WISDOM IN A NUTSHELL

Positioning: The Battle

For Your Mind
How to be seen and heard
in the overcrowded marketplace

By
Al Ries and Jack Trout

Published by McGraw-Hill, 2001

ISBN 0-07-137358-6
213 pages
Businesssummaries.com is a business book summaries service. Every week, it
sends out to subscribers a 9- to 12-page summary of a best-selling business
book chosen from among the hundreds of books printed out in the United States.
For more information, please go to http://www.bizsum.com.

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 2

The Big Idea

The average American consumer is exposed to $376 worth of advertising per day over 365 days.
With this enormous volume of communication, the only way to score big is to be selective and
concentrate on narrow targets through Positioning. Its about how you position a product in the
mind of your prospect.

Introduction
The best approach in our supersaturated society is the oversimplified message. The medium may
not be the message anymore, but the medium acts as a filter for our message. A persons mind
can only take so much information, it blocks out everything that is not important or relevant.

1 What positioning is all about

In communication, less is more. Sharpen your message to cut into the mind. Select the material
that has the best chance of getting through. Focus on the prospect you are selling to, and not the
product you are selling.

2 The assault on the mind

America consumes 57% of the worlds advertising, more than any other nation on earth.
Each year some 30,000 books are published in the United States.
American newspapers print 10 million tons of newsprint every year.
The average American family watches 7 hours of television everyday.
An 8-ounce package of Total breakfast cereal contains 1268 words of copy on the box.
93% of consumers recognize Mr. Clean even if he hasnt been on TV in 10 years
5,000 new products are introduced into the American market each year

Television, radio, newspapers, posters, billboards, magazines, subways, buses, trucks, and the
Internet all carry advertising messages and assault the consumer everyday.
Can the average person digest all this information? Of course not, thats why positioning is so
important.

3 Getting into the mind

Positioning is an organized system for finding a window in the mind. It is based on the concept
that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.
The easy way to get into a persons mind is to be First. For example, you may be quick to answer
if asked who was the first man on the moon, but what if you were asked to name the second?
Kodak is known as the first in photography. Xerox was the first in copiers. Coke was the first in
cola, General Electric -all first in their respective industries. With being first the receptivity is great.
Two parties meet in a situation where both are open to the idea, and there is no existing
competition. Achieving brand loyalty the easy way means getting there first, and being careful not
to give people a reason to switch.
Advertising learns the lesson
A quick review of communication history will teach us how Positioning came about. The fifties
spawned what we call the Product era. Copywriters of a beer in those days would look for a
special quality to emphasize in order to sell the beer. It was the birth of the Unique Selling
Proposition. Sometimes products were simply labeled new and improved even if they werent.
Then came the Image era, the architect of which was David Ogilvy, where selling a companys

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 3

reputation and image were more important than its product. Those who followed just increased
the noise levels and once again the advertising world was saturated with the same slogans. Then
the Positioning era brought forth the battle to find a way into the readers mind. The simple
message became the tool. Becks beer effectively positioned itself against Lowenbrau with the
simple positioning statement of Youve tasted the German beer thats the most popular in
America. Now taste the German beer thats the most popular in Germany. Sales grew and
Lowenbrau gave up and became a domestic brand.

4 Those little ladders in your head

You see what you expect to see.
Place the name Picasso under any drawing and a lot of people would actually believe it. Blind
taste testings of champagne often ranked inexpensive California brands above French ones. With
the labels on, this is unlikely to happen. You taste what you would expect to taste. The role of
advertising is to appeal to the emotional, not the rational. Its prime objective is to heighten
expectations.
Brand Ladders
The human mind rejects information that does not match its prior experience. Harvard
psychologist Dr. George A. Miller says the average mind cannot deal with more than seven units
at a time. Hence, seven-digit phone numbers, The Seven Dwarfs, etc. When it comes to
products, consumers can only name a few brands, be they automobiles, cigarettes, or milk. To
cope with the product explosion, people simplify by ranking things.
Against and Uncola Positions
Using the classic against position, Avis made millions after admitting it was only number two.
The ad for the campaign ran the headline, Avis is only No.2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us?
We try harder. It was successful only after it related itself to Hertz. When it changed campaigns
and went for the conventional Avis is going to be No.1 tagline, it lost its No.2 position to National
Rent-A-Car. If you dont come in first, then be the first to occupy the number two position.
Another classic positioning strategy is to link your product with what is already in the mind of the
prospect, as 7-Up positioned itself as the uncola, or the way WLKW, Providence Rhode Island
positioned its radio station as the unrock station.

