Positioning The Battle For Your Mind by Al Ries & Jack Trout

BOOK SUMMARY
POSITIONING:
The Battle For
Your Mind
1
Al RIES
JACK TROUT

INTRODUCTION
2
Today, communication itself is the problem
“Failure to communicate” is the single most
common reason given for problems
(business/ government/ labour problems) that
develop
Advertising- A form of communication that,
from the point of view of the recipient, is held
in low-esteem; it is unwanted and unliked. But
advertising is a superb testing ground for
theories of communication

INTRODUCTION
A new approach to communication is called
“positioning”- a concept that has changed
the nature of advertising
Positioning starts with a product- A piece of
merchandise, a service, an institution, a
company or a person
3

INTRODUCTION
Positioning is what you do to the mind of
the prospect; it does not involve change as
changes in name, price and package are
basically cosmetic changes (not changes in
the product itself)
Positioning has changed the way the
advertising game is being played- today
we find comparatives in ad, not
superlatives; anyone can get ahead using
the positioning strategy
4

Positioning is not what you do to a product.
Positioning is what you do to the mind of the
prospect.
5
Protection Glamor Confide
nce
Sexual
attractio
n
Quality

1. What Positioning is all about
2. The Assault on the Mind
3. Getting into the Mind
4. Those Little Ladders in Your Head
5. You Can’t Get There from Here
Contents
6

6. Positioning of a Leader
7. Positioning of a Follower
8. Repositioning the Competition
9. The Power of the Name
10. The No Name Trap
11. The Free-Ride Trap
12. The Line Extension Trap
Contents
7

13. When Line Extension Can Work
14. Positioning a Company : Monsanto
15. Positioning a Country : Belgium
16.Positioning of a Product: Milk Duds
17.Positioning of a Service: Mallagram
Contents
8

18.Positioning of Long Island Bank
19.Positioning the Catholic Church
20.Positioning Yourself and Your Career
21.Six Steps To Success
22.Playing the Positioning Game
Contents
9

Lesson 1
What Positioning Is All About: How to
touch base with reality?
10

The basic approach of positioning is not to create
something new and different; but to manipulate what’s
already up there in the prospect’s mind (retying the
connections that already exist)
Today it’s an Overcommunicated Society- Per capita
consumption of advertising in America today is abut
$200 a year
Strategies of past are no longer responsive; today
impact of advertising is to seriously overstate the
potential effectiveness of the message (an ego-centric
view bearing no resemblance to marketplace realities)
The only hope to score big is to be selective, to
concentrate on narrow targets, to practice segmentation-
in a word, “positioning”
11

The mind, as a defence against today’s communication
volume, screens and rejects much of the information
offered to it
The mind accepts only that which matches prior
knowledge or experience; mind-changing is
impossible with a weak force like advertising
The Oversimplified Mind- The only defence in the
overcommunicated society; it acts as a filter
What we receive is influenced by the nature of our
overcommunicated society where “glittering generalities”
have become a way of life
12

The best approach to take in our overcommunicated society
is the oversimplified message
In communication, less is more; so, jettison the
ambiguities, simplify the message and select the material
that has the best chance of getting through in order to
make a long-lasting impression
Own a word in the prospect’s mind- Volvo owns
“safety”, FedEx owns “overnight”
The enemy that is keeping the messages from hitting pay
dirt is the volume of communication
When communicating product advantages, things should be
turned inside outlook for the solution inside the prospect’s
mind (concentrate on perceptions of prospect and not
realities of the product)
13
“Consumer is always right”

Lesson 2
The Assault on the Mind
14

TRANSMISSION
TRAFFIC JAM
• With only 6% of world’s
population, America
consumes 57% of
world’s advertising
• 30,000 books
published each year in
America
• 10 million tons of
newsprint each year
• Average American
family is exposed to
795,000 television
pictures a day
• Code of Federal
Regulations contains
80,000 pages and
growing by 5,000
pages per year
15
REASONS MESSAGES
ARE GETTING LOST
• Transmission Traffic Jam
• MEDIA Explosion- TV,
radio, newspaper,
magazine, posters and
billboards
• PRODUCT Explosion-
45,000 active registered
trademarks and 25,000
getting added each year;
1,500 listed companies
introduce 5,000
significantly new
products each year
• ADVERTISING Explosion-
Doctors, lawyers, even
churches advertise
2.The Assault on the Mind

