MAR3023 - Exam 1 Study Guide

Marketing Plan

A written document composed of an analysis of the current marketing situation, opportunities and threats for the firm, marketing objectives and strategy specified in terms of the four Ps, action programs, and projected or pro forma income (other financial statements)

Marketing plan entails five steps...

(1) Planning Phase: Marketing executives define the mission and/or vision of the business. (2) Evaluate the situation by assessing how various players, both in and outside the organization, affect the firm's potential for success. (3) Implementation Phase: Marketing managers identify and evaluate different opportunities by engaging in a process known as segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP). (4) They are then responsible for implementing the marketing mix using the four Ps. (5) Control Phase: Entails evaluating the performance of the marketing strategy using marketing metrics and taking any necessary corrective actions. It is not always necessary to go through the entire process for every evaluation.

Marketing entails an exchange:

- Exchange: the trade of things of value between the buyer and the seller so that each is better off as a result. - Buyers complete the exchange by giving money and information to the seller.

The Immediate Environment

1. Company's Capabilities 2. Competitors 3. Corporate Partners 4. Physical Environment

Growth Strategies

1. Market Penetration Strategy: Employs the existing marketing mix and focuses the firm's efforts on existing customers. Can attract new consumers to the firm's current target market or encourage current customers to patronize the firm more often or buy more merchandise on each visit. Increased ads and additional sales and promotions. 2. Market Development: Employs the existing marketing offering to reach new market segments, whether domestic or international. 3. Product Development: Offers a new product or service to a firm's current target market. 4. Diversification: Introduces a new product or service to a market segment that currently is not served. Related diversification: Current target market and/or marketing mix share something in common with the new opportunity. Unrelated Diversification: New business lacks any common elements with the present business. Do not capitalize on either core strengths associated with markets or with products. Viewed as very risky.

Core Aspects of Marketing

1. Marketing affects various stakeholders. 2. Marketing is about satisfying customer needs and wants. 3. Marketing entails an exchange. 4. Marketing creates value through product, price, place, and promotion decisions. 5. Marketing can be performed by individuals and organizations.

Marketing Evolution: Production, Sales, Marketing, and Value.

1. Production - Oriented Era - Turn of the 20th century, most firms were production oriented and believed that a good product would sell itself. - Ex. Henry Ford "Customers can have any color they want so long as it's black" - Concerned with product innovation, not with satisfying the needs of individual consumers. 2. Sales - Oriented Era - Production and distribution techniques become more sophisticated. - Great Depression and World War II conditioned customers to consumer less or manufacture items themselves, so they planted gardens instead of buying produce. - Overproduction occurred. Become sales oriented. Depended on heavy doses of personal selling and advertising. 3. Market - Oriented Era - After World War II Products become plentiful. - United States entered a buyers' market - Customer became king. - Consumers had choices. Able to make purchases on the basis of factors such as quality, convenience, and price. - Focused on consumers want and needs. 4. Value - Based Marketing Era - Most successful firms today are market oriented. - Means generally transcended a production or selling orientation and attempt to discover and satisfy their customers' needs and wants. - Firms recognized they would have to give their customers greater value than their competitors did. Value: Reflects the relationship of benefits to costs, or what the consumer gets for what he or she gives. Good value does not necessarily mean the product or service is inexpensive. Creative way to provide value to customers is to engage in value cocreation. Value Cocreation: Customers act as collaborators with a manufacturer or retailer to create the product or service. To build value marketers have used a relational orientation because they have realized that they need to think about their customers in terms of relationships rather than transactions. Relational Orientation: A method of building a relationship with customers based on the philosophy that buyers and sellers should develop a long-term relationship. Ex. Apple. Customer Relationship Management (CRM): A business philosophy and set of strategies, programs, and systems that focus on identifying and building loyalty among the firm's most valued customers.

Strategic planning is not sequential...

Actual planning processes can move back and forth among these steps.

Step 2: Conduct a Situation Analysis

After developing a mission, a firm would perform a situation analysis using a SWOT analysis. SWOT Analysis: A method of conducting a situation within a marketing plan in which both the internal environment with regard to is Strengths and Weaknesses and the external environment in terms of its Opportunities and Threats are examined. Asses opportunities and uncertainties of the marketplace due to changes in Cultural, Demographic, Social, Technological, Economic, and Political forces (CDSTEP). Strengths refer to the positive internal attributes of the firm. Weaknesses are negative attributes of the firm. Opportunities pertain to positive aspects of the external environment. Threats represent the negative aspects of the company's external environment.

