Background
Positioning refers to how consumers perceive a product (or service), brand, or organization relative to its competition. A product’s position is thus not so much about the product itself, as it is about the place it occupies in the mind of the consumer. For example, Mount Blanc pens sell for over $100 and are clearly not for everyone, including many wealthy people.
People who buy them, buy them as a fashion statement or as a status symbol — not because they are good writing instruments. They’re not made of translucent plastic and you won’t find them in packs of ten in Walmart next to your 49-cent Bic (which is positioned differently), or advertised in the weekly Shoppers Drug Mart flyer. How a product is positioned thus affects and is affected by the product itself, the price, the way it is promoted, and the place where it is purchased; i.e. all aspects of the marketing mix. One of the major, if not the major goal of marketing, is to create beliefs about products, companies, brands, etc. in the minds of the target market relative to the competition.
Occasionally, brands have to be repositioned because of such things as changing customer needs and tastes, competitive actions and pressures, poor sales performance, new entrants into the market, changing distribution channels, and so on. McDonalds, for instance, recorded its first net loss in the 4 th
quarter of 2003 because it lost touch with consumers, failing to recognize the global changes in consumers’ greater concern for health. Although seen as a family restaurant McDonalds was also seen as “greasy”. Since then the company has had considerable success repositioning itself to families seeking healthy eating options, by offering and promoting salad meals, wraps and other low fat alternatives.
Repositioning requires an understanding of the consumer and consumer trends and involves changing the image of the product in the mind of the consumer. Achieving this may involve modifying the product, changing the name, the price or where it is purchased, stressing different benefits, changing the target market, or a combination thereof. Repositioning thus requires rethinking the entire marketing strategy.
Project Overview
The group research project is a semester-long project designed to integrate and apply the course material to the development of a real-world marketing strategy. The project requires a team of three to five people to select either an existing product or service, or a new product or service, and reposition it, (or position it in the case of a new product or service) and then outline a general marketing strategy for the repositioned product based on an understanding of the consumers. Marketing plans must also take heed of corporate financial capabilities, but for the purpose of this project you can assume that the company has both the skills and the finances to pull off the repositioning.
It consists of a written report and two class presentations and is worth 35% of the final grade.
It will require both secondary research as well as primary research collected through a questionnaire administered to a small sample of the target market.
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Since leaving the project to the end of the semester is counterproductive it needs to be completed in three phases. Dates are set for the completion of each phase. As the aim of the first two phases is to ensure that the team is on track, and to provide feedback, they will not be graded. For each phase not handed in on time, however, the group will lose 10% of the overall project grade. Details of each phase are given below. See the course outline for due dates.
Objectives
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To integrate and apply the understanding of the concepts and principles of consumer behaviour learned throughout the course to real-world marketing strategy.
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To develop skills working in groups
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To develop leadership and presentation skills.
Group selection
You will work on this project in groups of three to five people. Groups will be self-selected and a list of members must be provided by the third class. One person in the group must be elected as a contact-person. Group cohesiveness is often improved if the team also gives itself a name. All problems arising within the group related to relative contributions of the members are to be handled internally by the group. This is an essential part of the group project experience. You will, however, have an opportunity to provide a confidential evaluation of the quality and quantity of your group members’ contributions at the end of the semester. Your grade can go up or down based on these evaluations. It is important, however, to inform the instructor of any problems that have arisen, and the steps taken to resolve them, before the evaluations are submitted.
OUTLINE OF GROUP PROJECT
The following outline is provided as a sample structure for your group project. It is not meant to be all-inclusive and should be modified where necessary to fit the specific context within which your product or service is marketed. Your marketing strategy should draw on as many topics covered in class as possible.
Phase One: Market Profile
Phase one is essentially a project plan. How is your product currently positioned in consumers’ minds, i.e. how they currently view it, and how you would like them to view it.
This change may involve a change in the target market, and/or a change in the marketing mix. You need to justify why you intend to reposition the product. The deliverable for this phase is a two-to-three page description of the specific product or service and product category the group has chosen to focus on, a one to two sentence statement as to how the group plans to reposition it, (from what to what) and a timetable with a breakdown of who is responsible for what (i.e. a project plan).
Phase Two: Description and justification of your target market segment
Phase two is about 1) the product or service category your repositioned product belongs in
(i.e. the new market situation) 2) the trends occurring in that market segment and 3) a profile of the consumers in that market. The deliverable for this phase is a five-to-six-page progress report and involves a profile of your product category's market, the competition and the trends occurring in that market, a description and justification of your new target segment, a
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product positioning statement, and a draft of your questionnaire. At this time you will also be required to give a short (5-7 minute) oral presentation to the class describing your product or service and its new target segment. Part of the class on this date will also be used to pre-test your questionnaire and receive feedback from the class.
