features. Management in these product-oriented organizations focuses their energy on making
good products and improving them over time.
Example: Apple, Sony and Johnson and Johnson
The sales concept maintains that a company cannot expect its products to get picked up
automatically by the customers. The company has to consciously push its products. Aggressive
advertising, high-power personal selling, large scale sales promotion, heavy price discounts and
strong publicity and public relations are the normal tools used by organization that rely on this
concept.
Example: Pepsi, Cocacola
Social marketing: Marketing concept is an appropriate organizational goal in an age of
environmental deterioration, resource shortages, explosive population growth etc. and whether
the firm is necessarily acting in the best long run interests of consumers and society.
Example: Hero Electric Bike, Paper Bag in Shopping Malls
Societal Marketing: The societal marketing concept holds that the organization’s task is to
determine the needs, wants and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfaction
more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the
consumer’s and the society’s wellbeing.
Example: Reliance 4G, Uber and Ola Low priced transportation
The Marketing concept was born out of the awareness that marketing starts with the
determination of consumer wants and ends with the satisfaction of those wants. The concept puts
the consumer both at the beginning and at the end of the business cycle. The business firms
recognize that “there is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer”. It
proclaims that “the entire business has to be seen from the point of view of the customer”.
Example: Life Insurance,
Meta-Market:
The literal meaning of the term ‘meta’ is “more comprehensive” and is “used with the
name of a discipline to designate a new but related discipline designed to deal critically with the
original one”. In marketing, this term was originally coined by Kelly while discussing the issues
of ethics and science of marketing. He used the term meta-marketing to describe the processes
involved in attempting to develop or maintain exchange relations involving products/ services
organizations, persons, places or causes. Meta market is a place where everything connected a
certain market can be found.
Example: House cleaning products like Lizol, Cellphone with accessories
De-marketing:
De-marketing has been defined as “that aspect of marketing that deals with discouraging
customer, in general, or a certain class of customers in particular on either a temporary or
permanent basis. The de-marketing concept espouses that management of excess demand is as
much a marketing problem as that of excess supply and can be achieved by the use of similar
marketing technology as used in the case of managing excess supply. It may be employed by a
company to reduce the level of total demand without alienating loyal customers.
Example: Stopped Santro for i10 by Hyundai
Marketing Myopia:
At this stage, it would be appropriate to explain the phenomenon of ‘marketing myopia’.
The term ‘marketing myopia’ is to be credited to Professor Theodore Levitt. He has explained
‘marketing myopia’ as a coloured or crooked perception of marketing and a short-sightedness
about business. Excessive attention to production or product or selling aspects at the cost of the
customer and his actual needs, creates this myopia. It leads to a wrong or inadequate
understanding of the market and hence failure in the market place.
Example: Windows 7 (4 versions), Office (2010, 2013, 2016), Tablet
80: 20 Principles:
Applying the Pareto’s principle to marketing:
I’m sure you’re familiar with these examples of applying Pareto’s principle in marketing:
 80% of profits come from 20% of customers
 80% of product sales from 20% of products
 80% of sales from 20% of advertising
 80% of customer complaints from 20% of customers
 80% of sales from 20% of the sales team
Given this, regardless of its accuracy in individual situations, Pareto’s principle is useful in
managing marketing to prompt us to think where we should put our focus. We can generalize
that:
 20% of inputs creates 80% of the outputs
 20% of effort leads to 80% of the results
 20% of causes lead to 80% of the consequences
This disproportionate pattern of effort to reward has been simply summarized by programmer
Daniel Brown.
 So at a simple level, the Pareto principle should remind us about our time management
when managing marketing. We should focus our time on our main customer segments, most
popular products and the biggest causes of customer dissatisfaction.
The 80:20 rule in digital marketing:
What of digital marketing? Naturally online prompted sales and leads will follow a similar
pattern to those above, but we can identify some specific patterns. In my experience we can say:
 80% of online sales are from 20% of products
 80% of search visits are from 20% of the keywords (often from brand-terms rather than
generic)
 80% of leads in content marketing are from 20% of the content assets
 % 80% of user tasks are performed on 20% of links offered
 80% of social shares are from 20% of the social updates
The Marketing Mix:
Simply put the Marketing Mix is a tool used by businesses and Marketers to help
determine a product or brands offering. The 4 P’s have been associated with the Marketing Mix
since their creation by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960.