Culture

Culture: Shared meanings, beliefs, morals, values, and customs of a group of people. Culture is passed down from generation to generation and learned over time. Transmitted by words, literature, and institutions. Challenge for marketers is to have products or services identifiable by and relevant to a particular group of people. Our various cultures influence what, why, how, where, and when we buy. Country Culture: Similar to culture in general, but at a country level. Entails easy-to-spot visible nuances that are particular to a country, such as dress, symbols, ceremonies, language, colors, and food preferences, and subtler aspects, which are trickier to identify. Disney and other global firms have successfully bridged the cultural gap by producing advertising that appeals to the same target market across countries. Language changes. Regional Culture: Similar to culture in general, but at a regional level. The influence of the area within a country in which people live. Ex. McDonald's different menus.

Company Capabilities

First factor that affects the consumer is the firm itself. Successful marketing firms focus on satisfying customer needs that match their core competencies. Marketers can use analyses of their external environment, like the SWOT, analysis to categorize any opportunity as attractive or unattractive. If it appears attractive, they also need to assess it in terms of their existing competencies.

Four macro, or overarching, strategies...

Focus on aspects of the marketing mix to create and deliver value and to develop sustainable competitive advantages. - Customer Excellence: Focuses on retaining loyal customers and excellent customer service. - Operational Excellence: Achieved through efficient operations and excellent supply chain and human resource management. - Product Excellence: Having products with high perceived value and effective branding and positioning. - Locational Excellence: Having a good physical location and Internet presence.

Technological Advances

Have accelerated vastly, improving the value of products and services. Consumers have constant access to the Internet, through services such as Wi-Fi, mobile hotspots, 4G, and LTE. Advanced technology make consumers increasingly dependent on the help they receive from the providers of the technology. Mobile devices enhance customers' experience by making it easier to interact with the manufacturer or retailer or other customers, and they add a new channel of access, which makes customers more loyal and more likely to spend more with a particular retailer. New and exciting technologies are entering the market. Artificial Intelligence (AI): Solutions that rely on computer systems to perform tasks that require human intelligence, such as speech recognition, decision making, or translations. AI remains at an early stage of development, but marketers also recognize that customers already prefer to search on their phones rather than interact with a salesperson. Robotics: Robots in all shapes, sizes, and forms are entering the marketplace and performing work that previously was the responsibility of human workers. Ex. Cash360 machines in Walmart. Internet of Things: When multiple "smart devices" with Internet-connected sensors, such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and coffeemakers, combine the data they have collected to help both consumers and companies consumer more efficiently. Privacy Concerns: More and more consumers worldwide sense a loss of privacy. Although companies continuously develop new ways to keep customer information safe, some observers suggest hackers are just getting more effective.

Boston Consulting Group Matrix

Horizontal Axis: Represents the relative market share. Vertical Axis: Is the market growth rate, or annual rate of growth of the specific market in which products competes. Market growth rate measures how attractive a particular market is. Star - Upper left quadrant. Occur in high-growth markets and are high market share products. Ex. iPhone. Cash Cows - Lower left quadrant. Low-growth markets but are high market share products. Ex. iPod. Question Marks - Upper right quadrant. Appear in high-growth markets but have relatively low market shares. Often the most managerially intensive products that require resources to maintain and increase market share. Ex. iPad. Dogs - Lower right quadrant. Low-growth markets and have relatively low market shares. Ex. iMac Desktop.

Social Trends

Various social trends appear to be shaping consumer values in the United States and around the world. Sustainability: UN Sustainable Development Goals highlight social issues associated with meeting basic needs, such as ensuring consistent, universal access to sufficient food, clean water, health care, and sanitary living conditions, mainly by eliminating extreme poverty. Companies rely on certificates from various agencies to market sincere efforts to ensure sustainability, like the Fairtrade Certification Mark. Health and Wellness: Health concerns, especially those pertaining to children, are prevalent, critical, and widespread. New advertising guidelines therefore require marketers to produce food in reasonably proportioned sizes. Ads cannot be aired during children's programing. Consumers' interest in improving their health also has opened up several new markets and niches focused on healthy living. Efficient Utilization and Distribution of Food: Food has always defined social trends that are central to people's lives and environments. Constitutes a major market in any economy, with niches devoted to specialized options such as organic food. One of the UN Sustainable Development Goals it to reduce hunger, and reducing food waste is critical to that effort. 40% of all food in the United States goes uneaten.

What is a marketing strategy?

A marketing strategy identifies (1) a firm's target market (2) a related marketing mix (its four Ps) and (3) the bases on which the firm plans to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

Marketing Plan

A written document composed of an analysis of the current marketing situation, opportunities and threats for the firm, marketing objectives and strategy specified in terms of the four Ps, action programs, and projected or pro forma income (and other financial) statements. Provides a reference point for evaluating whether or not the firm has met its objectives.

Customer Excellence

Achieved when a firm develops value-based strategies for retaining loyal customers and provides outstanding customer service. Retaining Loyal Customers: - By having a strong brand, unique merchandise, and superior customer service all help solidify a loyal customer base. - Loyalty means that customers are reluctant to patronize competitive firms. Ex. Loyal customers drink Pepsi even if Coca-Cola goes on sale. Viewing customers with a lifetime value perspective rather than on a transaction-by-transaction basis is key to modern customer retention programs. Another method of achieving customer loyalty creates an emotional attachment through loyalty programs. Constitutes part of an overall customer relationship management program (CRM). Providing Outstanding Customer Service: - Needs to be consistent. Provided by employees, thus less consistent than machines. - Ex. Disney's My Magic system enables visitors to swipe their bands to get on rides and make purchases. Always greeted by "assertively friendly" staff. - Good service reputation, it can sustain for a long time because a competitor is hard-pressed to develop a comparable reputation.

Locational Excellence

Particularly important for retailers and service providers. Competitive advantage based on location is sustainable because it is not easily duplicated. Ex. Starbucks.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

An advantage over the competition that is not easily copied and can be maintained over a long period of time. Acts like a wall that the firm has built around its position in a market. Wall makes it hard for outside competitors to contact customers inside, known as the marketer's target market. Establishing a sustainable competitive advantage is key to long-term financial performance.

Product Excellence

By providing products with high perceived value and effective branding and positioning. Competitive advantage by investing in the brands itself; positioning their product or service using a clear, distinctive brand image, and constantly reinforcing that image through their merchandise, service, and promotion.

Political/Legal Environment

Comprises political parties, government organizations, and legislation and laws. Organizations must fully understand and comply with any legislation regarding fair competition, consumer protection, or industry-specific regulation. Government enacts laws focused on ensuring that companies compete fairly with one another. Legislation has also been enacted to protect consumers in a variety of ways. (1) Regulations require marketers to abstain from false or misleading ad practices that might mislead consumers. (2) Manufacturers are required to refrain from using any harmful or hazardous materials that might place consumers at risk. (3) Organizations must adhere to fair and reasonable business practices when the communicate with consumers.

The centerpiece, as always, is ...

Consumers. Consumers may be influenced directly by the immediate actions of the focal company, the company's competitors, the corporate partners that work with the firm to make and supply products and services to consumers, and the physical environment. Firm and consumers indirectly are influenced by the macroenvironment, which includes various impacts of culture; demographics; and social, technological, economic, and political/legal factors. Because the consumer is the center of all marketing efforts, value-based marketing aims to provide greater value to consumers than competitors offer. Marketing firms must consider the entire business process, all from a consumer's point of view. Sometimes, a firm can even anticipate trends.

Macroenvironmental Factors

Culture Demographics Social Trends Technological Advances Economic Situation Political/Legal Environment or CDSTEP

Three major phases of the marketing plan are...

Planning, Implementation, and Control.

Operational Excellence

Efficient operations, excellent supply chain management, and strong relationships with suppliers. Strive for efficient operations to get their customers the merchandise they want, when they want it, in the required quantities, and at a delivered cost that is lower than that of their competitors. Achieve efficiencies by developing sophisticated distribution and information systems as well as strong relationships with vendors.

