1 May, 2015
I've recently finished reading "Positioning - The battle for your mind" by Al Ries and Jack Trout. I can't quite work out when it was originally published but I suspect it was the early 80's. My copy was (c) 2001.
There are some really good ideas in the book and I hope to pull out the main ones here so I remember them. I'd recommend getting an actual copy of the book. The book fleshes all these points out with humour, insight and examples (even if some are a bit dated now).
Positioning is about the mind of the prospect. Rather than focusing on your product, you focus on what the prospect (the potential buyer) currently thinks, and relate your offering to that. So, what do they think?
There is an explosion of media, an explosion of products and an explosion of advertising. We are in an over-communicated society. The prospect's only defense against the onslaught is an over-simplified mind. Minds like to simplify to simple lists of 3 or 4 things. Those higher on the list are better than those lower. The brain forgets the other details.
According to the book, history shows that on average the No 1. brand gets twice the market share of the No 2. which gets twice the share of No 3. etc. The book argues that equality positions are unstable and will eventually fall back to the pattern above.
Because people see what they expect to see, they'll find the brand they think is top better.
The ladder model helps us understand the inadequate container that is the mind. To cope with the explosion, people have learned to rank products and brands in their mind. Each product category is a different ladder, some ladders have many steps (seven is many).
As an example, butter might be one ladder. Start listing brands of butter you know. How many can you remember? Which is the best butter? It is probably the one with the strongest brand in your head, which is probably the one that got there first. If you think of "Flora", that's a margarine, it occupies a different space. Let's see how a competitor like Flora comes along...
A competitor that wants to increase its share of the business must either dislodge the brand above on its product category ladder in the mind of the prospect (usually impossible), or create a new ladder to be top of (by being first). Change in the world happens slowly, but it does happen, and this opens up new opportunities.
But a new ladder can't just sit in the prospect's mind on its own. It only makes sense in the prospect's mind if the new ladder is positioned relative to an existing ladder.
Margarine is a ladder all on its own, positioned as the healthy alternative to butter, and Flora is the main brand at the top of this new ladder.
Another good strategy is to be the opposite of an existing ladder. 7up was the "uncola" and therefore top of the "not cola" ladder. People then confuse "top" with "one I should buy". The best way to be top of the ladder is to be first.
Once you are top of a ladder in the prospect's mind, you need to maintain your position. You don't need to advertise that you are number 1 - the prospect either already knows you are, and if they don't they will wonder why you are so insecure as to have to say so. It is worth re-enforcing in other ways though
"You can't get from here to there" - Just because you brand is currently positioned 6th on a ladder and you want to be first doesn't mean you can get there. You best chance is do what the book calls "cherchez le creneau", or "look for the hole" in the mind, then fill it. Advertising about bigger or better just doesn't get through. You have to think in reverse about what the prospect thinks about products.
The only way to get through to that mind and find a position on a ladder is with an over-simplified message. To work out the message it is important to understand what the prospect themselves think, not what is true. This means people that know nothing about advertising or your product are probably best placed to find out. You also need to make sure the ladder is positioned relative to an existing ladder the prospect knows about.
If you are a follower (not top of the ladder) you can't take on the leader head-on, the prospect won't believe you. Instead you have to find a creneau - perhaps it is cost, perhaps it is size. Or you reposition the competition (the to three brands of Russian Vodka in the US aren't made in Russia, we are).
What's also interesting is that you don't have to position the product necessarily, you can position something else that you are associated with and make that top of a ladder.
An example of positioning from the book was a US airline which used an airport in Belgium as its European hub where all flights changed. Customers prefered changing in Amsterdam, Paris or London which were top of their "Cities" ladders, so didn't fly much with the airline.
To change this, the agency noticed that the Michelin Benelux edition (an influencial review at the time) listed 6 cities in Europe as "worth a special journey". 5 were in Belgium. The agency came up with the headline "In beautiful Belgium there are five Amsterdams". This was great because:
a) It related Belgium to a destination already in the mind of a traveller b) It quoted a trusted source, giving the advert credibility c) It made Belgium a bone-fide destination
This made the airline top of the ladder of flights to Belgium, but this was now a positive not a negative. (Actually not much happened as a result - management changed and the strategy was dropped - posititioning strategies have to be stuck to for the long term)
The book goes on about the importance of a good name (over logo etc) and not using acronyms (people start using acronyms for things once the brand is so well known that it doesn't matter - brands that start with acronyms won't get going - just like you don't fly private jets to be wealthy).
The book also discusses the line extension trap where companies try to use the same brand name on a different line of products. This confuses the customer, because now they can't be sure which ladder the product is top of.
An aside is that the power of an organisation comes from the power of its product. If you diversify, you risk losing that power. Powerful organisations attract the best talent. Most brand leaders should cover competitive moves by introducing another brand - this is what Proctor and Gamble do.
Define yourself as one thing - otherwise you fall into the line extension trap with yourself. Be the best at one thing, don't confuse the customer with being a bit good at lots of things. "I'm the best lawyer in Dallas". Make sure your name sounds trustworthy (change it if it doesn't). Ask clients and colleagues what they think you do, what position you occupy.
