Targeting, Positioning, & Forecasting
Situation Analysis informs all levels of strategy – corporate strategy, business strategy, and functional strategies. After deciding on your competitive advantage
and regional strategy, it’s time to articulate your marketing strategy, which ultimately influences all other functional strategies. The grid below demonstrates how
competitive advantage translates into product quality, price, promotion, & distribution decisions. The worksheets on the following pages should help identify and
describe your target segments and what they want, which translates directly into an ideal marketing mix. The ideal marketing mix, along with the firm’s
competitive advantage, then translates into the company’s desired positioning in the market.
Distribution
Wide
Mid quality product
X
X
X
X
Mid price
X
Marketing Differentiation
X
X
Low price
Cost Leadership
X
X
X
High price
X
X
X
Product Differentiation
Heavy
Low price
Light
Advertising & Promotion
Low quality product
Exclusive
Mid quality product
High quality product
For each country, you should take a customer-oriented approach to market entry. That is, you should enter with a clear target market and positioning strategy. To
accomplish this, all of the Background, Environment, Consumer, Competition, and Internal information in CM is important and should be analyzed each period.
Note that there are 12 unique customer segments for toothpaste: three demographic groups (older, family, younger) and four benefit-seeking groups
(economy/basic, white, healthy, kids). Think of this as a 3 x 4 matrix.
A key outcome of this analysis is the sales forecast, which is a critical input for so many other decisions: plant capacity, logistics & distribution, sales staffing…
Many of these decisions have to be made years in advance, and the results can be devastating if you make poor forecasts. It is not an overstatement to say that
forecasting capability will likely determine your performance. So make a concerted effort to develop accurate forecasts early. Feel free to use the forecasting
spreadsheet to help you develop your country sales forecasts and regional market plan.
Argentina
Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Worksheet
Segment
Segment Size & Growth
Segment 1:
Segment Description
Ideal Marketing Mix Design & Positioning
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Segment Description
Ideal Marketing Mix Design & Positioning
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Brazil
Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Worksheet
Segment
Segment Size & Growth
Segment 1:
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Chile
Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Worksheet
Segment
Segment Size & Growth
Segment 1:
Segment Description
Ideal Marketing Mix Design & Positioning
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Segment Description
Ideal Marketing Mix Design & Positioning
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Mexico
Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Worksheet
Segment
Segment Size & Growth
Segment 1:
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Peru
Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Worksheet
Segment
Segment Size & Growth
Segment 1:
Segment Description
Ideal Marketing Mix Design & Positioning
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Segment Description
Ideal Marketing Mix Design & Positioning
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Product:
Price:
Channel:
Sales:
Promotion:
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Venezuela
Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Worksheet
Segment
Segment Size & Growth
Segment 1:
Segment 2:
Segment 3: