What is Positioning?
Positioning refers to what is done with the minds of prospective clients; In other words, as the product is located in their minds, the fundamental approach to positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what is already in their minds; rebind existing connections.
The Assault on the Mind
Multiple social issues and problems have congested channels so much that only a small fraction of messages make it to their destination.
In communication, the essentials must be communicated, using keywords, in order to obtain a place in the mind of the potential client.
The Media Explosion
Some of the reasons why our messages get lost are due to the amount of media that we have invented to satisfy our need for communication. Everything that moves carries a "message from our sponsor." Even the human body has become a walking advertisement.
Advertising is a brutal business, where mistakes can be expensive.
The Product and Advertising Explosion
Another reason that messages get lost is the number of products we have invented to meet our physical and mental needs.
Scientists have found that people are capable of receiving only a limited number of sensations.
This "sensory overload" is also due to the fact that everyone has resorted to promoting themselves through advertising in order to get more money.
Come to mind
Our society is super communicated, nothing is more important than communication. With her everything is possible; Without it, nothing can be achieved, however intelligent and ambitious one may be.
Positioning is an organized system based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.
The best way to penetrate someone else's mind is to be the first to arrive. It is very difficult to replace the first thing that has achieved a position in mind.
If one wants to be successful in business, one must be convinced of the importance of being the first to penetrate the mind, in this way it is possible to create loyalty towards a brand.
In advertising, the first product to win the position has a huge advantage. There are certain positioning strategies to deal with the problem of being number 2, 3 or even number 100.
The Age of Products
The 1950s marked the era of products. It was a time when advertisers focused their attention on the characteristics of the product and the benefits that the client obtained. They were looking for what Rosser Reeves called "the Unique Selling Proposition." (PVU.)
The age of the image
Well-established companies realized that reputation - image - was more important to a product's sale than its intrinsic characteristics.
The era of positioning.
To succeed in our super communicated society, every company must create a position in the mind of the customer. A position that must take into account not only its successes and failures, but also its competitors.
In advertising, strategy reigns. In the age of positioning, it is not enough to invent or discover something. You have to be the first to enter the customer's mind.
Stairs of the mind
The ultimate goal of all communication is the human mind, the mind only admits that new reference that matches its current state of mind, and rejects everything else.
The consumer is emotional rather than rational, the goal of all advertising is to raise expectations; Create the illusion that the product or service will perform the expected miracles.
The "against" positioning.
Taking an "against" position is a classic publicity stunt. If a company is not the first, then it must be the first to occupy position number 2. It is not an easy task.
Once a position is achieved, it takes more than anything consistency. It must be preserved year after year. «The difficult thing is not to arrive, but to stay».
If we want to be successful, you cannot ignore the competitor's position; nor, omit the position itself.
You can't get there from here
Nowadays a company can have a good product, a great sales force, a magnificent advertising campaign, and yet fail completely if it is in a position from which it cannot get "from here to there"… no matter how many millions it is. willing to invest.
The rules of positioning hold that you cannot compete with a market leader "head on."
The problem is not what, but when. That extra effort, to be of any use, must be applied urgently to gain a good position in product leadership.
Positioning a Leader
To be a leader you have to be first on the customer's mind, and then you have to follow the tactics to keep the place.
So how do you get to be a leader? It is something very simple. It is enough to be first among the leaders.
How to establish Leadership
It has been proven over the years that when a brand manages to enter the brain, it gets twice the market share of the number 2 brand and twice the number 3.
This means that the leading brand of any line sells more with a good margin than the next one.
The failures of leaders
Many times it happens that when a new company or a new product enters the market, the idea is that it will present the existing brand and the opposite happens in many cases, its market share increases and the new brand only increases. obtains a minimal share of the market in question.
If the material advantages redound to the benefit of the leading product. If there is not a very strong reason, consumers tend to buy the brand they bought last time the next time, so the establishments usually have an assortment of leading brands. At almost every step, the leading brand has the upper hand.
Equality Instability
Consumers are like chicks. They feel at ease when there is a hierarchy for pecking, which they all know and accept.
When two brands are close together, one will overlap and dominate the market for years to come. Extra effort is required when the situation is doubtful, when neither one nor the other has a clear superiority, winning the battle in one-year sales often means staying victorious for decades.
Tactics to maintain leadership
Leaders can do whatever they want, when you are at the top there is no one who can beat you. In reality, the market leader is the one who enters the mind with their brand and takes it to the last step. Once there, what are leaders to do or not do?
What they should not do ”, As long as a company owns the position, there is no point in publishing ads where it says“ We are the first ”, it is much better to highlight the product category before the client.
The power of the product
The classic mistake that the leader makes is to have the illusion that the power of the product comes from the organization. And it is the opposite. The power of the organization is derived from the power of the product. The position that the product occupies in the mind of the customer.
