| On the one hand,new product developments are being accelerated among the competitors with the development of analytical instrument market and the development of new scientific technologies. On the other hand, more enterprises are paying more attention to the practice of target marketing due to the increasing homogenization of products in the market. Market segmentation, target market selection and market positioning, as the core contents of target marketing, have been more and more recognized by more and more business practices. Market positioning is the key to target marketing. Successful market positioning is to improve business performance and enhance enterprise competency. By reviewing the origin and development of market positioning theories, this study discussed the relationships among market segmentation, target market and market positioning, and the relationship between market positioning and target marketing. Through two real-life case studies of market positioning strategies on Agilent's two generations of UHPLC products,1200 RRLC firstly introduced in 2006 and 1290 Infinity successfully launched in 2009, this study described how Agilent (China)Co. did the market segmentation of traditional analytical HPLC market and effectively selected the emerging, high growth potential UHPLC niche in China market and made 1200 RRLC successfully beat Waters' UPLC, the global UHPLC market leader, by a variety of smart market positioning strategies under different stages of competition and launched the 1290 Infinity in 2009 as the local market leader by strong re-positioning strategies. This study concluded the central role of market positioning in target marketing by practising different market positioning or re-positioning strategies under different market competitive conditions. This study touched also the hot issues of market research on target marketing strategy in the analytical instruments industry with a certain theoretical and practical significance. |
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