The Marketing Mix 4 P’s:

 Product - The Product should fit the task consumers want it for, it should work and it should
be what the consumers are expecting to get.
Example: Soap, Detergent, Car
 Price – The Product should always be seen as representing good value for money. This does
not necessarily mean it should be the cheapest available; one of the main tenets of the
 marketing concept is that customers are usually happy to pay a little more for something that
works really well for them.
Example: Price tags or MRP
 Place – The product should be available from where your target consumer finds it easiest to
shop.
Example: Retails at High Street, Mail Order or e-commerce or an online shop
 Promotion – Advertising, PR, Sales Promotion, Personal Selling and, in more recent times,
Social Media are all key communication tools for an organization. These tools should be
used to put across the organization’s message to the correct audiences in the manner they
would most like to hear, whether it be informative or appealing to their emotions.
Example: Hoardings, Electronic Advertising through TV
Extended 3Ps:
In the late 70’s it was widely acknowledged by Marketers that the Marketing Mix should
be updated. This led to the creation of the Extended Marketing Mix in 1981 by Booms & Bitner
which added 3 new elements to the 4 P’s Principle.
 People – All companies are reliant on the people who run them from front line Sales staff to
the Managing Director. Having the right people is essential because they are as much a part
of your business offering as the products/services you are offering.
Example: Doctors, Bank Executives, Aerobics Trainer
 Processes –The delivery of your service is usually done with the customer present so how
the service is delivered is once again part of what the consumer is paying for.
Example: Machine coffee, High speed Printers
 Physical Evidence – Almost all services include some physical elements even if the bulk of
what the consumer is paying for is intangible.
Example: A hair salon with a completed hairdo and Insurance company gave
customers printed bond papers.
Bottom of the Pyramid – Marketing Strategies:

Economically speaking, the “Bottom of the Pyramid” is the largest and also the poorest
socio-economic class of people across economies. This consumer segment consists of 2.5 billion
people who live on less than 2.50 dollar per day. The phrase “bottom of the pyramid” is used in
particular by people developing new models of doing business that deliberately target that
demographic, often using new technology. This segment of consumers have also been referred to
as the “Base of the Pyramid” or more commonly the “BoP”.
Part 1: The bottom is important:
Almost a third of the world’s population earns $2.50 or less a day. The enormity of this disparity
takes my breath away, but there’s an interesting flip side to it: That’s a market of more than five
billion dollars a day. Add the next segment ($5 a day) and it’s easy to see that every single day,
the poorest people in the world spend more than ten billion dollars to live their lives. Most of that
money is spent on traditional items purchased in traditional ways and almost all of these
purchases are inefficient. There’s lack of information, high costs because of a lack of choice, and
most of all, a lack of innovation.
Example: Purchase of Kerosene, Rice. Basic medicines

Part 2: The bottom is an opportunity (both for buyers or sellers):

If a business can offer a better product, one that’s more efficient, provides better information,
increases productivity, is safer, cleaner, faster or otherwise improved, it has the ability to change
the world.
Example: Low priced cosmetics, Black and White screen Cellphones

Part 3: It’s not as easy as it looks:

The line around the block to get into the Apple store is just an insane concept in this community.
A promise from a marketer is meaningless, because the marketer isn’t part of the town, the
marketer will move away, the marketer is, of course, a liar. Use of direct selling in just one
village, and then do it in ten, and then in a hundred. The broad, mass market approach of a
Western marketer is foolish because there is no mass market in places where villages are the
market.
Example: Local brand and non-reputed brand with local distribution channel
The Marketing Environment
• Factors and forces outside of marketing’s direct control
• Affect management’s ability to develop and maintain
• Successful transactions with target customers
• Micro-environment:
• Forces close to the company
• That affect its ability to serve customers
 • Macro-environment:
• Larger, societal forces that affect the organization’s microenvironment
The Company’s Microenvironment

