Positioning and Branding: Creating a Unique Identity in the Mind of Consumers, Exercises of Marketing

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Positioning: The battle for Your

Mind

Authors: Al Ries. Jack Trout

Review of book by Ajay K. merchant

INTRODUCTION

Positioning is not what you do to a product.

Positioning is what you do to the mind of the

prospect. That is you position the product in

the mind of the prospect.

1. What positioning is all about – 2

• In general, the mind accepts only that which matches prior knowledge or experience.
• The average person cannot tolerate being told they are wrong. Mind changing is the road to advertising disaster.
• Oversimplified message – The best approach in in our over communicated society is the oversimplified message.
• LESS IS MORE – sharpen your message, jettison the ambiguities, simplify the message and simplify it some more.
• You look for the solution to your problem inside the prospects mind.
• You concentrate on the perceptions of the prospect. Not the reality of the product. Perception is the reality.

Restructure perceptions

Truth is irrelevant. What matters are the

perceptions that exist in the mind. The

essence of positioning thinking is to accept

the perceptions as reality and then restructure

those perceptions to create the position you

desire. Process is called “outside-in thinking”.

Advertising is psychology in practise.

2. The Assault on the mind - 2

• To cut through the traffic jam in the prospect’s mental highway, one must use an oversimplified approach.
• The Media Explosion – Excessive media makes the prospect loose the message. Even the human body has become a walking billboard.
• In USA advertisement spend has increased 8 times but does one know 8 times more for the product? Though advertisers can spend there is only that much which a consumer can absorb. However the mind is the battleground.
• The Product Explosion – Another reason for messages getting lost is because of the increase in number of products.
• Scientists have discovered that person is capable of receiving limited sensation. After a point the brain goes blank.

3. Getting into the Mind

• Positioning is an organised system for finding windows in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.
• The easy way to get into a person’s mind is to be first.
• What is true in business is true in nature too. “Imprinting” is the term biologist use to describe the first encounter between a newborn animal and its natural mother.
• For brand loyalty you get in the mind first and be careful not to give a reason to switch. People don’t remember the 2nd.
• Find something to be first in. It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond (then increase the size of the pond) than to be a small fish in a big pond.

4. Those Little Ladders in Your Head

• Due to large volume of communications, (a) the mind rejects information that it does not compute. (b) Accepts new information which matches its current state of mind. (c) Filters out everything else.
• To put a new brand into the mind, you have to delete or reposition the old brand that already occupies the category.
• You taste what you expect to taste. E.g. New Coke, a major marketing disaster. Folly by company to improve on the taste of the real thing.
• Consumers are emotional. If consumers are rational one does not require advertising.
• Dr. George A. Miller – The average human mind cannot deal with more then seven units at a time.

4. Those Little Ladders in Your Head – 2

• Human minds cannot keep track of all the brand names which are multiplying like rabbits.
• The Product Ladder – To cope with product expansion, people have learned to rank products and brands in the mind.
• Many companies embark on advt. programmes in a vacuum as if competitors position did not exist. Such advt. messages disappoint as they do not get through.
• The mind has no room for what’s new and different unless it’s related to the old.
• The “Against” Position – Sometimes the competitors position is more important then your own. E.g. Avis v/s. Hertz. Avis was successful because it related itself to Hertz.

5. You Can’t Get There from Here

• The “Can Do” Spirit Refuses to Die – Some situations are very

hard and no matter how hard one tries or how much money they pour in the problem could not be solved.

• A company can have a great product, a great sales force, a

great advt. campaign and still fail if it happens to be in a position in which you can’t get there from here”.

• Don’t find perceptions with facts. Perceptions will always win.
• RCA v/s IBM
• The old cliché “fight fir with fire”. But Howard Gossage said

“That’s silly. Fight fire with water”.

6. Positioning of a Leader

• History shows that the first brand into the brain, on the average gets twice the long – term market share of the No. 2 brand and twice again as much as the no. 3 brand. And the relationships are not easily changed. E.g.Coke v/s Pepsi in cola
• However if a marketing leader isn't first in a new category, same applies.
• Almost all the material advantages accrue to the leader. In the absence of any strong reasons to the contrary, consumers will probably select the same brand for their next purchase as they selected for the last purchase.
• If two brands are equal and neither side has a clear-cut superiority, winning the battle for sales leadership in a single year will often clinch victory for decades to come.

6. Positioning of a Leader - 3

• Sometimes it is difficult to move an established position. It may be cheaper and more effective to introduce a new product. Even if you have to eventually have to kill off an old, established name.
• E.g. P&G introduced Tide though Ivory was old established brand. Toyota introduced Lexus.
• The leader, the company with the highest market share, is also likely to enjoy the highest profit margin of any company serving that market. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
• The ultimate objective of a positioning program should be to achieve leadership in a given category. Once that leadership has been obtained, the company can count on enjoying the fruits of leadership for many years to come.
• When you try to be everything you wind up being nothing.

7. Positioning of a Follower

• What works for a leader doesn’t necessarily work for a follower.
• Most Me-Too products fail because the ascent is on “better” rather than “speed”. It is not to be better than the competitor. You must attack while the situation is fluid and before the leader can establish leadership.
• Cherchez le Creneau: means look for the hole. In the prospects mind is one of the best strategies in the field of marketing. Creneau’s don’t have to be exciting or dramatic or even have much of a customer benefit to be effective.
• To find a creneau, you must have the ability to think in reverse, to go against the grain. 1. The Size Creneau – Large Detroit automakers v/s Volkswagen Beetle. 2. The High-Price Creneau – Michelob the premium priced domestic beer, US $ 30,000/- Mercedes Benz and BMW 633CSi, Chivas Regal & Johnny Walker, Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn, Mobil 1 synthetic engine lubricant.

8. Repositioning the Competition

• When you cant find a creneau one needs to create there own creneau. The basic underlying strategy has got to be reposition the competition.
• To move a new idea or product into the mind, you must first move an old one out. E.g. Christopher Columbus. Once an old idea is overturned, selling a new idea is often ludicrously simple.
• Repositioning Aspirin by Tylenol.
• Repositioning American Vodkas by Stolichnaya. People like to see the high and mighty exposed. They like to see the bubbles burst.
• Repositioning Pringle by Borden’s wise who kept labels simple. In politics or packaged goods, the rule is once a loser, always a loser.

8. Repositioning the Competition - 2

Repositioning Listerine.

• Listerine dominated the mouthwash market when Scope was first introduced.
• Scope focused not on the consumer problem which its product cured, but on the consumer problem its competitor caused. Listerine's one vulnerable spot was the antiseptic smell it left on the user's breath.
• Scope skewered Listerine with the slogan "medicine breath." Scope took millions of dollars away from Listerine with those two words, and positioned itself in the minds of consumers as the "sweet breath" mouthwash.
• Lesson: Look for a problem, no matter how small, which your competitor's product or service causes as it solves the buyer's primary problem. Attack and exploit that weakness