Hanson-Smith, Ltd.

Product positioning

We have helped many clients plan new products and new product lines, using a proprietary methodology we term structured positioning analysis.

We first developed our positioning method in the early 1980s, refining it over many projects. It is an analytic approach to the study of the sales process and market dynamics, and is based on a schematic model of the sales dialogue. The model reveals how a product or product line fits within its marketing context.

This positioning process consists essentially of “filling in the blanks” of the model. The work usually focuses on a series of workshop sessions – essentially a seminar for the stakeholders – supported by preliminary data-gathering and follow-up documentation. Depending on circumstances and the complexity of the problem, useful results might be obtained in a week-long cycle, though some situations produced useful results in a single day, and others have taken months to crack.

The goals of this approach to position analysis are first to reveal the forces that control the sales dialogue, next to design a product portrayal that can leverage those forces effectively, and finally to create a strategy for implementing that portrayal consistently throughout all sales channels.