Al Ries - Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Al Ries
Jack Trout

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Dedicated to the second best advertising agency in the whole world.

Whoever they might be.

Positioning is the first body of thought to come to grips with the problems of communicating in an overcommunicated society

Many people misunderstand the role of communication in business and politics today. In our overcommunicated society, very little communication actually takes place. Rather, a company must create a position in the prospects mind. A position that takes into consideration not only a companys own strengths and weaknesses, but those of its competitors as well

There are just too many companies, too many products, too much marketing noise. The per-capita consumption of advertising in America is $376 per year

The easy way to get into a persons mind is to be first. If you cant be first, then you must find a way to position yourself against the product, the politician, the person who did get there first

To cope with our overcommunicated society, people have learned to rank products on mental ladders. In the rent-a-car field, for example, most people put Hertz on the top rung, Avis on the second rung, and National on the third. Before you can position anything, you must know where it is on the product ladder in the mind

A competitor has no hope of going head-to-head against the position IBM has established in computers. Many companies have ignored this basic positioning principle and have suffered the consequences

To be a leader you have to be first to get into the mind of the prospectand then follow the strategies for staying there

What works for a leader doesnt necessarily work for a follower. An also-ran must find a creneau or hole in the mind not occupied by someone else

If there are no creneaus left, you have to create one by repositioning the competition. Tylenol, for example, repositioned aspirin

The most important marketing decision you can make is what to name the product. The name alone has enormous power in an overcommunicated society

Companies with long, complex names have tried to shorten them by using initials. This strategy seldom works

Can a second product get a free ride on the advertising coattails of a well-known brand? In the case of products like LifeSavers gum, the answer is no

Line extension has become the marketing sickness of the past decade. Why it seldom works

There are cases, however, of successful line extension (GE, for example.) A discussion of when to use the house name and when to use a new name

Xerox owns the copier position. But as Xerox moves into the office automation field, how should the company be positioned?

The answer to the problems of a national airline like Sabena Belgium World Airlines is to position the country, not the airline

Sand and surf has become a visual clich for all Caribbean islands. How do you establish a unique position for one of them?

How a product with a small budget can get into the mind by positioning itself as the long-lasting alternative to the candy bar

Why a totally new service has to be positioned against the old

How a bank successfully struck back when its territory was invaded by its giant neighbors from the Big City

One of the best ways to establish a position is to find a weakness in your competitors

How an outside expert can add credibility to a positioning claim

Even institutions can benefit from positioning chinking. An outline of the logical steps that could be taken to position the Roman Catholic Church

You can benefit by using positioning strategy to advance your own career. Key principle: Dont try to do everything yourself. Find a horse to ride

To get started on a positioning program, there are six questions you can ask yourself

To be successful at positioning, you have to have the right mental attitude. You have to become an outside-in thinker rather than an inside-out thinker. This requires patience, courage, and strength of character

For years, all of us in marketing taught our students to build a marketing plan around the four PsProduct, Price, Place, and Promotion.

I began to realize some years ago that important steps needed to precede the four Ps. All good marketing planning must start with R, Research, before any of the Ps can be set.