Phase two consists of:
1.
A profile of your current product category's market and the product itself based on any secondary research such as library research, company brochures, websites and reports, personal interviews, etc., you have conducted. This is a profile of the market you are repositioning from and should be kept brief. Essentially it provides part of the justification for the repositioning.
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Describe the product category you are analyzing. Where does it sit on the store shelf?
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If you are building on brand equity or name, then you need to discuss how customers currently view the brand
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Describe the product or service you are repositioning. What are its features and benefits?
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Describe the market for your type of product in terms of size, historical trends, growth forecasts, etc.
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What customer segments exist in the market?
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How do consumers currently use the product?
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How do customers currently perceive the product or service? Is it seen as the safest, best quality, cheapest etc. in its category? I.e. what is its current position?
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Describe competitive positions within major market segments. Who are the leaders?
Why? What are their positions (e.g. have they positioned their product as the safest, cheapest, best quality, trendiest, etc.)? Look at their advertisements and other marketing communications. Who are they targeted at?
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What is different about your product relative to the competition that you can capitalize on?
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How loyal are consumers to competitors
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What recent trends (e.g. economic, demographic, psychographic) have affected the nature of this market?
2.
A description and justification of your new target segment. This is the market you are repositioning to.
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Who are the major competitors in this market?
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How are these competitors positioned? Can you draw a positioning map?
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Are there any gaps in the market that can be exploited?
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What trends are occurring in this market? For example, if you want to reposition a woman’s cosmetic product and target it towards men, you would want to find out what is happening in the men’s cosmetic market.
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What might be your consumers' consideration set? Which brands might be included?
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What beliefs exist regarding important brands and product attributes? Why do these beliefs exist? What are the salient attributes?
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What are consumers' attitudes towards the brands in the category? Do strong subjective norms exist? What kind of brand loyalty, if any, exists in your product or service category? Why does it exist?
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Based on your understanding of the market, what consumer segment(s) do you feel will be especially attractive in the future? Describe that segment.
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
How does the problem recognition occur for products in this category?
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Describe the internal/external search process. What sources of information are used?
When? For what purpose? How do these inputs affect consumers?
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Describe the interpretation processes consumers might use in learning about your product. Is exposure likely to be accidental or intentional? Is comprehension likely to be shallow or deep? What types of inferences, if any, are likely to be common?
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Describe the kind of knowledge and involvement consumers might have about your product.
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What do they value and what is it about your product that will help them realize those values? What types of means-end chains might they have?
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What are the general lifestyles of your consumer?
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Is symbolic meaning important for your product?
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What will using the product say about the consumer?
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Do any issues of one's personality and self-image affect purchasing and use decisions for your chosen product
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Do consumer psychographics and lifestyles affect product usage? What lifestyle factors do the consumers seem to have in common?
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Describe typical decision strategies used by consumers to make a choice in this product category. What model best predicts choice?
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Is there role specialization in the buying process? What are the relative influences of family members or others in the buying process? Are there other important reference group or cultural influences?
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Is word of mouth an important factor for purchasing your product? How does word of mouth flow?
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Where and when do consumers buy the good or service? How does the setting and timing affect consumer behavior? How important is the sales environment or sales person?
Much of the above information can be gathered from secondary sources, from analysing competitors’ marketing promotions, and from informal/formal interviews. Much more, however, won’t be available from these sources so you need to ask what else you want to know about your consumer – what information do you need to gather? This will involve surveying your target market and perhaps even defining it further.
3.
A repositioning statement. This should be only two or three sentences, and should state the position you are moving as well as the position you are moving to. How you would like your product or service to be viewed relative to the competition by your target market.
4.
A draft of your questionnaire (not more than two pages long) as an appendix. The questions in this questionnaire must be based on what you think are the key consumer behavior issues for your target segment. While you will want to have demographic questions and questions about the product itself, it is more important to ask respondents about their lifestyle, attitudes and values. This information will be invaluable when it comes to developing and justifying your marketing strategy.
5.
Your group must also make a 5-7 minute oral presentation to the class. In this presentation, you need to describe your product/service and its new target segment, and use your findings thus far to convince the audience that your repositioning idea is a creative and profitable one. This is an opportunity to get feedback from the class.
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This class will also be used to pretest your questionnaire so print enough copies for everyone.
The aim here is not to collect data, as it is unlikely that the class is representative of your target market, but to get feedback on the questionnaire itself. If people in the class are part of your target market you may wish to administer a revised survey at a later date. You should not administer your questionnaire until you’ve received feedback. You should also aim to survey a minimum of 50 people.
