Question 1

Using price as one dimension of a positioning grid,or as a key dimension on which a product is positioned,is very useful because price is a key driver of any marketing strategy.

Accepted Answer

Using price as a key driver of the marketing strategy is an unsound option because first, price is easily imitated by competitors and second, claims that one's product—whether a good or a service—is low-priced can lack credibility because most marketers claim this.

Question 2

The most common statistical software that researchers use to design positioning grids and value curves is:
A)SPSS
B)NVIVO
C)Leximancer
D)Microsoft Excel

Accepted Answer

The answer of The most common statistical software that researchers...

Question 3

Explain how the result of a market positioning analysis affects the final decision about where to position a new brand or reposition an existing one.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain how the result of a market...

Question 4

What are positioning statements and value propositions? Briefly explain their features.

Accepted Answer

The answer of What are positioning statements and value propositions?...

Question 5

Research suggests that on average,consumers are able to remember at least 10 different brands for any given product class.

Accepted Answer

Often the awareness set for a given product class is three or fewer brands even though the number of available brands is greater than 20. Thus, many if not most brands have little or no position in the minds of many consumers. For example, in the past 10 or so years, more than 200 new soft drinks have been introduced, most of which were not noticed or remembered by consumers.

Question 6

Both positioning statements and value propositions should generally reflect a unique selling proposition (USP)that the product embodies.

Accepted Answer

Volvo Australia's marketing strategy clearly reflects this (Exhibit 7.9).

Question 7

Parentage is a determinant attribute that relates to which of the following?
A)who makes the product and prior products
B)safety for children
C)strong brand equity and high levels of customer service
D)None of the given answers are correct.

Accepted Answer

Parentage refers to the origins or lineage of a product, indicating who makes the product and possibly any prior products that are related or have contributed to the development of the current product.

Question 8

There are three useful tools for analysing the current positions of products in the competitive set.

Accepted Answer

There are two useful tools—positioning grid (or perceptual map) and value curve.

Question 9

Differentiation is where a product offering has a unique attribute that customers value and on which they base their decision to make their purchase.

Accepted Answer

Michael Porter states that ‘a company can outperform its rivals only if it can establish a difference that it can preserve. It must deliver greater value to customers or create comparable value at a lower cost, or both'.

Question 10

Positioning perfume as sexy and wine as being of superior quality are examples of complex physically based attributes.

Accepted Answer

These are examples of essentially abstract attributes. Although these perceptual attributes are influenced by physical characteristics, they are not related to them in any direct way as these attributes are highly subjective and difficult to relate to physical characteristics other than by experience.

Question 11

Jared Fogle's successful weight loss diet consisting of Subway's new healthier sandwiches had inadvertently provided Subway the opportunity to successfully communicate its strategy of repositioning its brand image.

Accepted Answer

Subway had already decided to differentiate itself from its fat and sugar purveying fast food competitors at the same time that Jared Fogle decided to lose weight and just coincidentally chose to buy Subway's new healthy, low fat sandwiches.

Question 12

In a market where customers perceive one brand or a limited number of brands as dominant the best chance of survival for a competitor's offerings lies in obtaining a profitable position within a market segment not dominated by a leading brand.

Accepted Answer

Competing head-on against the leaders on the basis of a product's attributes offered by larger competitors is not likely to be effective. A better option is to concentrate on an attribute prized by members of a given market segment. In the past Ford Australia used to target the market for performance cars but it has now expanded its product category range to include economy cars, medium-sized, four wheel drives, utility and high-performance cars.

Quiz 7: Differentiation and Brand Positioning