Positioning is not what you do to a product.
→Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.

What positioning is all about

The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what’s already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist.

The only hope to score big is to be selective, to concentrate on narrow targets, to practice segmentation.

Focus on the prospect rather than the product.

Getting into the mind

If you want to be successful in love or in business, you must appreciate the importance of getting into the mind first.

In advertising, it’s best to have the best product in your particular field.
→But it’s even better to be first.

For many people or products today, one roadway to success is to look at what your competitors are doing and then subtract the poetry or creativity which has become a barrier to getting the message into the mind.
→With a purified and simplified message, you can then penetrate the prospect’s mind.

Those little ladders in your head

You see what you expect to see.

One prime objective of all advertising is to heighten expectations. To create the illusion that the product or service will perform the miracles you expect. And presto, that’s exactly what the advertising does.

The average human mind cannot deal with more than seven units at a time.
→Which is why seven is a popular number for lists that have to be remembered.

If you have a truly new product, it’s often better to tell the prospect what the product is not, rather than what it is.

So why go with us? We try harder.

More than anything else, successful positioning requires consistency.
→You must keep at it year after year.

If you want to be successful today, you can’t ignore the competitor’s position. Nor can you walk away from your own.

You can’t get there from here

A better strategy for IBM’s competitors would be to: Take advantage of whatever positions they already own in the minds of their prospects and then relate them to a new position in computers.

Positioning of a leader

How do you get to be the leader?
→You just get there firstest with the mostest.

You have to build a leadership position in the prospect’s terms.

“The real thing.“

Positioning as a follower

Being the first to:

1. establish the high-price position
2. with a valid product story
3. in a category where consumers are receptive to a high-priced brand is the secret of success.

Today in the product arena you have to have a position. There are too many competitors out there. You can’t win by making enemies, by being everything to everybody.
→To win in today’s competition environment, you have to go out and make friends, carve out a specific niche in the market.

Repositioning the competition

A look at comparative ads suggests why most of them aren’t effective.
→They fail to reposition the competition.
Rather, they use the competitor as a benchmark for their own brand. Then they tell the reader or viewer how much better they are.
→Which, of course, is exactly what the prospect expects the advertiser to say.
The reader looks at an ad like this and asks, “What else is new?”

The rules are reversed. To establish a position, you must often not only name competitive names but also ignore most of the old advertising rules as well.
→To climb on his or her product ladder, you must relate your brand to the brands already in the prospect’s mind.

The power of the name

In the positioning era, the single most important marketing decision you can make is what to name the product.

You see what you want to see, you also smell what you want to smell.

In the past when there were fewer products, when the volume of communication was lower, the name wasn’t nearly as important.

You must look for a name that begins the positioning process, a name that tells the prospect what the product’s major benefit is.

Stick with common descriptive words and avoid the coined words.

As a guide, the five most common initials letters are S, C, P, A, and T.
The five least common are X, Z, Y, Q, and K.

The no-name trap

A company must be extremely well known before it can use initials successfully.

Messages would “sound better” in print if they were designed for radio first. Yet we usually do the reverse.

With a good name, your positioning job is going to be a lot easier.

When line extension can work

When to use the house name and when not to:

1. Expected volume. Potential winners should not bear the house name. Small-volume products should.
2. Competition. In a vacuum, the brand should not bear the house name. In a crowded field, it should.
3. Advertising support. Big-budget brands should not bear the house name. Small-budget brands should.
4. Significance. Breakthrough products should not bear the house name. Commodity products such as chemicals should.
5. Distribution. Off-the-shelf items should not bear the house name. Items sold by sales reps should.

A successful positioning program requires a major long-term commitment by the people in charge.

The solution to a positioning problem is usually found in the prospect’s mind, not in the product.

Positioning the Catholic Church

Experience has shown that a positioning exercise is a search for the obvious. Those are the easiest concepts to communicate because they make the most sense to the recipient of a message.

Positioning yourself and your career

What are you?

People suffer from the same disease as products.
→They try to be all things to all people.

Selecting that one specific concept to hand your hat on.

• What are you?
• What is your own position in life?
• Can you sum up your own position in a single concept?
• Then can you run your own career to establish and exploit that position?

Anything worthwhile doing is worthwhile doing lousy.
→ Just get started doing it, taking it one step at a time.

If you’re on your way up, if you’re trying to burn your name into the minds of top management, you need a name, not a set of initials.

The truth is, the road to fame and fortune is rarely found within yourself. The only sure way to success is to find yourself a horse to ride. It may be difficult for the ego to accept, but success in life is based more on what others can do for you than on what you can do for yourself.
→Therefore, if you want to take maximum advantage of the opportunities that your career has to offer, you must keep your eyes open and find yourself a horse to do the job for you.

💎Always try to work for the smartest, brightest, most competent person you can find.

Positioning your business

How do you get started on a positioning program?

6 questions to get your mental juices flowing:

1. What position do you own?
2. What position do you want to own?
3. Whom must you outgun?
4. Do you have enough money?
5. Can you stick it out?
6. Do you match your position?

If you try to be all things to all people, you wind up with nothing. Better to narrow the focus of your expertise. To establish a unique position as a specialist, not as a jack of all trades generalist.

The job market today belongs to the people who can define and position themselves as specialists.

With rare exceptions, a company should almost never change its basic positioning strategy.

Owning a position in the mind is like owning a valuable piece of real estate. Once you give it up, you might find it’s impossible to get it back again.