1. Guidelines for Competitive Positioning
Differentiate to dominate
The competition is any alternative that meets the need.
The bigger the market, the more expertise required. (Assume the industries best are also engaging the market).
Perception is fact
Know the “center of gravity “, the primary value proposition, in your value chain and broaden value from there. (Every functional organization contributes to value).

2. Examples of Defensible Boundaries
Making your strengths a marketing issue
Leveraging your Economies of Scale
Capital requirements
Establishing & protecting Intellectual Property
Increasing the customers cost of change
Leveraging third parties to add to your value proposition (i.e SW applications sell hardware).
Turning competitors into customers
Obsolescing your own products

3. Caution- Defensible Boundaries
Betting on your competitor failing is not a strategy to differentiate.
Patents do not keep competitors from entering your space.
A stronger feature set is not a defensible boundary
Don’t assume your competitors are striving to achieve incremental change.

4. Porter’s Positioning Maps
Week Strong
Features Importance* Position
Comfort C C T
Components C1 C2 T
Weight C1 C2 T
Service T C C1
Cost T C2 C1
Look for gaps
Helps refine product/service offering
Same caution as other position maps
implies incremental change
There’s interaction between customer “care abouts” that define buying habbits. (I.e. Dell found importance of cost is relevant to type of user and feature set).
*As determined using third party research