2.THE ASSAULT ON THE MIND
You never get a second chance to make a first
impression - Until you are ready to position
yourself for the long term, you are better off if
communication doesn’t take place
To cut through the traffic jam in the prospect’s
mind, use an oversimplified approach
16

2.THE ASSAULT ON THE MIND
Advertising is a brutal business
where mistakes can be costly- To
advertise effectively, you have to
get on the same wavelength as the
prospect
Sensory overload - Beyond a limited
amount of sensation, the brain goes
blank
17

Lesson 3
18
Getting into the Mind

Positioning is an organised system for finding
windows in the mind.
It is based on the concept that communication
can only take place at the right time and under
the right circumstances.
What is true in business is true in nature too.
“Imprinting” is the term biologist use to describe
the first encounter between a new born animal
and its natural mother.
19

The market place changed over the years
20
PRODUCT ERA
(FIFTIES ERA)
Advertising
focused on
product features
and customer
benefits- They
looked for ‘USP’
With advanced
technologies, it
became difficult to
establish that
‘USP’- Competition
became fierce,
with an avalanche
of me-too
products
IMAGE ERA
Successful
companies found
reputation or
image was more
important in
selling than
product features
“Every ad is a
long-term
investment in the
image of a
brand”- David
Ogilvy
Me-too companies
killed the image era
POSITIONING ERA
(EIGHTIES ERA)
To be successful, a
company needed to
position in prospect’s
mind considering its
own strengths and
weaknesses as well as
those of its
competitors
Strategy became king –
The key was getting
first into prospect’s
mind.

For brand loyalty you get in the mind first and be
careful not to give a reason to switch. People
don’t remember the 2nd.
Find something to be first in. It’s better to be a big
fish in a small pond (then increase the size of the
pond) than to be a small fish in a big pond
Advertising lessons - The chaos in the market
place is a reflection of the fact that advertising
just doesn’t work the way it used to.
Messages prepared in the old, traditional ways
have no hope of being successful in today’s over
communicated society.
21

The Paradox:
In an overcommunicated society, nothing is more important than
communication
22
THE EASY WAY
INTO THE MIND
Be FIRST-
Fix your message in a mind
not burnished by someone
else’s brand
e.g. Michelob: first premium-
priced American-made beer
Build brand loyalty- By not
giving them a reason to switch
THE HARD
WAY INTO THE
MIND
Being SECOND –
A positioning
problem as odds
favour the first;
First make sure you
can’t find something
to be first in

Lesson 4
Those Little Ladders in Your
Head
23

24
VS.
Like a computer, the human mind has a slot or position for
each bit of retained information
Like a computer, to put a new brand into mind, you must
delete the old brand already occupying the category
Unlike a computer (which accepts everything one puts in), the
human mind only accepts information matching its current
state of mind
4. Little Ladders in Your Head

Due to large volume of communications,
(a) the mind rejects information that it does not
compute
(b) Accepts new information which matches its
current state of mind
(c) Filters out everything else.
4.Those little ladders in head
25

Very little mind changing occurs - You see/taste what you
expect to see/taste
Create the opposite expectation and product is in trouble
Were the average consumer rational instead of emotional,
there would be no role of advertising
26
HUMAN MIND- AN INADEQUATE CONTAINER
Avg. human mind cant deal with more than 7 units at a time
For low-involvement products, average consumer can usually
name no more than one or two brands
People can often remember positioning concepts better than
names- ranking of people, objects and brands is a
convenient method of organizing things
4. Little Ladders in Your Head

