A strategic position statement is kind of like a statement
for your company. You want to explain this statement how
you view your company and how you view it within the rest
of your marketplace.
Circuit City is a good example. It's an electronic
department store that is making excellent profit margins
while their competition is going out of business. They've
taken a unique strategic position, being number one in
service and taken that all the way down to their USP which
is "Service Above Beyond All That Is Expected."
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It's almost impossible to be the best in all and that's why
you need to figure out what makes your unique and what your
strategic positioning is going to be. What's your number
one calling card or claim to fame going to be?
There have been tons written about the subject positioning.
Positioning has been the marketing philosophy for most
successful companies over the last ten years. But what is
it? And how can you use it? What place do you hold in the
public's mind? If the answer is none, then again, you have
a problem.
If you hold no place or a negative one in your public or
Marketplace's minds, then they're not going to do business
with you.
For example Sony has been first at innovation. They to be
first in whatever's next in technology. K-Mart the cheapest
price store that won't be undersold. Price and full lines
are their battlefields for your mind.
What's the best battlefield (Strategic Position) for you to
take?
You've got to understand that any decision to buy or use
someone takes place in the mind. So, if you're not in mind
then they probably won't buy from you or use you. You
basically, "aren't there" without a position.
Some of the most common examples of positioning are
service, speed of delivery of service, latest technologies,
Guarantees, and lowest price.
Your company probably has already carved out a niche for
itself of some kind. The problem here is that too many of
you owners out there don't even realize what the identity
of that niche is. Often times the salespeople know what it
is better than the owners do.
The customers really know best. What you need to do is find
out from your best customers why they are doing business
with you instead of someone else. This tells you what your
real niche or core competency is within your company right
now.
If you think you do one thing and your customers think you
do another, then you need to make a decision. causes this
difference in perception? Did your marketing do too good of
a job advertising your weakness or what you do least
instead of best? Have you changed the way you do things and
haven't let your market know yet?
If from your results you think you're marketing the wrong
USP and losing business because your market has the wrong
perception of you, then change it.
These are not minor decisions. They are also not minor
decisions for your company. These can be make or break
decisions. The good thing is you can survey your market.
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