2.2.1 Positioning Continued

High End, Performance and Size customers demand greater product improvement than Traditional and Low End customers. Therefore, the High End, Performance and Size market segments drift at a faster rate. As time goes on, the overlap between the segments decreases.

Market segments will not move faster to catch up with a product that exceeds their expectations. For example, High End customers will refuse to buy a product to the lower right of the circles. Remember, a customers are only interested in products that fall within the circles on the perceptual map.

Tip: There are zero customers interested in products positioned outside of the dashed circles!

You and your management team must ensure that your product line keeps up with changing customer demand. To do this, products must be repositioned to stay within the moving segment circles. Products must be redesigned so that they are smaller in size and faster in performance. See 6.1 Research & Development (R&D) for more information.

A Real-World Perceptual Map

Beyond the simulation, perceptual maps can be used to plot almost any two product characteristics. Here's an example: Most new car dealers sell extended warranties. The arrow in the figure below points to a location on the perceptual map where a standard 36 month, 36,000 mile warranty ends. The green area indicates the locations where customers have the strongest interest in added month/mile combinations. Few customers want 12 month 100,000 mile warranties (not many people drive 100,000 miles in 12 months) or 60 month 15,000 mile warranties (most people drive farther than 15,000 miles over a five year period).