5 You cant get there from here

The American Can do spirit can be fatal for many companies. Its like the Vietnam War. No
matter how much money or soldiers you pour in, the problem simply cannot be solved by an
outside force. The way for a company to go up against a computer giant like IBM is to focus on
some area where IBM doesnt. NCR has a strong position in computerized cash registers,
concentrating its efforts in an area IBM wouldnt.
A company stuck in a losing position is not going to benefit from all the can do and hard work in
the world. You cant get to there from here, meaning you cant get to the top from a place where it
is just impossible to start.

6 Positioning of a leader

Establish leadership by getting there first.

Maintain momentum. Think long-term.

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 4

You do not need to state the obvious Were No.1, instead simply promote the general
category of the product. IBMs advertising ignores the competition and emphasizes the
value of computers in general, all types, not just theirs.
The first always occupies a special place in the mind. (Coke is the standard by which all
other colas are judged. Everything else is an imitation, while Coke is the real thing.)
Cover all bets. General Motors spent $50 million to buy the rights to the Wankel engine;
protecting itself against any possible moves by Ford or Chrysler to acquire the license.
Buy the rights to a new development. Never assume you cant be toppled if the
competition buys it.
Acknowledge that the power of the organization comes from the power of its product in
the mind of the people.
Covering with multibrands, like Procter & Gamble, insures your leadership position. Ivory
is a brand of soap thats been selling for 99 years. P&G did not introduce an Ivory
detergent bar. Instead they introduced Tide. Each P&G product has its own identity: Joy,
Head & Shoulders, Sure, Bounty, Pampers, Comet, Charmin, Duncan Hines. The multibrand strategy is actually a single position strategy.
See the new product or service as an opportunity, not as competition. The mistake of
New York Central Railroad was not opening an airline division when it had the chance to
be first. Today American Airlines is flying high, and New York Central (now Penn Central)
no longer has its former blue-chip glory.
Cover with a broader name. For example, how Eastman became Eastman Kodak, and
then later, Kodak. Direct Mail Association became Direct Mail-Marketing Association in
recognition of the fact that mail was only one of the ways for a company to do direct
marketing. They later changed their name to Direct Marketing Association. Broadening a
name allows for smooth transitions in the minds of people over the years.
Leaders can also benefit from broadening the range of applications for the product. Arm
& Hammer promoted the use of baking soda in the refrigerator

7 Positioning of a follower
What works for a leader may not necessarily work for a follower. When a follower copies a leader,
its not covering at all. It is doing a me-too response. Most products fail because the emphasis is
on better instead of speed. How do you position a follower then?
Cherchez le creneau
Look for the hole and then fill it. This French marketing expression is a perfect strategy as
against the American attitude of positive thinking, bigger and better. If you want to be a
Columbus, then head west if everyone else is going east.

Volkswagens creneau was size. Think small. Two simple words captured the
prospects mind and made the beetle the most popular small car of its time.

The high-price creneau worked for Michelob, Piaget, and Orville Redenbacher. Its a
creneau that doesnt necessarily belong to luxury goods. To succeed in the high-price
creneau, be the first to establish the high-price position, use a valid product story, and put
the product in a category where consumers are receptive to a high-priced brand. People
are willing to shell out more money if they believe they are getting quality goods.

The opposite strategy can work too. Low-price creneaus are occupied by no name or
generic type brands.
Marlboro and Virginia Slims effectively used the sex creneau. Masculinity or femininity
can sell. Use a masculine name to sell a feminine product. This is the sex paradox as the
name Charlie did for the biggest-selling womens perfume.
Age-specific creneaus, i.e. Geritol tonic for older consumers
Time-specific creneaus, i.e. night creams

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 5

Kid creneaus, i.e. Aim toothpaste

Distribution creneaus. Leggs was the first hosiery brand to be found in supermarkets.
Heavy-user positioning such as Schaefer. The one beer to have when youre having
more than one.