Find a horse to ride - don't try to get somewhere by working harder, choose in this order:
a company that can take you there
a boss that is going places
your network of friends (that you keep in touch with a lot, not just when you need them - send them useful links etc).
an idea - Victor Hugo "Nothing, not all the armies in the world, can stop an idea whose time has come". There are no ideas that are great that everyone else things are great too. You must be willing to expose yourself to ridicule and controversy, to ride against the tide. "One indication of the validity of a principle" according to psycologist Charles Osgood, "is the vigor and persistence with which it is opposed". "In any field", says Dr Osgood, "if people see that a principle is obvious nonsense, they tend to ignore it. On the other hand, if the priniciple is difficult to refute and it causes them to question some of their own basic assumptions with which their names may be identified, they have to go out of their way to find something wrong with it". Never be afraid of conflict.
Faith in others and their ideas (Ray Kroc, bought the McDonalds brand)
An animal that is mean, difficult and unpredicatbale - yourself. Often ridden without success. The most successful jockeys ride the best horse.
How do you get started positioning your business? Here are some questions to get the mental juices flowing. Don't be decived, they are simple to ask but difficult to answer, and can test your courage and beliefs.
What position do you own?
Positioning is thinking in reverse - instead of starting with yourself you start with the mind of the prospect. You get the answer to what position you own from the market place, not the marketting manager. You can spend some money finding out if you need to. Look at the big picture. You can ask friends or clients what position they think you own or spend some money on research to finding out.
What position do you want to own?
You can't own a ladder someone else is already at the top of. It has to be specific, don't try to own too much, or you will own nothing. (Easy to make the same mistake in your career).
Whom must you outgun?
A head-to-head take on of the market leader won't work. Try a position no-one else has a firm grip on. Prospects don't buy, they choose. How will you make them choose you? Why shouldn't they choose your competitors.
Do you have enough money?
The noise-level is fierce, can you spend enough to get your position through.
Can you stick it out?
For a message to be successful in an overcommunicated society it has to be stuck to for a long time. Take a long-range position and stick to it. You can dramatize the message different ways over time, but not change the position.
Do you match your position?
Are you authentic? Creative marketing can only be successful when it is subordinate to the positioning objective. Don't let the creatives take over!
The role of the outsider - an outsider provides a key ingredient - ignorance. That makes them much better at understanding the mind of the prospect. They can be objective because they don't know what's happening inside the company. The outsider won't supply magic though. You still need to answer the questions above to choose a position.
(I'm less sure about the advice here personally. For me authenticity is the most important thing. Anyway, this is what the book says...)
Importance of words - words don't have meanings, the meanings are in the people using the words. Mental rigidity is a barrier to positioning. Just because two cards are made in a Volkswagon factory, doesn't mean they are both Vokswagons. One is an Audi, and that means something different (better in this case) in the mind of the prospect.
How words affect people - Words are triggers, if they weren't there would be no point in calling something a "Mustang". You must know how words affect people though. People are "unsane", neither entirely rational nor insane. Insane people try to make the world of reality fit what's in their heads. The sane person adjusts their world view in line with facts. But that is a lot of trouble for most people, many don't want to constantly change their opinions just to fit facts. Unsane people make up their mind and then find facts to "verify" their opinion. That's why most things fit their expectations, such as the brand leader being better. That's the power of the psychologically right name. With the right choice of words you can manipulate the thinking process itself. (Words can only be stretched so far though. Don't try to use a word for something the prospect won't use, better to find a new word).
You must be careful of change - Change is happening ever faster, but is change the way to keep up with change? No. Make decisions on what your company will be doing in 5 years, 10 years, position accordingly and follow your vision. Sounds simple, but is really hard. Separate your efforts from the general movement of the economy. The sun shines tomorrow on those that have made the right decisions today.
Vision - change is a wave on the ocean of time. In the short term, the waves cause agitation and confusion. Long term the underlying currents are much more significant.
You need courage and objectivity to be brutally frank about yourself or your business depending on what you are trying to position. You must see how products are viewed by customers and competitors, not by you or your staff and then stick to the insights these realisations give. It is also good to have two people to play the positioning game, to refine and iterate ideas.
"This problem will be solved when it is simple", anyone can make a complex solution to a complex problem.
You need subtlety. It is easy to find an open position at the extreme left or right, but is there an opening in the middle?
An advert should be simple enough that it is the strategy.
The essence of positioning is sacrifice. You give up a lot of the ladders and rungs you choose not to concentrate on, in order to own the top spot on a ladder you do care about. Smaller targets you can own exclusively are more important than large markets you have to fight for. You can't be all things to all people and still have a powerful position. You don't need a reputation as a marketing genius - that could be a fatal flaw. The market leader often thinks it can attribute its success to marketting skill, and then thinks it can roll out other products when it can't. You can't attack the leader head on. You need to find the creneau in the mind of the prospect with the tools of positioning.
Well, that's what I took away from the book anyway, it will be interesting to see what I still with in the years to come.
Also worth a look is this article on Medium about Slack where they describe how they went about getting people to understand and use Slack.
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