Aviation Leadership and Management Skills Development - Marketing Perceptual Mapping
SofemaOnline (SOL) considers the optimum process for Effective Marketing Perceptual Mapping
Positioning Considerations
Part of the company psyche is to understand where we want to be positioned related to our competitors.
Companies use differentiated brand benefits as a way to stand out from competitors. Ultimately our customers are going to decide how they will react to a company's brand and will “self” position relative to other businesses.
Therefore, we can use an assessment of our position to understand how the company's brand fits into targeted market segments relative to its competitors.
Introduction – What is Perceptual Mapping?
Essentially Perceptual Mapping presents an objective look at the overall product landscape, either through verified customer input or through marketing data.
Data interpreted into perceptual mapping can help to facilitate informed decisions regarding the organisations actual market position in particular in relation to the major competitors.
With the provided understanding it becomes possible to develop stronger marketing strategies as a result.
A business that wants to find out where its brand is positioned in the market, may carry out market research. This will help them to find out how the customers see their brand in relation to others in the market.
How is your business perceived?
Whilst a business may feel it sells upmarket products of high quality, this may ultimately be of little consequence if the customers view the products as low in quality or service.
Ultimately it is the customer view that will influence sales.
Perceptual mapping is a diagrammatic technique used to visually display the perceptions of customers or potential customers.
The market positioning of a brand is significantly influenced by customer perceptions rather than by the expectations or perceptions of the businesses itself.
How to use Perceptual Mapping?
May be used with either or both qualitative data and quantitative data.
- The process of creating the perceptual map remains the same for both
o However, to note that the maps serve different purposes
- Perceptual mapping techniques show us how to gain an insight into customer perceptions as well as digital customer engagement
- Working with Qualitative Data
o Used to identify subjective customer opinions customers
o Requires a direct line of communication with customers
o May take the form of interviews, surveys, polls, reviews, etc.
- Working with Quantitative Data
o A perceptual map focused on quantitative data can help us identify objective measurable statistics about a brand, product, or service
o Typically based on empirical evidence
Decision Making for a Successful Outcome
Ultimately we want to go after the market that offers the best match for our product relative to the customers' perception of our product.
Being able to make this match provides the best opportunity for you to market and sell your solutions at a fair value and to a market with good demand.
If there is a mismatch or misalignment in market perception of your brand then it is necessary to invest in sharing the brand benefits or alternatively to target a market that more easily identifies your brand's strengths.
Using Microsoft Excel to Support Perceptual Marketing.
Draw a grid of 40-by40 cells. Divide the grid into four equal quadrants by drawing an X-axis between rows 20 and 21 and a Y-axis between columns 20 and 21. After dividing the grid, you should have four grids each measuring 20-by-20 cells.
Determine the two variables that you would like to map on the grid. One common variable is price. If using price as a variable, label the top of the Y-axis "high prices" and the bottom of the axis "low prices." Another common variable is quality. If using quality as a label, use a term like "best" to label the left end of the X-axis and "worst" to label the right end of the X-axis.
Place the products on the grid based on the two variables. Each product has a Y variable, such as price, and an X variable, such as quality, that will determine its position on the grid. High-quality and expensive products should populate the cells in the upper-left quadrant, while cheap, low-quality products will populate the cells in the lower-left quadrant. After mapping each product, any gaps on the grid are possible areas for new products.
Next Steps
Please email team@sassofia.com with any comments, questions, or suggestions.
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