Dont fill the hole in the factory, but in the mind. Dow Jones mistake was coming out with The
National Observer. Because they published The Wall Street Journal 5 days a week, they
assumed they could fill the factory creneau by printing a weekly paper. But the minds of
prospects were already subscribed to Time and Newsweek. They didnt need a weekly paper.
Dont fall into the technology trap. Advertising is not a debate. Its all about seduction. Dont try to
seduce people with your new technology or laboratory breakthrough if there is no creneau in the
mind to fill it with.

8 Repositioning the competition

Sometimes there is no creneau. Then you have to create your own.
Move the old idea or product out first, before moving a new one in. People like to watch the
bubble burst. Tylenol burst the aspirin bubble by warning people about the dangers of aspirin.
Sixty words of anti-aspirin copy came before the brand Tylenol was introduced.
The late Howard Gossage used to say that the objective of your advertising should not be to
communicate with your consumers and prospects at all, but to terrorize your competitions
copywriters, i.e. Royal Doulton. The china of Stoke-on-Trent, England vs. Lenox. The China of
Pomona, New Jersey.
Change their minds about the product of your competitor. Pringles suffered a big blow to its sales
when it was repositioned by Wise. The two labels were compared on television. In Wise, you find
potatoes, vegetable oil, salt. In Pringles you find dehydrated potatoes, mono and diglycerides,
ascorbic acid, butylated hydroxy-anisole.
The copywriters for Scope attacked Listerine with two words: Medicine breath. Listerine fought
back with the taste you hate, twice a day campaign. Scope was in second place, but without a
name full of sex appeal like Close-up toothpaste had, it couldnt follow through on its brilliant
repositioning strategy.

9 The power of the name

A better name can mean millions of dollars difference in sales.

Hog Island in the Caribbean was going nowhere until it changed its name to Paradise
Island.
A name should jump start the positioning process, telling the prospect what the major
benefit is.
Avoid using descriptive words like Lite for a brand name. Miller lost out to Bud Light and a
host of other beer brands after it came up with Lite beer from Miller.
Coined names like Kodak, Coke, and Xerox work if the product you are offering has no
precedent.
Try using generic-like but descriptive names: People works well for a gossip magazine,
and it beats the me-too copy Us magazine. Playboy works better than Esquire. Sail
proves more approachable than Yachting.
Never let scientists name your product.

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 6

Negative names can be positive. Take soy butter. It sounds healthier because of the
plant versus animal connotation. Black invokes pride, as against Negro or colored,
which connotes second-class citizenship.
Would you vote for a Hubert Nixon? Most American presidents have good solid,
trustworthy, dependable names. Franklin, John, William.
When too many companies are taking the same names, stick to the product name and
make it yours, or run your advertising copy in such a way that what youre selling is
crystal clear to the audience. Owens-Corning Fiberglas could easily be confused with
Owens-Illinois and Corning Glass Works. Their ad copy reads, Owens-Corning is
Fiberglas, but its easier to just change the name to Fiberglas. Confuse people at your
own risk.
A name change can work wonders for you. Companies are afraid to change their names,
no matter how bad, because they think they have too much equity in them. They fear
their customers wont like it. These fears are unfounded. There is only negative equity in
a bad name. When a name is good, things tend to get better, i.e. Standard Oil of New
Jersey changed its name to Exxon Corporation.

10 The no-name trap

You can only use initials to name your company, after it becomes famous. International Business
Machines became so rich and famous everyone knew what company you were talking about
when you used its intials IBM.
Companies need to recognize that when establishing a corporate identity, it is better to have an
actual name first, then when it reaches success and recognition, initials will suffice. A moderately
successful company cannot expect its initials to have the same effect.
The mind works by ear. The name must sound good, not just look good as a logo.
Some companies use initials because of sheer obsolescence. RCA is well known as Radio
Corporation of America, but they sell a lot of things besides radios.
Companies commit corporate suicide when top executives, seeing the initials on internal memos
for so long, assume everyone knows who VF is. They misread the reasons for the success of the
IBMs and GEs.
Before you throw away a name in favor of meaningless initials, see if you can think of another
that will do the job. A good name makes positioning a lot easier.

