Background: This post touches upon the concept of Product Positioning. There are many ways of looking at this concept – one from the perspective of customers in terms of which specific customer need is the Product meeting and another from the perspective of market players/ competitors in the same space offering similar Solutions/ Services to customers. I am going to present an example where Positioning from a market standing perspective (latter) is looked at. The use case selected is of a bank offering Cash Management Services (Collections/ Payments/ Liquidity Management Solutions) to Corporates/ Financial Institutions.
Purpose of the analysis: This analysis helps in defining where the organisation’s offering stands v/s peers and is aimed at defining the Product roadmap/ focus areas for the future.
Parameters chosen for X – Axis & Y – Axis: Here, I have taken Branch network on the X – axis and Product & Service Capability on the Y – axis. In today’s era of digitisation/ AI/ Fintech/ Blockchain, a counter argument could be whether distribution network is important; however, the physical presence is still important for handling cash collections/ delivery, cheque collections, managing Dividend Disbursements/ Bankers to the Issue mandates, etc. with optimal operational efficiency. The importance would, however, vary depending upon the geography. ‘Product & Service Capability’ is a given criterion as Cash Management offerings are characterized by customization & innovation.
Market information: Information of branch network of market players is readily available in the public domain. However, the Product & Service Capability has to be ascertained basis: i) Feedback from Relationship teams, ii) Detailed Competition Scan for Products across major players, iii) Client testimonials/ feedback (the Product Manager should try getting this first hand if possible from some key clients), iv) Industry Awards given to banks in the same space, v) Inputs from peers joining from the Industry, etc. Once this information is ready, one can prepare the Positioning for various banks as illustrated in attached graph.
Positioning illustration: In this example, Bank A is that of the Product Manager, Bank E is the Market Leader in terms of Product Capability and Bank C is the bank with the largest branch network. A two-year time frame has been taken to show the progress of bank A. The graph also contains specifics of additions to the Product Portfolio over this period. The gap between Bank E & Bank A on the Y – axis is to be bridged going forward and the future roadmap should focus on the same.
Another approach could be to prepare this illustration separately for Local Private Sector Banks, MNC Banks and Govt Banks and compare one’s bank with the actual peer group.
Are there other ideas you have in terms of Positioning? Have you/ your teams done this Analysis in any other manner? Would love to have your views/ comments.
Hope this post was useful…do keep reading this space for more!
Product Management Toolkit 