Product Positioning

[Crate Crazy]

This is one of the hardest tasks as a sales(man/woman) against alternate packaging methods such as steel, plastic, corrugated, and others...

Depending on the application, wood crates might be a far better fit then you ever imagined.

If it's price wars you're up against... to start with, always leverage the cost of damaged goods vs. the face value cost of packaging. You might be in a league of your own and not even know it!

If you have any questions/concerns about how you think you should position your offering vs. alternative packaging methodologies, this is the forum for you...

Now let's go sell something!

[albert]

I agree. It's amazing how (as I read here) wood is the only thing that grows on trees! Plastic is all hype. It doesn't really last in the real world. Right now the government is fighting over simple plastic buckets. They keep breaking so they're going back to metal

Wood lasts, it's flexible and amazingly stong. AND after the dinasaurs run out, the trees will still be growing.

[Crate Crazy]

I don't know if it's the eyeball convincing me, or what it is... but you're right.

Wood crates grow on trees and is an amazing application when used for the right purposes. I'm sure plastic has it's role too, I'm just not convinced as to what that is yet! hehe

Happy Crating!

[sliver]

Positioning needs to go a few steps farther. A simple approach begins with identifying the core competencies of the company and the strategic placements of those competencies in the market.

Example: are you trying to be a low cost provider, high end manufacture or added value service provider. (also could be a combination)

Knowing your competencies as you approach the market will help to keep you out of a commoditized market. The problem has been that Crating is a mature market and not much inovation is there to create a competitive edge based soly on product. Not even Nefab....

So where does that leave the smart ones; selling service....

[Crate Crazy]

Good point sliver,

I agree wholeheartedly, however, I think we're discussing two different aspects.

You're point is dead on from a managerial standpoint. You really do have to determine which market you want to enter/attack and then set up implementation strategies as to how to do it. Of course this is when price, quality etc... issues come in to play. This is ground roots product positioning, but I see it more as company positioning...

My point was from a direct sales perspective. Once management has set the guidelines, how to sell from that point forward. Salesman unfortunately cannot re-invent the wheel. They can work with different sales tactics, but positioning the product in their customers mind is what will really do the selling.

Great ideas though. Service is a whole different can of worms... which I'd like to get into in a future post... Of course I would like your help and ideas there as well.

I look forward to future feedback/comments!