11 The free-ride trap

All too often, an established company tries to get a free ride on a new product with the weight of
its name. The problem is if your company is known for one thing, people may doubt your
capability in producing anything else. Xerox put their name on Scientific Data Systems, an
acquired computer company, but one name cant stand up for two distinctly different products.
Xerox is known for copiers, not computers. Xerox Data Systems eventually folded.
Its best to have a new name for a new product. Never underestimate the value of anonymity.
When you do use publicity, use it to achieve a position in the prospects mind.

12 The line-extension trap

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 7

Instead of using inside-out thinking, think outside-in. It may seem logical to introduce Dial
deodorant after the success of Dial soap, but Dial has a very small share of the deodorant
market. Extending the product line doesnt necessarily spell success.
Outside-in thinking looks at the point of view of the prospect. If your brand can achieve the
success of being the generic name for the product, this promotes the category, as in Formica,
Kleenex, or Band-Aid. A consumer should put your brand name on her shopping list.
JC Penney batteries are a result of inside-out thinking. It may be a successful retailer, but their
name says nothing about batteries to the prospect. DieHard battery from Sears, on the other
hand, sits at the top rung of the battery product ladder.
To you and me, Coke is a drink. To folks in Atlanta, its an institution and a great place to work.
Bayer is aspirin. Customers do not easily relate to a Bayer non-aspirin pain reliever. The Bayer
share of the analgesic market keeps falling, as expected.
Tasters Choice cleverly advertised its freeze-dried coffee, saying it Tastes like ground roast.
Maxwell House actually invented the freeze-dried instant coffee. Although they were first, the
company made the mistake of advertising the product as just that, freeze-dried instant. Tasters
Choice from Nestle outsells Maxim from Maxwell House, 2 to 1. The line extension name Maxim
didnt work for Maxwell House at all.
Reverse line extension works if you look at Johnsons Baby Shampoo. Best for baby, best for
you. It is a leading brand of baby shampoo, and the only brand promoted as an adult shampoo
as well. Had Johnsons line-extended the product and introduced Johnsons Adult Shampoo, the
product would not have been nearly as successful.

13 When line extension can work

The shopping list is the classic test to see if youve overextended your line. Write down Kleenex,
Bayer, and Dial, then send your spouse to the supermarket and its most likely hell be back with
tissue, aspirin, and soap. Now write down Kraft, Scott, and Heinz. Will he be back with Heinz
pickles or ketchup? Will he buy Kraft cheese or mayonnaise? Is it Scott tissue or towels?
Rules of the road: When to use the house name and when not to

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

14 Positioning a company: Xerox

When investors buy a share of stock, what they are betting on is that companys position now and
in the future. When companies recruit graduates, they are selling themselves, and the big names
usually get the best people.
The most common corporate positioning theme is people. Companies with products that occupy
the top rung of the ladder in a consumers mind normally have first pick of the best graduates.

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 8

Aside from people, another common corporate positioning theme is diversification. But
diversification is not the answer. General Electric is known as the worlds largest electrical
manufacturer. Not as a diversified maker of industrial, transportation, chemical, and appliance
products. The positioning concept becomes so broad it is almost meaningless.
Xerox is a $9 billion company with more than 100,000 employees. Today Xerox means copiers.
Tomorrow, Xerox could use lasography to create a broader mental position. Using a new
technology for printing, scanning, and storing messages with laser beams and optical fibers
works with their copier-based business. Its an opportunity for Xerox to bring in something new to
business. It connects with the technology of copiers. It takes advantage of Xeroxs position and
broadens it to include the next generation of products.