React quickly
You have to block the competitor by acting aggressively, putting the new product aside before it becomes established in the public mind.
You never know which way the wind will blow. As long as the leader goes out to meet any competition move, he will always be ahead, whatever the wind direction.
Protect yourself with multiple brands
Each brand is in a unique position, occupying a place in the public mind. When times change, when new products come and go, there is no need to make any effort to change the position
The multi-brand tactic is at its core, a single position strategy.
Protect yourself with a broader name
What dethrons a leader is change. Management often sees the new product or service more as a competitor than an opportunity. A name change would suffice to bridge the gap between one era and the next.
Leaders can take advantage of the situation by expanding the range of applications for their products.
The advantages of leadership
There are huge benefits to leadership. The leader, the company with the highest sales, is likely to be the one with the highest profits. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Additionally, the momentum created by that overall leadership will carry the company forward for many years.
It should be noted that it is not the size of the company that makes it strong. It is your mental position that contributes to your market share and makes you strong.
The ultimate objective of a position conquest plan is to achieve leadership in a certain category. Once it has been obtained, the company will be able to count on the fruits of it for many years.
Reaching the summit is difficult, Staying on it is much easier.
Find the Niche
This is a French expression to summarize the strategy.
You have to find a Niche and then fill it. To find the niche you have to have the ability to think in reverse, to go against the grain.
The size of the Niche
The effectiveness of this approach depends of course on the existence of an open gap in the public mind.
The High Price Niche
Price is an advantage, especially if you are the first to gain a foothold in the high price gap. There are brands that base their advertising almost entirely on the concept of high price.
Offering high prices is not the way to get rich. The secret to success is being the first to:
1) establish high price position.
2) Have an acceptable product.
3) Being a category in which consumers are willing to pay a high price.
Otherwise, the cost will only drive potential customers away.
The Low Price Niche
The low price niche is often a good strategy for new products.
Buyers of the product feel more confident: "If it doesn't work well, I don't lose so much money."
If you combine all three pricing strategies (high, moderate, and cheap), you will almost always achieve a strong Marketing model.
Age is another strategy that can be adopted when conquering positions.
The time of day and distribution.
Another possibility is positioning for strong consumers.
The Factory Niche
A common mistake when looking for gaps is trying to fill them at the factory and not in the consumer's mind. We cannot find a way to fill that space if we do not fill the void that exists in the market. If this happens, it doesn't matter what we do within the company to try to fill that void. Since if we do not fill the public's mind, the effort made within the company is of no use to us.
The technology trap
Advertising is not up for debate; is a solution. The trap of wanting to please everyone. You can't win without making enemies and keeping everyone happy.
How to Reposition from the competition
As each product category has hundreds of variants, the chances of finding a still-free niche are very slim.
The basic strategy must be to "reposition the competition."
As there are so few niches to fill, a company has to create one for itself, repositioning competitors who already occupy positions in the public mind. In other words, to introduce a new idea or product in mind, you first have to displace the old idea or products.
For a repositioning tactic to work, you have to say something about the competing product that forces you to change your mind, not about what is being presented, but about that competing product.
This shows us how well targeted advertising can influence the minds of consumers.
Repositioning vs. Comparative Ads
It is not feasible to carry out an imitation advertising campaign, since this practice does not succeed with the tactics of re-positioning.
Comparative advertising, which is not effective.
Is re-positioning legal?
To get a position, you not only have to cite the names of the competition, but also disregard the old advertising rules.
"Comparative advertising is not against the law," "nor should it be. But practicing it as we do today is a mockery of claims to culture, refinement, and decent business conduct. '
The Force of the name
The name is the hook from which the brand hangs on the scale of the product that the customer has in mind, the most important decision that can be made in terms of marketing is the name of the product.
What to look for is a name that starts the positioning process. A name that tells the customer what the main advantage of the product is.
How to choose the name
Name that is catchy and brief that penetrates the mind of the consumer and does not stray from the reality for which it was created.
A meaningless name can be used when it is first to market so that it penetrates the public mind.
The line extension trap?
Every day we see the extension of the line as a modality in any brand or product.
We focus its increase on the fact that in the short term it has some advantages.
As the original ad fades into mind, confusion sets in.
When the name is line extension is related to the original name, understanding begins. Eg. Coca Cola….Diet.
Line extension is almost always a mistake, the opposite concept works. The reversal of the line extension is known as the base extension.
Line extension is very popular, there is no question about it.
Long-term disadvantages:
After line recognition, the customer is never sure if the product exists.
They hardly require mental work, but what comes easily goes just the same. Names that are line extensions are easily forgotten because they do not occupy an independent position in the mind of the consumer
In marketing, not necessarily the one that wins or the one that positions itself in the market is good, it all depends on the quality of the competitors.
Who wants to pay expensive prices, for a cheap name?
Unlike high-quality products, the opposite happens with lower-category products, they take a big boom in the market and then fall.
