What is strategic positioning?
Strategic positioning is the creation of a unique and valuable position in three different ways:
- Serving few needs of many customers (such as Bavaria that specializes in beverage production).
- Fulfilling a wide range of needs for a few clients (such as Bentley, which focuses on clients with high purchasing power).
- Attending a wide range of needs for many customers in a narrow market (membership stores like Costco).
It is also making commitments and deciding what NOT TO DO to be competitive. This is, identifying the activities of the competition that might induce the increase in sales but that can potentially affect the bottom line adversely: Reject competing activities that are incompatible with the operation and the results. Bear in mind that “copying” the competition does not constitute a competitive strategy.
Lastly, strategic positioning is to fit the company’s activities so that they interact and reinforce each other. This synergy becomes a strength difficult to imitate by the competition. It is connecting leadership with strategy.
