Positioning starts with a product, a company, a service or even a person. But positioning is not what you do to the actual product, it’s what you do to the mind of your prospect. You position yourself (perception) in the mind of your prospect.
It is incorrect to refer to this concept as “product positioning” as if you were doing something to the product. A better definition would be: “how you differentiate yourself in the mind of the prospect”.
Positioning is a relative newcomer to the marketing world. The term was born on April 24, 1972 in an article entitled “The Positioning Era” published by the US industry bible the Advertising Age and written by Al Ries & Jack Trout.
In today’s cluttered, over-communicated consumer environment, traditional advertising simply does not work. Today’s marketplace is no longer responsive to the strategies that worked in the past. There are simply too many products, too many companies and too much noise. The average supermarket now carries 40,000 SKU’s (stock keeping units).
“Interruption Marketing”. (more)
With such an overwhelming amount of information hitting us every day we simply shut off to unwanted messages. Communication itself has become the communication problem.
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The answer, say Ries & Trout, is to over-simplify the message. In communication, as in architecture and design, less is more. Sharpen your message. Remove the ambiguities. Everyone knows the message “Avis – we try harder”. One of the earliest examples of positioning advertising has become one of the most famous last lines in advertising history:
Avis is only No.2 in rent a cars. So why go with us?
We try damned hard. (When you’re not the biggest you have to).
We just can’t afford dirty ashtrays. Or half-empty gas tanks. Or worn wipers. Or unwashed cars. Or low tyres. Or anything else than seat-adjusters that adjust. Heaters that heat. Defrosters that defrost.
Obviously, the thing we try hardest for is just to be nice. To start you out right with a new car, like a lively, Super-torque Ford, and a pleasant smile. To know, say, where you get a good pastrami sandwich in Duluth.
Why?
Because we can’t afford to take you for granted.
Go with us next time.
The line at our counter is shorter.
The positioning concept of the oversimplified message has developed into the idea of owning a word in the customers mind. Volvo owns “safety”. Rebel owns “sport”. Singapore Airlines owns “the Singapore girl”. In fact the image of the Singapore girl herself has become the brand for the airline. She is the positioning statement!
Positioning is all about earning and owning your place in your prospects mind. The essence of positioning thinking is to accept the perceptions as reality and then re-shape those perceptions to create the desired position.
Get your brand position right and you will save immeasurable amounts of money on failed advertising and win your place in the customers mind. Get in touch with Brandware today and let us show you how to 'get it right'.