Phase Three: Marketing Strategy Final Report
The final phase of this project involves using the knowledge about the potential consumers for the repositioned product gained during phase two and from the survey to put together a marketing strategy. In other words, now that you have a good understanding of the consumers for your product how are you going to market it to them? Note that this is not a product launch or marketing plan but a marketing strategy. The difference is that a marketing plan involves specific tactics, while a strategy is a general approach. You don’t have to come up with specific marketing slogans but should indicate the slant, or the general message the slogan will promote. For instance, if the consumers of your product are into healthy living, then the health benefits of your product might be one message you would want to convey, and you would promote it in healthy living magazines etc. The details would be worked out later.
The final report should contain the following:
1.
A revision and expansion of phase two integrating concepts discussed in class with your questionnaire data as well as any other secondary data you may have about your target segment.
2.
A product positioning statement
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Including the specific brand image to be used.
 Justify your positioning statement based on your analyses of the target consumer’s behaviour
3.
Marketing mix recommendations
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Select a product strategy for your brand. Discuss packaging, brand features, services, etc. Justify your strategy with what you have learned about consumer behavior in
Phase Two.
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Select a pricing strategy for your brand. Justify your decision based on your understanding of price sensitivity, cost, competition, and psychological pricing considerations.
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Outline and justify a general promotional program.
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How will you create consumer awareness? o Don’t just say “we will use effective displays to grab consumers’ attention.” What will make them effective and why?
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What is the relative importance of various promotional mix tools?
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What are your advertising objectives?
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What is the general substance of your message?
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What slant or idea will promotion take? – This should be consistent with the positioning statement. How are you going to persuade the target audience to buy your product?
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What media will you select and why?
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Will you use a personal selling program? If so, why and how?
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Design and justify the appropriate channels of distribution.
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4.
Appendixes
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A copy of the power point presentation
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A copy of the questionnaire with frequencies for each answer
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Copies of any competitor ads if applicable
The heart of this project is your analysis and application of the basic consumer behavior issues, concepts, models, and theories involved in the marketing problem you are addressing.
Your marketing strategy should flow from what you know about the consumers of your product or service. You won’t know how to effectively market to them unless you understand them.
While you can offer creative suggestions for how this is done you need to justify your general approach. The same is true for strategies involving aspects of the product itself, advertising, sales promotion, pricing, and distribution. For example, you can’t just say you will be a price leader without justification. People switch brands because of low prices when there is weak brand loyalty and price sensitivity. Is this true of your product category? If you’re relying on your existing brand loyalty for pricing or some other aspect of the marketing mix then you need to research how the brand is perceived.
The key to getting a good mark for this project is to justify what you intend to do. If you give the product a new name for example, you need to provide the reasons for doing so. If you want to market Herbal Essences shampoo to men and call it “Herbal Essences Shampoo for
Men” then you need to say why — i.e. because most shampoos are marketed to women yet men still wash their hair, and because you’re going to change the product slightly in terms of scent etc. to make it more appealing to men. Your promotions are all going to be geared to men, but the appeal will be based on what you understand about men and what they look for in a shampoo. Imagine yourselves as making a proposal to the CEO or marketing manager of the company – the ones that will give the go ahead to move forward on the project and cost it out. Can you convince them that it will succeed?
It helps too if you put yourself in the shoes of the typical consumer for your product. If you are repositioning a hairspray as a carpet spot remover, for instance, where would you look for information? The Internet? Probably not. If you say word of mouth will be important in promoting the product will people actually talk about it? Would you? If you sell a stain remover product will people talk about it? Do people value clean clothes and appearance?
Do they want to be able to remove stains? Does your product remove stains effectively? If the answer to these questions is “Yes” then perhaps people will talk about your product. If the answer is “No” then people probably won’t talk about it. If you’re marketing bottled water to a new market will news spread by word of mouth? Do people talk about water? Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. What would you value? Some of this information can be confirmed in the survey. The idea is to convince the reader(s) (i.e. your marketing manager or financiers) that your idea of a repositioned product or service would succeed.
The final report, due the last day of classes, must be a professional and polished document, no longer than 25 double-spaced pages (excluding any appendices, references, or exhibits), using no smaller than 11-point font. Be sure to cite all references where appropriate in the body of the paper and list your sources of information, including articles, interviews, etc. at the end. Any additional charts and tables (if not used in the body of the text), as well as the
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PowerPoint presentation and questionnaire, should be included as appendices (marks will be deducted if they are not). Papers must include a cover page with the names of all group members. The first page of the report must be a table of contents and the second page an executive summary that provides a brief overview of the report (i.e. product chosen and your market repositioning concept). A common error with the executive summary is to summarize what the team did rather than, or to the exclusion of, the results. An example of a table of contents is provided at the end of these guidelines.
