Question

How have both competitors positioned themselves in the market- place ? Ralph Lauren and Hot Topic What kind of customers does each one target and so on,

Answer 1

Positioning is a summary of the way a company wants its target audience to perceive its products, its brand and its corporate reputation, according to brand consultancy, Brandeo. Understanding how your competitive rivals are positioned in the marketplace helps you refine your own business strategy so that you can counter competitive threats and strengthen your own position. To build an understanding of your competitors’ positioning, analyze their marketing communications, monitor analysts’ views of the marketplace and research customers’ attitudes towards competitors.

Positioning Statements

Positioning statements focus on the factors that are important to customers and differentiate a company from its competitors. To understand your competitors’ positioning, review their advertisements, website content and other marketing communications to identify their positioning statements. Competitors can position themselves in such ways as market leaders, innovators, and low-cost suppliers.

Market Analysts

Market analysts and research firms produce independent reports on market sectors that can help you to understand your competitors’ positioning. Statistical reports provide an analysis of the market by factors such as market share or sales, giving you an indication of your performance relative to competitors in a market league table.

Customer Perception

The most important measure of a competitor’s positioning strength is customer perception. You need to understand how your customers view your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses so that you can protect your customer base. Ask your customers directly or commission a research firm to survey customers’ attitudes.

Strategy

Competitive intelligence provides an indication of how successfully your competitors are positioning themselves in the market. You must use this information to review your own strategy.

Strategic Priorities

Understanding your competitors’ positioning enables you to set your own strategic priorities. Use competitive intelligence to anticipate and respond to the strongest threats to your customer base.

Your target customer is the person you've identified as most likely to purchase your products, according to Entrepreneur.com. This is a much more segmented portion of your target market, as you've identified certain aspects of this individual. These components might include a specific age instead of a range, a specific income level versus a large swath of income types, and the reasons these customers are most likely to purchase your products.