15 Positioning a country: Belgium

Sabena Belgian World Airlines flies nonstop from North America to only one destination in
Europe: Brussels. The problem is not many travelers want to visit Belgium.
The answer to the positioning problem was the Michelin Guide. The Michelin Benelux Edition lists
six three-star worth a special journey cities. Five were in Belgium: Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp,
Brussels, and Tournai. The big tourist attraction to the North, Holland, only had one three-star
city, Amsterdam. The ad was headlined, In beautiful Belgium, there are five Amsterdams,
complete with five beautiful full-color pictures of Belgiums three-star cities. The ad generated an
enormous number of inquiries about a country many travelers had seen only through the train
window as they traveled from Amsterdam to Paris. One of the inquiries was from the minister of
tourism in Holland to his counterpart in Belgium. Needless to say he was very irate and wanted
the ad and its creators killed.
This positioning strategy worked because it related Belgium to a destination already on the mind
of the traveler, Amsterdam. Second, the Michelin Guide gave the concept credibility. Third, the
five cities to visit made Belgium a bona fide destination.
A television commercial soon followed, but a new political environment emerged, and without the
long-term commitment of the Brussels authorities the positioning strategy was eventually ordered
changed.

16 Positioning an island: Jamaica

At the time when Edward Seaga replaced socialist Michael Manley as Jamaican prime minister,
the door for capitalist investment was thrown open, and David Rockefeller himself organized a
group of 25 American corporate chiefs to develop Jamaica.
Jamaica needed both investment and tourism. Logically, tourism would lure people who worked
in big companies, and if they had good things to say about their vacation in Jamaica, the
companies would consider investing in places that are fun to visit.
Because every Caribbean destination has its own picture postcard image, Jamaica had to find
her own. It was very similar in topography with the island of Hawaii. Beaches, cool mountains,
pastures, open plains, rivers, waterfalls, and a big green volcanic paradise.
The solution was to position Jamaica as the Hawaii of the Caribbean. And because it is
substantially larger than its competitors, it supports the more to see, more to do advantages
implicit in the Hawaiian connection.

17 Positioning a product: Milk Duds

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 9

The solution to a positioning problem is usually found in the prospects mind, not in the product. A
candy bar just doesnt last very long. A kid can eat up a 50-cent Hershey bar in 2.3 seconds flat.
The answer: Position Milk Duds as Americas long-lasting alternative to the candy bar. Because
Milk Duds come in boxes of 15 individual slow-eating chocolate-covered caramels, they have
been so popular at the movie theatres.
A 30-second television commercial established this position:
Once there was a kid who had a big mouth(A kid is standing next to an enormous
mouth)
That loved candy bars. (The kid is shoveling candy bars one after another into the
mouth)
But they didnt last very long. (The kid runs out of candy bars and the mouth gets
upset)
Then he discovered chocalaty caramel Milk Duds. (The kid holds up the Milk Duds, and
the mouth starts to lick its chops)
The mouth loved the Milk Duds because they last a long time. (The kid rolls the Milk
Duds one by one up the mouths tongue)
(Then the kid and the mouth sing a duet together, which is the campaign song) When a
candy bar is only a memory, youll still be eating your Milk Duds.
Get your mouth some Milk Duds. (Big smiles on both the kid and the mouth)
The television commercial sold more Milk Duds than all the advertising in the companys history.

18 Positioning a service: Mailgram

When positioning a product, the visual is the dominant element. When positioning a service, the
dominant element should be verbal.
The Mailgram positioning was test-marketed in key cities in the United States in two ways, as a
low-cost telegram, and as the high-speed letter. Both strategies showed favorable numbers. The
advantage with the high-speed letter position was that instead of Western Union taking away
business from itself (low-cost telegram) the position would reposition the regular US mail service.
Mailgram volume increased from 6 million to 41 million from 1972 to 1981. After 10 years of
success, Western Union decided to change the Mailgram strategy. The moment they decided to
change advertising strategy to next-day delivery volume numbers plummeted from 41 million in
1981 to 22 million in 1984.

19 Positioning a Long Island bank

The best positioning ideas are so simple and obvious that most people overlook them. In a
semantic differential research, prospects were asked to rank New York City banks firmly
entrenched in the Long Island area. Banks like Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical Bank,
European American, National Bank of North America, and Long Island Trust. Long Island came in
last on attributes like number of branches, range of services, quality of service and large capital.
The respondents ranked Long Island first when it came to helping Long Island residents and the
Long Island economy. Developing the strategy meant stating the obvious.
Why send your money to the city if you live on the Island? It makes sense to keep your money
close to home. Not at a city bank. But at Long Island Trust. Where it can work for Long Island.
After the ads were run, describing how the bank developed Long Island, and how city banks put
peoples money in faraway countries, the ranking shot up in all attributes in the follow-up survey.