• The company:
• Management, finance, research & development, purchasing, manufacturing,
accounting, and human resources

• Suppliers

• Marketing intermediaries:
• Resellers
• Physical distribution firms
• Marketing service agencies
• Financial intermediaries
A. The Company’s Microenvironment

• Customers:
• Consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets
• Competitors

• Public:
• Financial
• Media
• Government
• Local
• General
• Internal
B. The Company’s Macro-environment

• Demographic environment:
• Study of human population
• Size, density, location, age, race, sex, occupation, and education
• Trends of interest:
 • World population growth
• Increased diversity
• Changing age structure within Canada
• Changing households
• Higher education
• Geographic shifts
• Economic environment:
• Factors that affect consumer buying power and spending patterns
• Trends of interest:
• Changes in income, continued spending by consumers
• Consumer debt levels rising, savings down
• Changing spending patterns
• Engel’s laws: amount spent on various categories changes as income rises

• Natural environment:
• Growing shortages of raw materials
• Increased pollution
• Increased government intervention
• Canadian federal law: Environmental Protection Act (1989)
• Green movement
• Focus on environmental sustainability strategies
• Technological environment:
• New technology creates new markets and opportunities
• Replaces existing products and services
• Research and development activity drives this sector
• Canadian spending on R&D is low, ranked 15th in the world
• Government programs to encourage more
• Government agencies to regulate new product safety
• Political environment:
 • Laws, government agencies, and pressure groups
• Influence and limit organizations and individuals within a society
• Increasing legislation
• Increased emphasis on ethics and social responsibility
• Cause-related marketing
• Business legislation is used to protect consumers, businesses, and the interests of
society

• Cultural environment:
• Institutions and other forces that influence
• Society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviours
• Core beliefs passed on through family, reinforced by institutions
• Secondary beliefs are more open to change
• People’s views of:
• Themselves

