A Customer-oriented Manager for B2B Services

8Formalizing Your Offer

8.1. Positioning the offer

Positioning is a concept and an approach that is well established and clearly defined in the marketing literature. Managers must seize it, both as an element of management of their team, and as a lever of their commercial and operational performance.

8.1.1. The notion of positioning

At the heart of the strategic approach to marketing, positioning makes it possible for an offer to be given a clear, distinct and privileged place in the mind of the customer, so that it is preferred over competing offers¹. It is a strategic choice that the company makes, different from the image which is the set of representations that the customer associates with the company, the offer or the brand.

8.1.1.1. The importance of positioning

Positioning is in a way the structuring element of the marketing approach by ensuring the relevance and integration of the various marketing choices and actions. By systematically referring to its positioning to verify the coherence of each marketing decision taken, the company increases its readability on the market and thereby strengthens its competitive position. If the company does not take part in defining its positioning, it runs the risk of letting the market decide its identity for it, or worse, perhaps, that the market has no clear idea of what the company does.

Positioning has a double impact on the customer. First, a strong and clear positioning enables customers to better formulate their expectations ...