20 Positioning a New Jersey bank

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 10

The reason to position United Jersey against large banks is because these big banks are the
ones in the minds of the prospects. The disadvantage of large size is slow service. The
positioning strategy for United Jersey was the fast-moving bank. Two key aspects were:

Exploit the weakness of big New York banks, their slow reaction time.
Encourage United Jersey management to make sure the banks performance matches
the advertising promise.

Through decentralized decision-making, where big loans can be approved quickly, cross training
of people in different services, commitment to electronic ATM networks, speedy lock box service,
FACT (fast authorization of cashless transactions) terminals, responsiveness, and central location
- these commitments would match up to the advertising promise.
Humorous vignettes showing slow motion employees of Lethargic National Bank as against
United Jersey which values your time as much as your money. Time is money desk signs
were given to all United Jersey bank officers, a reminder not to keep customers waiting.
One year after the program, United Jersey announced earnings of $30 million, a 26% increase
over the previous year.

21 Positioning a ski resort: Stowe

Stowe already had a good reputation for being a good ski resort. Positioning enhances the word
of mouth process. Supplying credibility meant bringing in an outside expert, noted ski and travel
writer Abby Rand. In Harpers Bazaar, she selected the top 10 ski resorts in the world. One was
Stowe, Vermont. The others were Aspen, Colorado; Courchevel, France; Jackson Hole,
Wyoming; Kitzbuhel, Austria; Portillo, Chile, St. Christoph, Austria; St. Moritz, Switzerland; Sun
Valley, Idaho; and Vail, Colorado.
The positioning advertisements for Stowe used shoulder patches to illustrate the ski areas. Of
the worlds top 10 ski resorts, only one is in the East. You dont have to go to the Alps or the
Andes or even to the Rockies to experience the ski vacation of a lifetime, you need only to head
for the Ski Capital of the East: Stowe, Vermont.
Skiers responded to the new strategy. Thousands of brochures were requested, and they broke
all attendance records at the ski resort. Despite the advantage of shorter drives to Stratton,
Sugarbush, Big Bromley and Mt. Snow, the promise of a reward for the longer drive sticks in the
prospects mind.
This was a classic positioning strategy: taking the minds tendency to make a list, and the use of
a recognized authority.

22 Positioning the Catholic Church

How the clergy applies communication theory to the practice of religion will have a major
influence on the way religion affects the congregation.
Regular Mass attendance dropped below 50 percent of the Catholic population. Protestant
attendance remains remarkably stable. There are 20 percent fewer priests, nuns, and brothers
today than there were 10 years ago. Most of the haphazard communication within the church can
be traced back to Vatican II, moving the Church away from a position of Teacher of the Law.
What is the role of the Catholic Church in the modern world? From the Scriptures, Christ saw the
role of the Church as Teacher of the Word.

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 11

To implement the new position, pulpit training, improving sermons and learning to be better
speakers was necessary. An introductory film entitled Return to the Beginning was proposed. To
this day, the management of the Church is not convinced with such a simple solution. The Pope
is in the process of convening another synod to evaluate the results of Vatican II, to resolve the
confusion in the last 20 years. While they convene, the gulf widens between liberal and
conservative Catholics.

23 Positioning yourself and your career

Find one specific idea to hang your hat on. Dont be afraid to make some mistakes along
the way. Eddie Arcaro, perhaps the greatest jockey who ever rode a horse, had 250
straight losers before he rode his first winner.

Make sure your name is right. Marion Morrison changed his feminine-sounding name to
John Wayne. Issur Danielovitch was changed to Kirk Douglas. Avoid using initials in
memos. It is part of the no-name trap we identified earlier. Avoid the line-extension trap
too. Putting a junior on your sons name is not doing him a favor. He deserves a separate
identity. Liza Minelli is a bigger star than her mother, Judy Garland. As Liza Garland she
would have started with a handicap.

Working harder is not the answer. Working smarter is.