Final presentations
Presentations will take place over the last two classes of the term. Lots will be drawn the week before to determine the order of presentation, unless a compelling reason can be given for making the presentation on a particular date. Those groups giving their presentation the first week of presentations have the advantage of getting feedback on their project before the final report is due. Those going on the second week have the advantage of extra time . All team members must participate in the final presentation.
The final presentations should be in PowerPoint. They must be professional, interesting, and clearly convey the strength of your repositioning concept and both the thoroughness of your marketing strategy and its soundness in terms of consumer behavior.
Plan on presenting roughly 15 minutes of material, leaving about 5 minutes for classroom discussion. Since part of the presentation mark is for class discussion it is important to encourage questions. You are expected to attend all the project presentations, as some exam questions will be based on them. Each group must include a copy of its PowerPoint presentation with the final report.
Grading
This project is worth 35% of the final grade; 10% is allotted for the presentation and 25% for the final report. In general, the project will be evaluated on your choice of the key consumer behavior issues involved in the marketing problem, the creative way in which you analyze the consumer issues, how you select and use concepts from the class to help solve the segmentation and repositioning "problem", the originality and soundness of the strategies that you recommend and how clearly these follow from your consumer behavior analysis.
More specifically, papers will be graded using the following guidelines
Organization, style, grammar and spelling
Executive Summary
Profile of the market (competition trends etc.)
Product positioning statement
Description and justification of target segment
Analysis of consumer behaviour issues
Strategic marketing mix recommendations
Conclusion
20 points
25 points
25 points
5 points
10 points
35 points
20 points
10 points
150 points
Note that a substantial portion of the mark is allotted to the Executive Summary. Executive
Summaries are so called because they are for busy executives who lack the time to read the entire report. It needs to be brief and specific. State what you did – briefly e.g. conducted a
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survey of how many people, but focus on the findings and recommendations. Avoid marketing hype.
There is also a substantial portion of marks allotted for organization style, grammar and spelling. It is worthwhile, therefore to ensure that that there are no spelling or grammatical errors.
Oral presentations will be graded using the following guidelines
Content
Organization
10 points
5 points
Presentation style
Use of visual aids
Timing
Handling questions
Professionalism
5 points
5 points
5 points
5 points
5 points
40 points
Examples of Past Projects
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Vinegar repositioned from a condiment to a cleaning agent
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Huggies Baby-wipes repositioned as all-purpose hygienic wipes
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Swiffer wet jet repositioned as an industrial Swiffer Mighty
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Travel cosmetic organizers repositioned as a “Purse Pal” for teens
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Bacardi cooler repositioned as a low carb cooler
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Dasani Bottled Water targeted to children (and parents)
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Spray 9 All-purpose cleaner repositioned as a stain remover for clothes
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Bounce Dryer sheets repositioned as a room deodorizer
 Molson’s Canadian repositioned as a beer shampoo
 HMV repositioned as a Music Café
 L’oreal concealer for women repositioned as a concealer for men
 Labatt’s 50 repositioned as a beer for women.
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A yoga studio repositioned to men
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OCI nail polish repositioned as a car touch up paint
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Bic pens repositioned as a multi-purpose pen and hair stick
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The Elbow River Manor repositioned to a weekend getaway for Calgarians
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Crest toothpaste repositioned as an acne treatment
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Mercedes repositioned to women
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Labello lip balm repositioned to men
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Clairol hair spray repositioned as a carpet spot remover/clothing stain remover
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Ipod repositioned to media and Gaming device
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Preparation H to anti-wrinkle cream
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Herbal essences shampoo repositioned to men
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Swiss army knife repositioned for women
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Olive oil as a skin moisturizer
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Rice Krispies as a baking ingredient
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Jacob clothing repositioned as a clothing store for men
 Parissa Studio’s warm wax from women to men
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Smirnoff Ice coolers repositioned as highballs for men
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Executive Summary
Product Description/Background
Sample Table of Contents
Product repositioning statement
Product category market profile
Segments
Competition
Trends
Target segment Consumer Behavior
Motivation and Values
Personality and Lifestyles
Attitudes
Decision making
Group Influences
Cultural Influences
Situational Influences
Marketing mix recommendations
Product
Price
Promotion
Place
Conclusion/Summary
References
Appendices
Charts and Tables
Questionnaire
PowerPoint Presentation
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