HUMAN MIND - THE PRODUCT LADDER
Some ladders have many steps (seven is
many); Others have few, if any
A competitor that wants to increase its share
of the business must either dislodge the brand
above (a usually impossible task) or somehow
relate its brand to the other company’s
position
Advertiser introducing a new category must
carry in a new ladder. Difficult if the new
category is not positioned against old one
If you have a truly new product, it is often better to tell the prospect
what the product is not, rather than what it is e.g.: ‘horseless’
carriage, ‘lead-free’ gasoline, etc.
27

28
THE ‘AGAINST’ POSITION
Competitor’s position is just
as important as your own
Avis started making money
after 13 years of losses. when
it admitted it was the No. 2
player; didn’t try to attack
Hertz head-on; Avis was
successful as it related itself
to Hertz
Establishing an ‘against’
position is a classic
positioning manoeuvre; if a
company isn’t the first, it has
to be the first to occupy the
No. 2 position

THE ‘UNCOLA’ POSITION
Another positioning strategy is
to worm your way onto a ladder
owned by someone else
By linking the product to
what was already in the mind
of the prospect, the ‘uncola’
position established 7Up as
an alternative to a cola drink
To find a unique position, look
inside the prospect’s mind and
not inside the product or
yourself
29

30
THE F.W.M.T.S. TRAP
Successful positioning requires
consistency
Companies, however, fall into
F.W.M.T.S. Trap often- ‘Forgot What
Made Them Successful’
Avis was not destined to be No. 1
unless it could find a weakness in
Hertz; old campaign related it to No.1 in
prospect’s mind and generated natural
sympathy for the underdog
7Up is also advertising its aspirations
and its ads are no more effective
If you want to be successful today, you can’t ignore the competitor’s
position. Nor can you walk away from your own.

You don’t find an “uncola” idea inside a 7-Up can.
You find it inside the cola drinker’s mind.
Both Avis and 7-Up moved away from what made
them successful and paid a price for it
4.Those little ladders in head
31

Chapter 5
You Can’t Get There from
Here
32

5. YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM
HERE
The “Can Do” Spirit Refuses to Die
A company can have a great product, a great
sales force, a great ad campaign and still fail
miserably if it happens to be in a “you can’t get
there from here” position, no matter how much it
is prepared to spend
33

HERE
34
RCA EXAMPLE
While it’s possible to compete successfully
with a market leader, the rules of
positioning say it can’t be done “head-on”
In 1970, RCA entered into a head-on
competition with IBM; it started publishing
ads in the pages of business press;
chairman predicted by year-end, RCA will
be in a “firm No.2 position”; within a year,
dough of $250 million hit RCA

HERE
35
RCA EXAMPLE
Best strategy for IBM’s competitors
would be to take advantage of the
positions they already won in the minds
of their prospects and then relate them to
a new position in computers

RCA was a leader in communications but did not
take advantage of this position.
IBM, Sun Microsystems and other companies
invested most of their resources to dominate the
Internet, the ultimate communication network.
36
5. You Can’t Get There from Here

Chapter 6
Positioning of a Leader
37

Establishing Leadership
The first brand into the brain gets twice the long
term market share of the No.2 brand and twice
again as the No 3. brand.
And so it goes. General Motors outsells Ford,
Goodyear outsells Firestone, McDonald’s
outsells Burger King.
How do you get to be the leader? Actually it’s
quite simple. Remember Neil Armstrong.
You just get there first.
38

• Getting into the mind first
• Reinforcing the original
concept
• Eg: “The real thing” ad
campaign of Coca-Cola
RUBBING
IT IN
• Adopt every new product
development as soon as it
shows signs of promise
• General Motors spent $50
million to cover Wankel
engines
COVERING
ALL BETS
39

• The understanding that power
of organization is derived from
power of product
• Coca-Cola’s Mr. Pibb runs
poor second to Dr. Pepper
POWER
FROM
PRODUCT
• Block competitors by moving
rapidly to cover new products
• Johnson and Johnson
reduced prices to attack Datril
REACTING
RAPIDLY
40

