Chapter 2 – Basic Strategy Frameworks
9
Unless the target segment is chosen based on considerable
market research and careful planning, a company’s product /
solution will not be able to capture the intended market share
in the target segment. So, targeting is key, because businesses
battle for market share in these target segments.
Positioning
Positioning involves developing a marketing mix for each
targeted segment. One way to think of a marketing mix is
using the 4P’s framework. Another way to look at positioning
is articulating the value of the company’s products / solutions
vis-ŕ-vis customer needs, competitive products, etc. Product
data sheets, hot sheets, beat sheets, cheat sheets, white papers
help articulate this value tactically.
STP Best Practices
First Example: Older ways of segmenting customers
geographically / demographically should be coupled with
more modern methodologies. For example, by segmenting
customers according to the jobs they hire your products to do
for them, you can justify better why a firm should buy your
products vis-ŕ-vis the competition. This requires a little
elaboration.
Suppose you work as a marketing strategist in a company
with two products A and B. Product A helps customers D, E,
and F do jobs X, Y, and Z better / cheaper / faster. Product B
helps customers G, H, and K do jobs M, N, O, and P better /
cheaper / faster. Customers D, F, and K are in the mid-market
space and customers E, G, and H are in the enterprise space. If
you company segments customers by size into small, mid-
market, and enterprise, it will miss the key insight being
articulated here that at the end of the day, customers hire your
products to do their day-to-day jobs more easily / efficiently.
And it may not be material to them as to how big they are in
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