Chapter 7 Marketing 313
Potential product
refers to what may remain to be done what is possible.
Learning Objectives
1. Describe positioning as a product-selling strategy. 2. Explain the 3D product solutions selling model. 3. Discuss product positioning options. 4. Explain how to sell your product with a price strategy. 5. Explain how to sell your product with a value- added strategy.
Dimensions of Service Quality
Customers judge the quality of each service transaction based on these five quality dimensions: 1. Tangibles 2. Reliability 3. Responsiveness 4. Assurance 5. Empathy
Product Positioning notes
It requires developing a sales and marketing strategy aimed at influencing how a particular market segment perceives a product in comparison to the competition. • The positioning process must be continually configured and custom fitted by the salesperson to match each customer's specific wants and needs.
Before a Low-Price Approach, Ask..
Pricing is a critical factor in the sale of many products and services • Setting a price can be a firm's most complex and important decision, so before using low-price tactics, ask: 1. Are you selling to high- or low-involvement buyers? 2. How important is quality in the minds of buyers? 3. How important is service?
Quantifying the value proposition
Quantifying the value proposition is important in many situations, especially when the customer is a business buyer (B2B) The value quantification process raises customers' comprehension level as they discover the merits of buying your product or service. It requires communicating how your solution will impact business results, such as providing increased reliability or lower maintenance costs.
Transactional Selling Tactics that Emphasize Low Price
Quantity discounts • Seasonal discounts • Promotional allowances • Trade or functional discounts • Unbundling of product features
Product differentiation notes
Sources of differentiation include quality, price, convenience, economy, service, and other factors
Product Positioning Options
The salesperson can use various product positioning strategies to differentiate the value proposition: 1. Position new and emerging products versus well-established products 2. Position products with price strategies, and 3. Position products with value-added strategies
Expected product
everything that represents the customer's minimal expectations.
value-added product
exists when salespeople offer customers more than they expect and may not even know exists.
Positioning
involves those decisions and activities intended to create and maintain a certain concept of the product in the customer's mind.
Generic product (the starting point)
is the basic, substantive product you are selling.
Differentiation
refers to your ability to separate yourself, your product, and/or your company from that of your competitors ...the key to a competitive advantage
Value of proposition
the set of benefits and values the salesperson configures to meet and exceed customers' specific needs.
Pricing Professional Fees - Creating a Value Proposition
• Challenges for professional service providers include how to develop a value proposition and decide how much to charge. • Some points to consider when determining fees to quantify a professional services-value proposition include: 1. Experience 2. Exclusivity 3. Target market 4. Value
Positioning Considerations: The Product Life Cycle Stages
• In developing a product-selling strategy, we must consider where the product is positioned in terms of the life cycle. • The nature and extent of each stage in the product life cycle is determined by several factors, including: 1. The product's perceived advantage over available substitutes. 2. The product's benefits and the importance of the needs it fulfills. 3. Competitive activity, including pricing, substitute product development and improvement, and effectiveness of competing advertising and promotion. 4. Changes in technology, fashion, or demographics.
Pricing Strategy Objectives
• Maximize profit • Maximize market share