STRATEGIES FOR MAINTAINING
LEADERSHIP
• Cover competitive moves
by introducing new brands
• It will be cheaper and more
effective in the long run to
introduce a new product
than adopting line-
extension
• This strategy is followed by
Procter and Gamble
COVERING
WITH
MULTIBRANDS
41

STRATEGIES FOR MAINTAINING
LEADERSHIP
• Sometimes the name
change helps bridge the
gap from one era to the next
• The Direct Mail Association
changed its name to Direct
Mail- Marketing Association
as a recognition of the fact
that mail was only one of
the ways to do direct
marketing
BROADER
NAME
42

FAILURES OF A LEADER:
When a Market Leader isn’t the first in the new
category, the new product is usually an also-ran
• eg: Mr. Pibb of Coca-Cola remains a poor second to Dr.
Pepper
STRATEGIES USED TO MAINTAIN
LEADERSHIP:
• Use short-term flexibility for a stable, long-term future
• Marketing leader moves the ladder into the mind with his
brand nailed to only one rung
43

BENEFITS OF LEADERSHIP POSITION:
• Enjoy the highest profit margin than any
company serving that market
• Attract best talent
WHAT NOT TO DO?
A market leader should not run ads that scream
“We’re No. 1”
44
“Getting to the top is tough. Staying there is much easier”

Chapter 7
Positioning of a Follower
45

Most me-too products fail to achieve reasonable
sales goals because the accent is on ‘better’
rather than ‘speed’. The attack should be
launched while the situation is fluid, before the
leader has time to establish leadership.
Leaders can often cover a competitive move and
retain their leadership, but followers cannot.
46

How to find an open spot in the
prospect’s mind? The French have a
marketing response “Cherchez le
Creneau” or “Look for the hole” .
47

You Must have the ability to think Reverse, to go
against the grain
“Me-too” products fail because the emphasis is
on “better” rather than “speed”
Launch attack with massive advertising and a
better name while the situation is fluid (before
the leader has time to establish itself)
48

Strategies for finding Creneaus
(holes in the prospect’s mind)
The Size Creneau- “Think Small”
for Volkswagen Beetle
positioning
The High Price Creneau- Price
is an advantage if you are first
in category like Chivas Regal
The Low Price Creneau- A
good choice for new products
Potential Traps
The Technology Traps: Even
great technology fails if there is
no creneau in the prospect’s
mind
The Factory Creneau – Mistake
of filling a hole in the factory
rather than that in the mind
Everybody’s trap : Don’t want to
tie down on specific positioning
as they believe it limits their
opportunities- a deadly idea if
you want to build a position
from nowhere
49
Sex (eg: perfumes), Time of Day,
Distribution (L’eggs- sold at both
supermarkets & mass
merchandisers)

Chapter 8
Repositioning the Competition
50

Create your own creneau- reposition the
competition. To move a new idea into the mind,
you must first move an old one out.
Sometimes you can’t find the creneau; there are
hundreds of variations in each category.
We’re better than our competitors” isn’t
repositioning. It’s comparative advertising.
51
8. Repositioning the competition

CREATING YOUR OWN CRENEAU:
Company must create the one by repositioning
the competitors that occupy position in the mind
All the mathematical arguments aren’t as effective
as a simple observation that people can verify
People like to watch the bubble burst
Conflict (even personal ones) can build reputation
overnight
52

CONCEPT BENEATH:
Once an idea is overturned, selling the new idea
is ludicrously simple. As a matter of fact, people
will often search for the new idea to fill void
eg: Tylenol bursting the aspirin bubble
53

EXAMPLES OF REPOSITIONING OF
BRANDS
Tylenol
• Tylenol went out and burst Aspirin Bubble
through anti-aspiring positioning
Lenox
• Royal Doulton gained a 6% market share by
repositioning Lenox china- thought by many
as an imported product
American
Vodkas
Pringles
54
• Stolichnaya Gained market share by
positioning it as a Russian vodka
• Lost the market share just because of not
knowing the rules of repositioning
• You taste what you expect to taste
• Though recently it followed “natural all”
strategy, brands follow “Once a looser,
always a looser” concept

