Internet Branding

When talking about Internet branding, positioning is the key. Positioning is the act of fixing the exact locus of the product offer in the chosen market; it decides how and around what distinctive feature the product offer has to be couched and communicated to the consumers. While positioning its product, a firm analyzes the competitor\'s positions, searches its own competitive advantages and then identifies the best possible position for the product.

Product differentiation has a close link with product positioning. Product differentiation is in a way the prelude to product positioning. They are interrelated strategies and are employed in close alignment with each other. Positioning is the outcome of a conscious strategy of marketing. Positioning comes out of the marketing man\'s awareness that a product cannot be \'everything to everyone\'. It can only be something to some segment. Some unique feature of the product, some unique feature of the market or some unique feature of the competition is normally isolated and around that feature the product is placed in the market.

Identifying these features imaginatively and using it as the \'plank\' on which to pedestal the product is the essence of positioning. So, the product can be positioned against a competing brand, it can be positioned for an exclusive well-to-do segment of the market, it can be positioned for men, it can be positioned for children, it can be positioned for a health- conscious market.

The marketing man has to formulate his positioning theme right from the product idea stage. He cannot suddenly invent a positioning theme when he is ready to enter the market with his product. He should have already decided what his \'cash on\' point should be, where he should introduce his product and for whom, and on what distinctive claim he should go around and promote his product.