Notice: Please visit Enginius.biz for our latest Marketing Engineering software
Marketing Engineering for Excel has reached end of life and is no longer receiving updates. Please visit Enginius.biz to explore our newest online marketing analytics platform which is designed to replace the Marketing Engineering for Excel add-in.
Students: If your instructor has specifically told you to use Marketing Engineering for Excel software, please continue on this site.

News

Positioning Analysis

on . Posted in Commercial Software Models

What you put in... What you get out...
  • Customers' rating of focal brand and key competitors on dimensions of merit
  • Individual customer preference ratings of all competitors
  • Perceptual map, showing which brands are closest to one another
  • Attributes that differentiate brands
  • Locations of individual customer preferences
  • Projected market share associated with current and new positions on the map

Positioning Analysis software incorporates several mapping techniques that enable firms to develop differentiation and positioning strategies for their products. By using this tool, managers can visualize the competitive structure of their markets as perceived by their customers. Typically, data for mapping are customer perceptions of existing products (and new concepts) along various attributes, customer preferences for products, or measures of behavioral response of customers toward the products (e.g., current market shares of the products).

positioningPositioning Analysis uses perceptual mapping and preference mapping techniques. Perceptual-mapping helps firms to understand how customers view their product(s) relative to competitive products. The preference map introduces preference vectors or ideal points for each respondent on to a perceptual map. The ideal point represents the location of the (hypothetical) product that most appeals to a specific respondent. The preference vector indicates the direction in which a respondent’s preference increases. In other words, a respondent’s “ideal” product lies as far up the preference vector as possible. The preference map starts out with a perceptual map giving the locations of the product alternatives. In the second step, it introduces for each respondent either an ideal brand or a preference vector.

Positioning Analysis also helps firms to answer such questions as:

  • Based on customer perceptions, which target segments are the most attractive?
  • How should we position our new products with respect to our existing products?
  • How do our customers view our brand?
  • What product name is closely associated with the attributes that our target segment perceives as desirable?
  • Which brands do our target segments see as our closest competitors?
  • What product attributes are responsible for the perceived differences between products?
  • How would changes in a product's perceived attributes alter the product's market share?

GE Portfolio Matrix

on . Posted in Commercial Software Models

What you put in... What you get out...
  • SBU, product, or segment ratings on key attributes
  • Importance of these attributes to the firm
  • Visual representation of relative attractiveness of SBUs, products, or market segments on a 2-dimensional map
  • Sensitivity of map to attribute importance scores

The GE Portfolio approach evaluates a business on the basis of two composite dimensions: industry attractiveness and business strength. These dimensions, in turn, consist of a series of weighted factors. Both the factor weights and the factors themselves may vary from one application to another; for example, industry attractiveness includes measures of market size, growth rate, competitive intensity, and the like, whereas business strength normally includes such measures as market share, share growth, and product quality. Analysts assign each business a rating for each factor and a weight to each factor. Multiplying the factor ratings by the weights produces a position for each business on the strength/attractiveness matrix.

geWhile designed to assist in the GE/McKinsey approach to portfolio management, this model can be used for any situation where a certain number of items are ranked on two sets of weighted factors. Optionally, multiple sets of weights can be used.

The GE Portfolio approach helps firms answer such questions as:

  • On which products, offerings, or divisions should we focus our efforts?
  • What method can we use to assess and understand the weights that various members of the management team assign to different dimensions?
  • How can we reconcile different points of view?