ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the employment of positioning strategies and congruence in the application of positioning strategies of upscale indigenous and foreign retailers in Ghana. The chapter examines six retailers – three indigenous and three foreign – in a triangulated method, each through an in-depth case study. The results show that the dominant positioning strategies consistently pursued by both indigenous and foreign retailers in Ghana are “service,” “reliability,” and “attractiveness.” While indigenous retailers (compared to their foreign counterparts) pursue more positioning strategies, the majority of foreign retailers actually exhibit close-to-ideal congruence among managers’ intentions, actual firm practices, and customers’ perceptions. The findings reveal that foreign and indigenous retailers pursue varying positioning strategies in the marketplace. The latter finding complements the utility of Western-developed typologies of positioning strategies in BoP African marketplaces. Moreover, the results show how indigenous retailers have embraced positioning and branding, further attesting to the changing and competitive nature of the BoP Ghanaian marketplace.