• Others

• Organizations

• Society

• Nature

• The universe
Responding to the Marketing Environment

• Passive approach:
• Companies react to uncontrollable factors within their environments
• Environmental management perspective:
• Proactive approach to influence and affect forces within their environment
• Use lobbyists to influence legislation
• Media events, advertorials to shape public opinion
• Use contractual agreements and legal action when necessary
Market Segmentation:
According to William Stanton, “Market segmentation is the process of dividing the total
heterogeneous market for a product into several sub-markets or segments each of which tends to be
homogeneous in all significant aspects.
Market segmentation is basically a strategy of ‘divide and rule’. The strategy involves the
development of two or more different marketing programmes for a given product or service, with
each marketing programme aiming at each segment.
RATIONALE FOR MARKET SEGMENTATION
There are three reasons why firms use market segmentations:
 Because some markets are heterogeneous
 Because market segments respond differently to different promotional appeals
 Because market segmentation consider with the marketing concept.
Heterogeneous Markets:
Modern business managers realize that under normal circumstances they cannot attract all of the
firm’s potential customers to one product, because different buyers simply have different needs and
wants. To accommodate this heterogeneity, the seller must provide different products.
For example, in two wheelers, the TVS Company first introduced TVS50 Moped, but later on
introduced a variety of two wheelers, such as TVS XL, TVS Powerport, TVS Champ, TVS Sport,
TVS Scooty, TVS Suzuki, TVS Victor, to suit the requirements of different classes of customers.
2. Varied Promotional Appeals:
A strategy of market segmentation does not necessarily mean that the firm must produce different
products for each market segment. If certain promotional appeals are likely to affect each market
segment differently, the firm may decide to build flexibility into its promotional strategy rather than
to expand its product line.
For example, the Sheraton Hotel serves different district market segments, such as
conventioneers, business people and tourists. Each segment has different reasons for using the hotel.
Consequently, Sheraton uses different media and different messages to communicate with the various
segments.
3. Consistency with the Marketing Concept
A third reason for using market segmentation is that it is consistent with the marketing concept.
Market segmentation recognizes the existence of distinct market groups, each with a distinct set of
needs. Through segmentation, the firm directs its product and promotional efforts at those markets
that will benefit most from or that will get the greatest enjoyment from its merchandise. This is the
heart of the marketing concept.
Bases of Market Segmentation
There are a number of bases on which a firm may segment its market
1. Geographic basis
a. Nations
b. States
c. Regions
2. Demographic basis
a. Age
b. Gender
c. Income
d. Marital Status
e. Family Size
f. Education
g. Occupation
3. Psychographic basis
a. Life style
b. Personalities
c. Social Class
4. Behavioural basis
a. Benefits sought
b. Occasion
c. User Status
d. Usage rate (volume segmentation)
e. Loyalty status
d. Buyer readiness stages (unaware, aware, informed, interested, desired, intend to buy)
e. Attitude stage (Enthusiastic, positive, indifferent, negative, hostile)
METHODS OF SEGMENTATION:
On the basis of the bases used for the market segmentation, various characteristics of the
customers and geographical characteristics etc., common methods of market segmentations could be
done. Common methods used are:
A. Geographical Segmentation:
When the market is divided into different geographical unit as region, continent, country, state,
district, cities, urban and rural areas, it is called as geographical segmentation. Even on the
geographic needs and preference products could be made.
 For Example, Even though Tata Tea is sold on a national level; it is flavoured accordingly in
different regions. The strength of the tea differs in each regions of the country. Bajaj has sub-divided
the entire country into two distinct markets. Owing to the better road conditions in the north, the super
FE Sector is promoted better with small wheels; whereas in the case of south, Bajaj promotes Chetak
FE with large wheels because of the bad road conditions.
B. Demographic Segmentation:
Demographic segmentation refers to dividing the market into groups on the basis of age, sex,
family size cycle, income, education, occupation, religion, race, cast and nationality. In better
distinctions among the customer groups this segmentation helps. The above demographic variables
are directly related with the consumer needs, wants and preferences.
1. Age: Market segments based on age are also important to many organizations. Some aspects of age
as a segmentation variable are quite obvious.
For example, children constitute the primary market for toys and people 65 years and older are
major users of medical services. Age and life cycle are important factors. For instance in two wheeler
market, as Bajaj has ‘Sunny’ for the college girls; ‘Bajaj Chetak’ for youngsters; ‘Bajaj Chetak’ for
the office going people and Bajaj M80 for rural people.
2. Gender: This segmentation is applied to clothing, cosmetics, magazines and hair dressing.
For example, the magazines like Women’s Era, Femina, (in Malayalam), Mangaiyar Malar (in
Tamil) are mainly segmented for women. Recently even a cigarette exclusively for women was
brought out. Beauty Parlours are not synonyms for the ladies.
3. Income segmentation: It has long been considered a good variable for segmenting markets.
For Example Wealthy people are more likely to buy expensive clothes, jewelries, cars, and to live
in large houses. In addition, income has been shown to be an excellent segmentation correlate for an
even wider range of commodity purchased products, including household toiletries, paper and plastic
items, furniture, etc.
4. Family cycle:
Product needs vary according to age, number of persons in the household, marital status, and number
and age of children. These variables can be combined into a single variable called family life cycle.
Housing, home appliances, furniture, food and automobile are few of the numerous product markets
segmented by the family cycle stages.
5. Life-cycle stage: Dividing a market into different groups based on which stage in the life-cycle,
presented in the table below, reflects the fact that people change the goods and services they want and
need over their lifetime.
 Bachelor Stage young, single people not living at home

