The book, the short review to which you are currently reading, is truly legendary, because only some twenty years ago it made a furor in the world of the advertising business, once and for all changed its rules. And now the "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind" by Jack Trout and Al Ries is a classic work and a reference book for specialists in marketing, advertising and management who understand that the guarantee of success in competition is not the product, but the idea, capable of consolidating this product in the consumer mind.
The modern re-edition of this book includes also the authors' comments on the biggest successes and grandiose failures that have occurred in the last twenty years in the field of marketing. And thanks to a witty and bright presentation, reading the book is even more interesting. To study it will be useful both for beginning advertisers and marketers, and for professionals in the field of advertising and marketing.
About Jack Trout and Al Ries
Al Ries is a marketer, writer, co-founder and chairperson of the consulting company Ries & Ries, and co-author (along with Jack Trout) of the term "positioning" associated with marketing activities.
The book consists of an introduction, 22 chapters, name and subject indexes, as well as an index of companies and brands. To state briefly everything that is contained in this remarkable work, without loss of meaning, is not possible, for the reason of which we will point out only a few interesting ideas that interested us.
From the history of communications or how it all began
The 50s of the XX century were an era of goods, when all the attention of advertisers was aimed at finding unique features of products, the benefits of consumers and providing information about all this to customers. So unique trade offers were created, and in order that the consumer wanted to use them it was enough only to tell about what advantages this proposal has. However, the finale of this era, favorable for advertising, came when a large number of similar products appeared on the market. The unique trade offer was not the only and the best, but only one of several exactly the same.
The 60s were an era of image. It was at that time that incredible success was achieved by such companies as Schweppes, Rolls-Royse and Hathaway. However, this era ended in much the same way as the era of goods - when there were many imitating companies. It is also interesting that companies whose activities have come into contact with high technologies, for example, the companies "Polaroid" and "Xerox", became very popular.
70th years became an era of positioning - advertisers began to adapt to the tactics of positioning, in other words, they began to look for free positions in the consumer consciousness. On the basis of creativity and poetry came simple messages. The main task was not to create something new or to make a discovery, but to penetrate into the mind of the consumer. An example of this can serve as a familiar computer for all of us today - everyone thinks that he is the brainchild of IBM, but invented by his company Sperry Rand, but it was IBM that managed to occupy a computer position in the consumer's mind.
How positioning changed the face of modern advertising
A few decades ago, slogans dominated advertising, expressing the superiority and unsurpassability of a product, but in a situation where the excess of firms, products and marketing campaigns is simply unbelievable, and the supply far exceeds demand, the basic principle of positioning was not the creation of something , and the impact on something already in the minds of consumers.
The consciousness of modern man is super-simple, which means he needs a super-simple message. Proceeding from this, it is necessary to get rid of unnecessary information in messages and focus not on the product, but on people's perception. You have to accept perception as a reality, and after rebuilding its structure, thereby creating a new position.
Positioning rules
The first rule is to be the first, where the term "first" includes the totality of its definitions. Anything first always leaves an indelible mark in consciousness. Remember the brands "Coca-Cola", "Hertz", "Kodak", "IBM" - each of them once would be the first in their field, and today everyone knows about them. That's your task is to become the first in your industry.
Advantages of the championship are that, firstly, it is the best of marketing strategies, and secondly, the leader company often gets a larger share of the market; thirdly, the stores will be more willing to buy the product of the "first company", etc. As a leader, in no case can you advertise yourself as company # 1, because this can be said about insecurity. It will be much more effective to strengthen its product category in consumer consciousness.
In the event that someone is already a leader in your category, create a new category and become the first in it. The reason for the fact that some companies remain forever in the background is the accentuation of "improvements", because these companies are confident that the main way to success is to offer the same, but simply improved product.
The goal of positioning is a consciousness that can be compared to computer memory. In order to have a new brand in it, you need to remove information about the previous brand in the appropriate category from the consumers' consciousness or reposition this brand. If you are trying to expand your business, you need to either displace the previous brand from the minds of people, which in practice is practically impossible, or to link your brand with the position of another company.
If you could not find the right positioning, the crash can overtake even the biggest discovery in the field of technology. Your actions should in no case be contrary to the associations that are ingrained in the consumer consciousness.
Naturally, no one is immune from the fact that there will not be a single free niche left. In such a situation, it is necessary to reposition the competitors by forcing the previous idea out of consciousness and introducing a new one into it. But, when carrying out the repositioning campaign, it is important to follow ethical principles of interaction with competing organizations.
In today's era of positioning, the main marketing move can be called a decision on the name of the product. The name of the brand is the first step leading into the mind of the buyer, and the name or will remain in it, or not. Therefore, you should not use names that mean nothing, because a brand with a typical name, most likely, will not become a leader. It is also recommended to beware of invented names and to prefer general descriptive names. Remember that some names may simply become irrelevant, but the bad ones will not become good never.
Be very careful about linear expansion - when a new product is produced under the name of an already existing product. Of course, it can be economically profitable, but, on the other hand, it can lead to a decrease in the brand value for consumers.
If your competitor is expanding its product line, you have a unique opportunity - come up with a unique name for your product, and it will help you to win in a competitive race.
Conclusion
The key to the success of the company-manufacturer today is precisely the best idea, which can fix a strong position in the consumer's mind for a particular product. The most modern communication tool is positioning, and its basic principle is to follow the peculiarities of people's consciousness. Only by following this path and guided by the relevant rules, one can have real chances for success and prosperity.