Segmentation and Positioning for Strategic Marketing Decisions [Hardcover]

Basically, if the reader has a formal background in marketing research, or has a basic business statistics "know-how", then this book could be a refresher, or a reviewer so to speak. Otherwise, the reader could end up scratching head upon reading the chapters that discuss discriminant analysis, F Ratio, CHAID, etc. I would recommend the readers to get a basic marketing research, or Database Marketing books. It covers almost the same topics, just a lot more comprehensible.

It is a very complete and comprehensive book; includes all topics in one source: market segmentation, product or service positioning and new product or service future opportunities. The book is intended for advanced marketing researchers. It presents real company examples, what they did well or wrong when positioning their product in the market. Myers collected the most important marketing strategies from other sources and placed it in this book. Every chapter has a summary and a list of references at the end.
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Myers points out the three levels of competitiveness and the requirements for an Effective Positioning. The three levels of a product or service competitiveness are: 1) Product Superiority, which refers to how the product is superior to the competition like Mercedes-Benz is not like any other car in the world; 2) Product Differentiation, which refers to a product that has one or more specific features that are superior to the competition like Southwest Airline offering cheap tickets; and, 3) Product Parity, which refers to the product or service that has no important differences from the competition like cigarettes, beers, banks, insurance companies, etc. The requirements for an effective positioning fall into three categories: 1) Uniqueness, refers to being different from the competition by finding something unique about the product or service; 2) Importance or Desirability, refers to how important is the product to the customer; and, 3) Believability, refers to a comparison of the product with the brand leaders to point specific features of the product or service. Another topic covered in the book that I consider extremely important for Marketing practitioners is in relations to Maps or the technology used to find the right position for a product or service and how they can be applied. Positioning maps show the product or service, brands or companies in two dimensions "virtual space". The maps show which ones are similar, which ones are most likely to compete with one another, which product or brand best describe each market entry and where the gaps for new products are. The book is very easy to read and has a lot of examples and illustrations that help understand the topics.
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The author has summarized all the most important concepts and techniques to have a successful positioning strategy. Positioning a product is very important now because of the amount of products we find in the market and the amount of advertisements. The Positioning process will help companies to position their product or service in the market with the goal of getting the message to the consumer so he consumer buys the product or use the service advertised. This strategy will increase profitability in the company. I think the author's work is an excellent one and I recommend this book to every Marketing Managers or Marketing Researcher working on product introduction or in the mature stage of the life cycle of a product or service.

One of about 5 books I recommend to other market researcher who are interested in the topic of consumer segmentation.