Newly Married Couples young, no children

Full Nest I youngest child under six

Full Nest II youngest child six or over

Full Nest III older married couples with dependent children

Empty Nest I older married couples, no children living with them

Empty Nest II older married couples, retired, no children living at home

Solitary Survivor I in labour force

C. Psychographic Segmentation:
On the basis of the life style, personality characteristics, buyers are divided and this segmentation
is known as psychographics segmentation.
1. Personality characteristics:
It refers to a person’s individual character traits, attitudes and habits. Here markets are segmented
according to competitiveness, introvert, extrovert, ambitious, aggressiveness, etc. This type of
segmentation is used when a product is similar to many competing products, and consumer needs for
products are not affected by other segmentation variables.
Marketers have mostly used the personality variables as independent, impulsive, masculine,
aggressive, confident, naïve, shy etc. for marketing their products.
Example: Old spice promotes their after shave lotion for the people who are self-confident and are
very conscious of their dress code. These advertisements focus mainly on the personality variables
associated with the product.
2. Life-Style Segmentation:
Life-style segmentation is a relatively new technique that involves looking at the customer as a
“whole” person rather than as a set of isolated parts. It attempts to classify people into segments on
the basis of a broad set of criteria”.
The most widely used life-style dimensions in market segmentation are an individual’s activities,
interests, opinions, and demographic characteristics. Individuals are analyzed in terms of (i) how they
spend their time, (ii) what areas of interest they see as most important, (iii) their opinions on
themselves and of the environment around them, and (iv) basic demographics such as income, social
class and education.
3. Social Class segmentation: This is a significant market segment.
 For example, members of different social classes vary dramatically in their use of bank credit
cards. People in lower social classes tend to use bank credit cards as installment loans, while those in
higher social classes use them for convenience purposes.
D. Behavioral Segmentation:
Buyer behavioral segmentation is slightly different from psychographic segmentation. Here
buyers are divided into groups on the basis of their knowledge, attitude, use or response to a product.
1. Benefit:
Once the key benefits for a particular product/ market situation are determined, the analyst must
compare each benefit segment with the rest of the market to determine whether that segment has
unique and identifiable demographic characteristics, consumption patterns, or media habits.
For example, the market for toothpaste can be segmented in terms of four distinct product
benefits; flavour and product appearance, brightness of teeth, decay prevention and price.
2. Occasion:
Buyers can be distinguished according to the occasions when they purchase a product, use a product,
or develop a need to use a product. It helps the firm expand the product usage.
For example, Cadbury’s advertising to promote the product during wedding season is an example of
occasion segmentation.
3. User status:
Sometimes the markets are segmented on the basis of user status, that is, on the basis of non-user, ex-
user, potential user, first-time user and regular user of the product.
For example large companies usually target potential users, whereas smaller firms focus on current
users.
4. Usage rate:
Markets can be distinguished on the basis of usage rate, that is, on the basis of light, medium and
heavy users. Heavy users are often a small percentage of the market, but account for a high
percentage of the total consumption. Marketers usually prefer to attract a heavy user rather than
several light users, and vary their promotional efforts accordingly.
For example Pepsodent advertised for two times brush.
5. Loyalty status:
Buyers can be divided on the basis of their loyalty status:
 Hardcore loyal (consumer who buy one brand all the time)
 Split loyal (consumers who are loyal to two or three brands)
 Shifting loyal (consumers who shift from one brand to another)
 Switchers (consumers who show no loyalty to any brand).
6. Buyer readiness stage:
There are six psychological stages through which a person passes when deciding to purchase a
product. The six stages are:
 awareness of the product
 knowledge of what it does
 interest in the product
 preference over competing products
 conviction of the product’s suitability
 purchase
Marketing campaigns exist in large part to move the target audience through the buyer readiness
stages.
7. Attitude Stages:
People in a market can be enthusiastic, positive, indifferent, negative or hostile about a product.
For Example Door-to-door workers in a political campaign use a given voter's attitude to determine
how much time to spend with that voter. They thank enthusiastic voters and remind them to vote; they
spend little or no time trying to change the attitudes of negative and hostile voters. They reinforce
those who are positive and try to win the votes of those who are indifferent. In such marketing
situations, attitudes can be effective segmentation variables.
Requirements for effective segmentations:
1. Measurability–the degree to which the size and purchasing power of the segments can be
measured.
2. Accessibility–the degree to which the segments can be effectively reached and served.
3. Substantiality–the degree to which the segments are large and/or profitable enough.
4. Actionability– the degree to which effective programmes can be formulated for attracting
and serving the segments.
BENEFITS OF MARKET SEGMENTATION:
Specifically, segmentation analysis helps the marketing manager:
o To design product lines that are consistent with the demands of the market and that do not
ignore important segments.
o To spot the first signs of major trends in rapidly changing markets.
o To direct the appropriate promotional attention and funds to the most profitable market
segments.
o To determine the appeals that will be most effective with each market segments.
 o To select the advertising media that best matches the communication patterns of each
market segment.
o To modify the timing of advertising and other promotional efforts so that they coincide
with the periods of greatest market response.
TARGET MARKETING:
Target marketing refers to selection of one or more of many market segments and developing
products and marketing mixes suited to each segments.
STEPS IN TARGET MARKETING:
Target marketing essentially consist of the following steps:
1. Define the relevant market
The market has to be defined in terms of product category, the product form and the specific
brand.
2. Analyze characteristics and wants of potential customers
The customers’ wants and needs are to be analyzed in terms of geographic location,
demographics, psychographics and product related variable.
3. Identify bases for segmenting the market
From the profiles available identify those has strength adequate to a segment and reflection the
wants to segment.
4. Define and describe market segments
As any one basis, say income is meaningless by itself; a combination of various bases has to be
arrived as such that each segment is distinctly different from other segments in buying behaviour and
wants.
5. Analyze competitor’s positions
In such segment key features liked by the consumers are to found our priority consumers and the
list of attributes which they consider important is determined.
6. Evaluate market segments
The market segments have to be evaluated in terms of revenue potential and cost of the marketing
effort. The former involves estimating the demand for the product while the latter is an estimate of
costs involved in reaching each segment.
7. Select the market segment
Choosing preferences in features of the available segments in the market one has to bear in mind
the capita and resources, the presence or absence of competitors in the market and the capacity of the
grow in size.
8. Finalize the marketing mix
 This involves decisions on product, distribution, promotions and price. Product decisions will
consider into account product attributed form wanted by consumers, choice of appropriate brand
name and image will help in promoting the product to the chosen segment and pricing can be done
keeping the purchase behavior in mind.
Hence, it can be seen that targeted marketing consists of segmenting the market, choosing which
segments to serve and designing the marketing mix in such a way that it is attractive to the chosen
segments.

