What POSE is

Strategy defined
In order for a company to meet its objectives, it needs to have a strategy that outlines the manner in which those objectives will be met. A strategy implies making choices with respect to the following strategic questions:

• What product-market combinations to target? (see COPE Analysis)
• What positions to take with products in markets?
• What instruments to apply to claim these positions? (see COPE Analysis)
• What competences to develop to support all this?

POSE = POsitioning StrEngth
The second of the above mentioned strategic questions is the topic of a POSE analysis. With POSE analysis, the strength and position of a product in a market (segment) can be quantitatively determined by identifying what customers value in a product category and how a specific product compares on these values with respect to competitive products. A POSE analysis answers the following questions:

• What USPs does a product offer? USPs relate to values that 1) are of importance to customers and 2) the product performs considerably better than competitive products.
• Is the product preferred over competitive products? A key objective of marketing is to offer the strongest proposition in a targeted market segment. If this is not the case, one must either invest in improvement of the proposition (e.g. improved features, improved features, better price) or target a different or smaller market segment where the strongest proposition can be obtained. The overall strength of the proposition can be incorporated in a COPE Analysis.

Explore how POSE Analysis can help you in your business.