Positioning Strategies in Business Markets
Positioning Strategies in Business Markets
An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article
Positioning strategies in business markets
Stavros P. Kalafatis Markos H. Tsogas Charles Blankson
Professor of Business Marketing, Kingston Business School, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, UK Senior Lecturer, Kingston Business School, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, UK Assistant Professor, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan, USA Keywords Business-to-business marketing, Product quality, Positioning Abstract Tests the relevance of positioning within the domain of business marketing through the application of a new typology of positioning strategies. The proposed typology is tested in a well-established market sector which is characterised by commodity products and consequently the research deals with positioning as applied to actual companies rather than specific brands. Our results offer strong support as to the stability of the proposed typology and the relevance of the concept of positioning in business markets. The authors suggest that although business positioning is predominantly determined by hard criteria (e.g. product quality) and relationship building factors (e.g. personal contact), other considerations such as company structures (i.e. geographical coverage), breadth of offerings and degree of integration (i.e. location in the distribution chain), also play an important part. Finally, we offer support to the claim that, level of familiarity with a specific company is a contributing factor to perceptions of the pursued positioning strategies.
Concept of positioning
Introduction There is general agreement that the concept of positioning has become one of the fundamental components of modern marketing management (Kotler, 2000; Hooley et al., 1998). Its importance is further supported by evidence that indicates a positive relationship between company performance (in terms of profitability
An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article
Positioning strategies in business markets
Stavros P. Kalafatis Markos H. Tsogas Charles Blankson
Professor of Business Marketing, Kingston Business School, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, UK Senior Lecturer, Kingston Business School, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, UK Assistant Professor, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan, USA Keywords Business-to-business marketing, Product quality, Positioning Abstract Tests the relevance of positioning within the domain of business marketing through the application of a new typology of positioning strategies. The proposed typology is tested in a well-established market sector which is characterised by commodity products and consequently the research deals with positioning as applied to actual companies rather than specific brands. Our results offer strong support as to the stability of the proposed typology and the relevance of the concept of positioning in business markets. The authors suggest that although business positioning is predominantly determined by hard criteria (e.g. product quality) and relationship building factors (e.g. personal contact), other considerations such as company structures (i.e. geographical coverage), breadth of offerings and degree of integration (i.e. location in the distribution chain), also play an important part. Finally, we offer support to the claim that, level of familiarity with a specific company is a contributing factor to perceptions of the pursued positioning strategies.
Concept of positioning
Introduction There is general agreement that the concept of positioning has become one of the fundamental components of modern marketing management (Kotler, 2000; Hooley et al., 1998). Its importance is further supported by evidence that indicates a positive relationship between company performance (in terms of profitability