2 ways

August 9, 2008

• Product Differentiation and Positioning

  Traditional positioning is done via 2 competing forces

  Price
  Uniqueness

  Uniqueness relates to the degree of differentiation, which can be divided into 2 main areas:

  Merchandise
  Support

  And produces the following possibilities:

  An offer differentiated by both merchandise and support can be classified as a system
  Undifferentiated by both merchandise and support then the offer is a commodity (common, like bread and milk)
  Differentiated by merchandise but not by support and the offer is a product
  Differentiated by support but not by merchandise and the offer is a service

  This produces a declining scale of uniqueness: System > Product or Service > Commodity
  And the customer is the final judge and jurer on this matter. (…)