Corporate Partners

Few firms operate in isolation. Ex. Automobile manufacturers collaborate with suppliers of sheet metal, tire manufacturers, component part makers, unions, transport companies, and dealerships to produce and market their automobiles successfully. Parties that work with the focal firm are its corporate partners.

Multiple Sources of Advantage

Firms require multiple approaches to build a "wall" around their position that stands as high as possible. Ex. Southwest Airlines.

The importance of marketing over time...

Firms spend billions of dollars in the United States and worldwide on marketing initiatives. Marketing did not get to its current level of prominence among individuals, corporations, and society at large overnight. Marketing has evolved through its many milestones.

Responding to the Environment

In a constantly changing marketing environment, the marketers that succeed are the ones that respond quickly, accurately, and sensitively to their consumers.

Competitors

It is critical that marketers understand their firm's competitors, including their strengths, weaknesses, and likely reactions to the marketing activities that their own firm undertakes. Ex. Verizon and Sprint.

Demographics

Indicate the characteristics of human populations and segments, especially those used to identify consumer markets. Age, gender, race, and income are readily available from marketing research firms such as IRI. Provides an easily understood snapshot of the typical consumer in a specific target market. Generational Cohorts: A group of people of the same generation - typically have similar purchase behaviors because they have shared experiences and are in the same stage of life. Four Major Age Groups: 1. Gen Z, also known as Digital Natives - People in this group were born into a world that already was full of electronic gadgets and digital technologies such as the Internet and social networks. 2. Gen Y, also called Millennials - Biggest cohort since original post - World War II boom. 3. Gen X - First generation of latchkey children (those who grew up in homes which both parents worked). 4. Baby Boomers - Oldest generation. Largest population of 50-plus consumers the United States has ever seen. Income: Grown more polarized. Highest-income groups are growing, whereas many middle-and lower-income groups' real purchasing power keeps declining. Prominent in the U.S. The broad range in incomes creates marketing opportunities at both the high and low ends of the market. Education: Higher levels of education lead to better jobs and higher incomes. Marketers need to be cognizant of the interaction among education, income, and occupation. Gender: Male and female roles have been blurred. Women today outperform men scholastically and approx. 38% of married women in the US earn more than their husbands. These shifts in statues, attitudes, and behaviors affect the way many firms need to design and promote their products and services. Ethnicity: U.S. continues to grow more diverse because of immigration and increasing birthrates among various ethnic and racial groups. Approx. 80% of all population growth in the next 20 years is expected to come from African American, Hispanic, and Asian communities. By 2050, minorities will represent 50% of the population. The 50 million Hispanic consumers in the United States have increasing influences on mainstream U.S. culture.

Step 4: Implement Marketing Mix and Allocate Resources

Marketers implement the actual marketing mix - product, price, place, and promotion - for each product and service on the basis of what they believe their target markets will value. Make important decisions about how they will allocate their scarce resources to their various products and services. 1. Product and Value Creation Products. 2. Price and Value Capture: If a price is set too high, it will not generate much volume. If a price is set too low, it may result in lower-than-optimal margins and profits. 3. Place and Value Delivery. 4. Promotion and Value Communication: Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): Encompasses a variety of communication disciplines - advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and online marketing including social media - in combination to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communicative impact.

Firms develop a _________ that specifies the marketing activities for a specific period of time.

Marketing Plan

Relative Market Share

Provides managers with a product's relative strength compared with that of the largest firm in the industry.

Marketing Analytics

Rely on sophisticated data analytics to define and refine their approaches to their customers and their markets. Companies collect massive amounts of data about how, when, why, where, and what people buy.

Chapter 1 - Overview of Marketing

Study Guide

Chapter 2 - Developing Marketing Strategies and A Marketing Plan

Study Guide

Chapter 5 - Analyzing The Marketing Environment

Study Guide

Marketing

The American Marketing Association (AMA) states that marketing is "the activity, set of instructions, and processes for creating, capturing, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

Market Share

The percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity and is used to establish the product's strength in a particular market.

Adding Value

Value is central to marketing. Value-oriented marketers constantly measure the benefits that customers perceive against the cost of their offerings.

How does marketing create value, and how do firms become more value driven?

Value stems from four main activities that value-driven marketers undertake: Adding Value, Marketing Analytics, Ethical & Societal Dilemma, Superior Service, and Social & Mobile Marketing. 1. Build relationships with customers. 2. Gather and analyze information. 3. Balance benefits and costs. 4. Connect with customers using social and mobile media.

Marketing affects various stakeholders:

- Marketing can also affect several other stakeholders (ex. supply chain partners, society at large). - Partners in the supply chain include wholesalers, retailers, or other intermediaries such as transportation or warehousing companies. - Retailers often have to convince manufacturers to sell to them. - Campaigns like the "Milk Life" and "Body by Milk" benefit the entire dairy industry and promote the health benefits of drinking milk to society at large.

Marketing creates value through product, price, place, and promotion decisions:

- Marketing has been divided into a set of four interrelated decisions and consequent actions known as the marketing mix or the four Ps. - Marketing Mix: Product, price, place, and promotion - the controllable set of activities that a firm uses to respond to the wants of its target markets. 1. Product: Create value by developing a variety of offerings, including goods, services, and ideas, to satisfy customers needs. Goods are items that you can physically touch. Ex. a KIND bar or Rolex watch. Primary functions is to fulfill some need. Main value steams from what they provide and how they are marketed. Services are intangible customer benefits that are produced by people or machines and cannot be separated from the producer. Combine both goods and services. Ideas include thoughts, opinions, and philosophies; intellectual concepts such as these also can be marketed. Ex. Groups promoting bicycle safety go to schools, give speeches, and sponsor bike helmet poster contests for the members of their primary market - children. 2. Price: Capture Value. Everything has price. Price is everything the buyer gives up - money, time, and/or energy - in exchange for the product. Marketers determine price of a product carefully on the basis of the potential buyer's belief about its value. 3. Place: Delivering the value proposition. Represents all the activities necessary to get the product to the right customer when that customer wants it. Ex. Starbucks expanding storefronts and adding Kiosks. Marketing channel management, also known as supply chain management. Supply chain management is the set of approached and techniques that firms employ to efficiently and effectively integrate their suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, stores, and other firms involved in the transaction into a seamless value chain in which merchandise is produced and distributed in the right quantities, to the right locations, and at the right time, while minimizing systemwide costs and satisfying the service levels required by the customers. 4. Promotion: Communicating the value proposition. Is communication by a marketer that informs, persuades, and reminds potential buyers about a product or service to influence their opinions and elicit a response. Enhances a product's or service's value.

Marketing is about satisfying customer needs and wants:

- Understanding the marketplace, especially customers needs and wants is fundamental to marketing success. - Marketplace = world of trade. - Marketplace can be segmented or divided into groups of people who are pertinent to an organization for particular reasons. - Ex. Dove seeks to acknowledge and recognize modern men's caregiving roles, so it can link these communications to its baby care products.

Physical Environment

Includes land, water, air, and living organisms (flora and fauna). Products and services are influenced by how they are used in the physical environment, and in turn they can also influence the physical environment. Globally, worries and concerns about the sustainability of the planet have led to demands for companies and consumers to avoid harming the environment and depleting these natural resources. 17 Global Goals of Sustainable Development. Goals to seek to preserve the physical environment and protect the planet. Bring about important social changes that might be facilitated by technological advances and shifts in the ways firms operate. Energy Trends: Firms are actively engaging in sustainable practices in terms of how they go about manufacturing products and provisioning services, as well as the types of products and services that they offer. Electric cars and ride-sharing options already are helping reduce carbon emissions and improving the physical environment. Greener Practices and Greener Consumers: Green Marketing: A strategic effort by firms to supply customers with environmentally friendly merchandise. Sustainability is a critical ethical consideration for marketers. To promote their greener practices, nearly 500 firms have joined the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) 2020, which seeks to reduce the deforestation caused by the production of many consumer products that rely on palm oil, soy, tree pulp, and paper. Greenwashing: Exploiting consumers by disingenuously marketing products or services as environmentally friendly, with the goals of gaining public approval and sales.

Ethical and Societal Dilemma

Many corporations have undertaken various marketing activities such as developing greener products, making healthier food options and safer products, and improving their supply chains to reduce their carbon footprint. More firms are making ethically based decisions that benefit society as a whole, while also considering all of their stakeholders. Firms have come to realize that good corporate citizenship through socially responsible actions should be a priority because it will help their bottom line in the long run.

