Position, Aim, Shoot Give your competition .. the Boot!

Success is never an accident, nor is it a mere coincidence,it is simply the following:

An overall Strategy, Field Killer Tactics, , Reconnaissance and early warning, Cutting edge Technology, and formidable soldiers.

Does that sound like modern day war to you?

Well, it should, because surviving and succeeding in business is as sophisticated and violent as war, only you don't get to actually shoot and kill any body. The same remains even more true when it comes to online business.

So, if your online business is failing you, hang on, don't bite the bullet just yet, first read this, then decide if it was really over for you, or.. there is a lot more you still can do to succeed.

Let us start by trying to answer this crucial question:

Have you positioned your product properly?

Whether your answer is yes or no, just continue reading to find out if your answer is correct, or you just think so.

* Positioning Strategies:

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One of the most significant strategic questions you must ask yourself is how to position your product. The is the position your product occupies in your customer's mind.

The answer to this question comprises of three components.

# Selecting your target market:

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Some people like to call such a process "smart marketing", I however like to call just "marketing" simply because if you do not select you target market segment, you are not marketing, your are just screaming in the middle of the ocean.

Selecting your target market segment is the first step you need to take, to properly position your product. By doing so, you guarantee at least that your marketing efforts are directed to people who have initial interest in what you sell.

A target market segment is determined first by recognizing that different groups, or segments of the market have different needs and wants. Whether you categorize the segment by age, gender, location, occupation or income level, the principle remains the same.

You can also have a more complex criteria for determining the target market, by combining two or more the categories.

So, if your product is more in demand by males and females, between 25 and 40 years of age, you will have a two-dimensional segmentation of your market.

Now, take this segmentation and put it into a table, where you place the age category in columns and the gender category in rows, spacing the age factor by 5 years. Each cell of the table would reflect one segment of your target market.

No matter how you segment your market, one result must come out of your analysis: You must be able to bring together people who share a common interest and perspective of your product, and have a common need the product would answer to.

So, instead of screaming in the middle of the ocean, where no one can hear you or even realize you exist, you will be able to fill the exact needs of each small segment of your target market with accuracy and precision, rather than mass marketing your product blindly to everyone.

After doing so, you need to decide which segments of your market are you going to target. May be all, or half. However you must make sure to choose the most suitable segments for your product, to ensure most effective and cost efficient marketing.

Now, for your marketing to be more successful, you must have a unique positioning strategy and marketing plan for each segment you target. As we have agreed earlier that different groups have different needs and wants, so your marketing should be equally different for each group.

But how would you develop and design a positioning strategy.

This will be the subject of my next article, so .. till then.

About the Author

Osama Taha, © 2000, all rights reserved.

Author: Sell Your Brains for Profit.
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