What is positioning anyway?
Author: Assistant Professor Dr. Simeon Zhelev (Burgas Free University)
Keywords: positioning - real and psychological, brand, product categories, quality parity, advertising, marketing research
The first part of the article discusses one of the most important subjects of the modem marketing - positioning. Standing out are the circumstances that brought the discussion on the subject to a halt and to the practice of applied marketing to a cliche. On the grounds of the Simon Principle for survival not of the fittest, but of the adapted enough, it is shown that positioning is just one of the strategic alternatives, and it is not vital for the success of many companies and brands. The second part of the article will discuss five dilemmas of positioning and will suggest the appropriate pro and con arguments for each of the solutions. Special attention will be given to the positioning of products hard to differentiate. A model will be proposed that deals with positioning of strategic trajectories and is based on modem discoveries of perception, processing, storing, and use of information by the brain.