<p>Purpose:</p><p>Only 60 percent of the newly started companies survive their three first years. The purpose of this report is to obtain a deeper understanding regarding how newly started companies work with their positioning and if there are some kind of a relationship between positioning and the survival rate of newly started companies.</p><p>Research questions:</p><p>Do newly started companies know what position is? Do they incorporate positioning in their day to day marketing?</p><p>Approach:</p><p>We have used a hypothetical-deductive way of reasoning and a qualitative study to gather the information needed. We have through interviews asked our questions to six newly started companies in three different cities.</p><p>Findings:</p><p>In our essay, we reached the conclusion that newly started companies do not spend sufficient time or energy on positioning their products. The companies interviewed only market their product as a good product. They did not highlight or position the product as having additional benefits in comparison to similar products and the companies included in our study did not have a positioning strategy.</p><p>Conclusions:</p><p>We would like to advice all newly started companies to look into the competitive advantages they can gain through their positioning. We would also advice them to develop a positioning strategy giving them a clearer understanding of how to communicate their uniqueness to their customers.</p><p>Value of research:</p><p>Only 60 percent of the newly started companies survive their three first years. In our study we researched newly started companies work with positioning and we looked at the relationship between positioning and the survival rate among newly started companies. Our conclusion in this study is that the companies did not have a positioning strategy. This can be one reason why the survival rate among newly started companies is so low and we find this interesting issue for further research.</p><p>Key words:</p><p>positioning, marketing, newly started companies</p>

Purpose: Only 60 percent of the newly started companies survive their three first years. The purpose of this report is to obtain a deeper understanding regarding how newly started companies work with their positioning and if there are some kind of a relationship between positioning and the survival rate of newly started companies. Research questions: Do newly started companies know what position is? Do they incorporate positioning in their day to day marketing? Approach: We have used a hypothetical-deductive way of reasoning and a qualitative study to gather the information needed. We have through interviews asked our questions to six newly started companies in three different cities. Findings: In our essay, we reached the conclusion that newly started companies do not spend sufficient time or energy on positioning their products. The companies interviewed only market their product as a good product. They did not highlight or position the product as having additional benefits in comparison to similar products and the companies included in our study did not have a positioning strategy. Conclusions: We would like to advice all newly started companies to look into the competitive advantages they can gain through their positioning. We would also advice them to develop a positioning strategy giving them a clearer understanding of how to communicate their uniqueness to their customers. Value of research: Only 60 percent of the newly started companies survive their three first years. In our study we researched newly started companies work with positioning and we looked at the relationship between positioning and the survival rate among newly started companies. Our conclusion in this study is that the companies did not have a positioning strategy. This can be one reason why the survival rate among newly started companies is so low and we find this interesting issue for further research. Key words: positioning, marketing, newly started companies