Social and Mobile Marketing

Marketers have steadily embraced new technologies such as social and mobile media to allow them to connect better with their customers and thereby serve their needs more effectively. 97% of marketers assert that they use social media tools for their businesses. Approximately 4.2 billion people link to some social media sites through their mobile devices. The global average Internet penetration rate hovers below 50 percent, with massive populations in Africa and Asia still limited in their access.

Economic Situation

Marketers monitor the general economic situation, both in their home country and abroad, because it affects the way consumers buy merchandise and spend money. Economic Situation: Macroeconomic factor that affects the way consumers buy merchandise and spend money, both in a marketer's home country and abroad. Major factors that influence the state of an economy include the rate of inflation, foreign currency exchange rates, and interest rates. Inflation refers to the persistent increase in the prices of goods and services. Increasing prices cause the purchasing power of the dollar to decline; in other words, the dollar buys less than it used to. Foreign Currency Fluctuations: Changes in the value of a country's currency relative to the currency of another country; can influence consumer spending. Interest Rates: Represents the cost of borrowing money. When customers borrow money from a bank, they agree to pay back the loan, plus the interest that accrues. Shifts in these three economic factors make marketing easier for some and harder for others.

Marketing can be performed by individuals and organizations:

Marketing intermediaries such as retailers accumulate merchandise from producers in large amounts and then sell it to you in smaller amounts. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) marketing: The process in which businesses sell to consumers. Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing: The process of buying and selling goods or services to be used in the production of other goods and services, for consumption by the buying organization, or for resale by wholesalers and retailers. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) marketing: The process in which consumers sell to other consumers. Ex. eBay or Etsy.

Step 5: Evaluate Performance Using Marketing Metrics.

Metric: A measuring system that quantifies a trend, dynamic, or characteristic. Used to explain why things happened and also project the future. Make it possible to compare results across regions, strategic business units (SBUs), product lines, and time periods. Who is accountable for performance? - At each level of an organization, the business unit and its manager should be held accountable only for revenues, expenses, and profits that they can control. Performance evaluations are used to pinpoint problem areas. Performance Objectives, Marketing Analytics, and Metrics: - Many factors contribute to a firm's overall performance, which makes it hard to find a single metric to evaluate performance. Two Approaches: 1. Compare a firm's performance over time or to competing firms, using common financial metrics such as sales and profits. 2. View the firm's product and services as a portfolio. Financial Performance Metrics: - Commonly used metrics to assess performance include revenues, or sales, and profits. - Sales are a global measure of a firm's activity level. Increasing sales by lowering prices, gross margin can suffer. Metrics used to evaluate a firm depend on (1) level of organization at which the decision is made (2) resources the manager controls. Portfolio Analysis: Evaluates the firm's various products and businesses and allocates resources according to which products are expected to be the most profitable for the firm in the future: Strategic Business Unit (SBU): A division of the firm itself that can be managed and operated somewhat independently from other divisions and may have a different mission or objectives. Product Line: A group of products that consumers may use together or perceive as similar in some way. Popular portfolio analysis method: Boston Consulting Group (BGG)

Step 1: Define the Business Mission

Mission Statement: Broad description of a firm's objectives and the scope of activities it plans to undertake, attempts to answer two main questions: What type of business are we? What do we need to do to accomplish our goals and objectives?

Step 3: Identify and Evaluate Opportunities Using STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning)

Next step is to identify and evaluate opportunities for increasing sales and profits using segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP). 1. Segmentation - Market Segment: A group of consumers who respond similarly to a firm's marketing efforts. - Marketing Segmentation: The process of dividing the market into groups of customers with different needs, wants, or characteristics - who therefore might appreciate products or services geared especially for them. 2. Targeting - Target Marketing or Targeting: The process of evaluating the attractiveness of various segments and then deciding which to pursue as a market. 3. Positioning - After deciding which segments to purse, it must determine how it wants to be positioned within those segments. - Market Positioning: The process of defining the marketing mix variables so that target customers have a clear, distinctive, desirable understanding of what the products does or represents in comparison with competing products. After identifying its target segments, a firm must evaluate each of its strategic opportunities.