The line extension is basically made up of three acts.
1st. A great success
2nd. It is full of greed and Endless Visions.
3rd. Outcome.
The rules of the road
We call the line extension cheat, not bug. The yes that we attribute to the line extension, is complex by.
- If the competitors you have are dumb The volume you handle is small If you have no competitors If you do not hope to establish a position in the mind of the prospective buyer If you do not advertise.
Positioning of a company:
A wise name does not achieve corporate positioning. The company name has to represent something important within your industry.
We must emphasize that the personnel constitutes an important base in the positioning in the mind of the public. A highly successful company, it has a great staff. Eg E. León Jiménez
Business Leadership:
It means defending the free enterprise system.
It is a basic principle of positioning to avoid areas that everyone is talking about. The progress of a company is based on finding new terrain to explore.
Industry Leadership:
The technique is to speak for the industry, not wait for others to take the lead by taking the initiative.
Positioning a product
The first step is to see inside the mind of the consumer. Positioning programs are nothing more than searching for the obvious, however the obvious is easier to forget if you target the product too quickly.
Positioning of a service.
What is the difference between positioning a product and positioning a service?
Most of the differences are in strategies.
In a product advertisement, the dominant element is usually the image, the visual element. In a service advertisement, the predominant element is usually the words, the verbal element.
Regardless of the money spent to impact the public mind, it is more beneficial to start with what is already in the public mind.
Positions and position your career
If positioning strategies are applied to the promotion of a product, why not use them to promote oneself?
Definition of oneself
The problem with such an approach is the public mind, the most difficult part of positioning is selecting a specific concept to lean on. And yet you have to do it if you want to break through the wall of public indifference.
The first step is to isolate the concept that will be used to implement that long-term position. As you can imagine, it won't be easy, but the results are huge.
1. Make mistakes
Anything worth doing is worth doing wrong.
2. Make sure you have a suitable name
3. Avoid the name trap.
If you are moving up, if you try to capture your name in the management mind, a name is required, one that distinguishes you from the confusion that is the real enemy, so others will not forget you and the anonymity trap. will not charge another victim.
Six steps to success
To help with this cognitive process, here are six questions to ask yourself to get ideas flowing.
1. What is your position?
Positioning is about thinking in reverse. It starts with the mind of the public. What you have to do is find a way to penetrate the mind, hooking the product, service or concept that is already in the mind.
2. What position would you like to have?
This is where you have to take out your crystal ball and figure out the best position you should occupy, from a long-term point of view. Occupy is the key word, there are too many plans that propose to communicate a position that is impossible to achieve, because there is already someone who occupies it.
3. Who should you beat?
If the position you are aiming for requires a head-to-head match against a market leader, it is better to skirt around an obstacle than to overcome it. Find a position that no one has laid their hand yet. Facing the competition is also the main problem in most marketing situations.
4. Do you have enough money?
A major obstacle to achieving graceful positioning is seeking the impossible. It costs money to win a share in the mind. It costs money to fill a position once it has been filled. If the amount of money available is limited, it will be preferable to spend more in one city, than to spend less in several. If you successfully exit one location, you can always extend the program to other areas. As long as the first place is appropriate.
5. Can you stand out?
To keep pace with change it is important to take a long-range point of view. Determine what one's basic position is and then stick with it. The concept of positioning is cumulative. Something that takes advantage of the far-reaching nature of advertising. You have to hang on there year after year. Successful companies rarely change their formula that has worked for them.
6. Are you worthy of your position?
The thought of conquering position restricts creativity. One of the tragedies of communication is seeing an organization carry out scrupulous planning, step by step, with graphs and tables, and then hand it over for the "creatives" to carry it out. This in turn applies their capabilities and the strategy disappears in a cloud of technicalities, to the point that no one recognizes it again. Are your ads at the level of your position?
The Positioning Game
You have to understand the words. Words do not contain meanings; they are in the people who use the words.
To get ahead today in conquering positions, you need some mental flexibility. This is why you have to select words that evoke meanings you want to establish.
You have to understand people
Words are evocations. They evoke the meanings that are buried in the mind.
Language is the currency of the mind, to think conceptually you have to manipulate words. By choosing the appropriate ones, you can influence the cognitive process itself.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. However, people today live under the illusion of change.
For many companies, change has turned out to be a lifestyle. But can you keep up with change, through change? It seems that the exact opposite is true.
What does it take to successfully play the positioning game today?
- VisionValueObjectivitySimplicitySubtletyPatienceGlobal PerspectiveGuidance
What is not needed
You don't need a reputation for being a marketing genius. In reality, this can be a fatal nuisance.
Too often, a product leader makes a huge mistake in attributing his success to his marketing skills. For the same reason, he thinks that he can transfer that ability to other products or other market situations.
In our super communicated society, the name of the game today is positioning.