Find a horse to ride. Is your company positioned for growth? No matter how brilliant you
are it never pays to cast your lot with a loser. If your company is going nowhere, get
yourself a new one.

The second horse to ride is your boss. Always try to work for the smartest, brightest,
most competent person you can find. If your boss is going places, chances are good you
are too.

The third horse to ride is a friend. The more business friends you make outside of your
own organization, the more likely you are to wind up in a big, rewarding job. Most of the
big breaks come when a business friend recommends another. Keep in touch regularly
with business friends. If you spot an article about a business friend, cut it out and send it
to him. People appreciate it and dont always see stories that might have mentioned
them.

Nothing, not all the armies of the world, can stop an idea whose time has come. Victor
Hugo. An idea is your fourth horse to ride. Be willing to go against the tide.

The fifth horse to ride is faith. Ray Kroc was a failure most of his life until two brothers
with little faith sold their idea to him. Ray Kroc became one of the richest people in
America. The brothers were the McDonald brothers.

The sixth horse to ride is yourself.

24 Positioning your business

Ask yourself these questions and think them through very well:
What position do you own? Get your answer from your prospects mind. Sabenas
problem was not Sabena, but Belgium. Seven-Ups problem was not the prospects
attitude toward lemon/lime drinks, but the overwhelming share of mind occupied by the
colas. Find a way into the prospects mind by hooking your product, service, or concept to
whats already there.

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 12

What position do you want to own? The job market today belongs to people who can
define and position themselves as specialists. Dont try to be all things to all people. You
wind up with nothing.

Whom must you outgun? Select a position no one else has a firm grip on. Think about
the situation from the point of view of your competitors.

Do you have enough money? If you can become No.1 in New York, you can roll out the
product to the rest of the USA. It takes money to build a share of mind.

Can you stick it out? Most successful companies rarely change a winning formula. How
many years have you seen those Marlboro men riding off into the sunset? Just take the
basic strategy and find new ways to dramatize it, year after year. Owning a position in the
mind is like owning a valuable piece of real estate.

Do you match your position? Do your advertisements for yourself match your position?
Do your clothes, for example, tell the world youre a banker, a lawyer, or an artist?
Creativity itself is worthless. Only when it is subordinated to the positioning objective can
creativity make a contribution.

The objectivity supplied by an advertising agency, marketing communication or public relations

agency helps you with outside-in thinking. Creativity is dead. The name of the game on Madison
Avenue ad agency row is positioning.

25 Playing the positioning game

To be successful today at positioning, you must have a large degree of mental flexibility. You
must select and use words that trigger the meanings you want to establish.
To cope with change, you have to take a long-range point of view. If a company positions
itself in the right direction, it will be able to ride the currents of change. Seize the initiative before
the competitor has a chance to get established. There should be a willingness to pour on the
marketing budget while others stand back and wait.
Evaluate products objectively. Only in a give-and-take atmosphere can ideas be refined.
With the overwhelming volume of communication today, the simple, straightforward, and
obvious idea works. An ad should be simple enough that the copy is the strategy.
Subtlety. The secret to establishing a successful position is to keep two things in balance:
A unique position with an appeal thats not too narrow.
Be willing to sacrifice. Nyquil gave up the daytime market to establish itself as a nighttime cold
medicine.
Patience pays. Instead of launching on a nationwide scale, try
The geographic rollout. Build the product in one market and then move to another.
The demographic rollout. Philip Morris built Marlboro into the No.1 cigarette on college
campuses first before it became the No.1 brand nationwide.
The chronologic rollout. Build a brand among a specific age group and then roll it out to
others.
The distribution roll-out. Wella was first sold in beauty salons. After the products were
established, they were sold in supermarkets and drugstores.

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com

Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

Page 13

Maintain a global outlook. A company that just keeps its eye on Tom, Dick, and Harry is going
to miss out on Pierre, Hans, and Yoshio.
You dont need a reputation as a marketing genius.
To win the battle for the mind, you cant compete head-on against a company that has a strong,
established position. You can go around, under or over, but never head to head.
To move up the ladder, follow the rules of positioning. The name of the game today is positioning,
and only the best players will survive.

www.bizsum.com

2001, 2002 Copyright BusinessSummaries.com