Product Positioning:

Positioning:

Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a
distinct and valuable place.

USP: Unique Selling Proposition means single benefit positioning means superior in single
attribute.

Major Positioning errors:

a) Under positioning: Companies under positioning occur when buyers have only a
vague (unclear) idea of the brand.

Example: Ceasefire have fire extinguisher for individual customers of one type that
is gas based.

b) Over positioning: Buyers may have too narrow an image of the brand.

Example: People believe that Kalayan Jwellers sells product with the minimum
price of Rs.5,000

c) Confused positioning: Buyers might have a confused image of the brand resulting
from making too many claims or changing the brand’s positioning too frequently.

Example: Horlicks for women, children, diabetics etc., Iodex for all pains.
 d) Doubtful Positioning: buyers may find it hard to believe the brand claims in view of
the products features, price or manufacture.

Example: Livepure for water purification from dusty water, Duracell battery for
longevity equivalent to 18 batteries.

4Ps of Marketing for Positioning

i) Attribute Positioning: Attribute highlighted in terms of benefits and is superior than

the competitors.

Example: Full HD in LCD and LED tv.

ii) Benefit Positioning: Benefit that requires by the customer very often from a brand.

Example: 3 Years warranty by Panasonic TV

iii) Use/Application Positioning: The company specify for a specific use.

Example: LED monitors for the desktop with HDMI connectivity.

iv) User Positioning: Company specifying the category of user can use the product.

Example: Horlicks for diabetic patient, Corporate hospitals for high profile
executives.

v) Competitor Positioning: Company advertise for better service availability than

competitors.

Example: Worlds’ best mattress Kurlon, Banguar Cement, Sata Nehin Achha Hai.

vi) Product Category Positioning: Besides the common benefits It can give something
extra to belong other product category.
 Example: LCD tv with VGA cable connectivity is visualizing it is not only a tv but
also a monitor for the computer, Smart tv not only a tv but also a computer which
will give the advantage of internet access.

vii) Quality/Price Positioning: Best value for the money by the company.

Example: Syska LED