DIMENSIONS OF REPOSITIONING
55
REPOSITIONING VS.
COMPARATIVE ADS
• “We are better than
our competitors” is
not repositioning
• Comparative ads fail
to reposition the
competition
• Do not put competitor
as benchmark for your
own brand
IS REPOSITIONING
LEGAL?
• 1964: National
Broadcasting
Company dropped ban
on comparative ads
• 1974: American
Association issued
new guidelines
representing a
complete turn around
• 1975: Independent
Broadcasting
Authority allowed
knocking Ads
IS REPOSITIONING
ETHICAL?
• You should relate your
brand to other brands
already there
• The claims laid in the
advertisements should
be genuine and
proved
• To position, you need
to tell customers how
much better your
product is compared
to your competitors
• Done honestly and
fairly, it keeps the
competition on toes

Chapter 9
The Power of the Name
56

The name is the first point of contact between the
message and the mind. A bad name does not get
better no matter how many years you have been
using it.
57

HOW TO CHOOSE A NAME
• Don’t look to the past for selecting a new name
• In the past, the volume of communication was less and name
was not important
• It should not go “over the edge” – it should not become generic
• Name should be appealing to people and should create a
position in the prospect’s mind
WHEN TO USE A MEANINGLESS NAME
• When the product is new in the market and you are the first one
to launch, for such a product any name would work
DAVID AND MICHAEL AND HUBERT AND ELMER
• Hubert and Elmer are generally considered as names of losers
but David and Michael are popular names
In the positioning era, the name plays a very important role
58

How Not to Choose a Name –
Names get out of date. Time could also be a trade
magazine in watch industry -> Newsweek is a
better name for a newsweekly
There are marginal differences in many product
categories – a better name can lead to difference
of millions of dollars in sales
59

THE AKRON TWINS
• Two companies in the same field having similar names. In such a case,
the larger is benefitted, i.e. the rich gets richer. Eg: Goodrich suffered for
having a similar name with a larger competitor (Goodyear)
THE TOLEDO TRIPLETS
• 3 companies – Owens-Illinois, Owens Corning Fiberglas and Libbey
Owens Ford are similar and creates confusion in customer’s mind.
• In such cases, it is better to change the name because there is negative
equity in a bad name
THE TOO APPROPRIATE NAME
• The choice of name in very important specially in the product category
• Names of low calorie and low price products should be selected
appropriately to suggest the benefits without going over the line
60

Chapter 10
The No-Name Trap
61

10. The No-Name Trap
Customers refer to companies phonetically.
Companies look at themselves in a visually
oriented way
62

• Use initials only when phonetic
length is less than the original
word
• Eg. Gen-er-al E-lec-tric has 6
syllables; so people use G-E i.e. 2
syllables
PHONETI
C
SHORTH
AND
• Companies using initials before
reaching the top are less popular
than the companies using names
• Companies which are successful
and well known should use
initials- Eg.: IBM, P&G, etc.
VISUAL
SHORTH
AND
63

• People must be aware of
the name before they will
respond to initials
• Name helps companies
position themselves in the
mind
• Positioning is a long-term
proposition- Name
decisions made today may
not be fruitful until years in
the future
NO SHORTCUT
TO SUCCESS
64

• Before storing an image in the mind, it
is important to verbalize it
• W-O-M is one of the primary
communication mediums
• Messages would “sound better” in print
if they were designed for radio first
THE MIND
WORKS BY
EAR
• With time, nothing remains same; so a
time comes when a company must
change its name
• Sometimes companies change their
names because of marketing reasons-
Eg: Mobil successfully forgot past and
positioned itself against the future
NAME
OBSOLESC
ENCE
65

• Become successful before
using initials, when you
reverse the procedure it
never works.
• Rush to adopt initials
represents desire to be
accepted
• Fortunately many companies
are realizing the dangers of
no name trap
THE
CONFUSION
BETWEEN
CAUSE AND
EFFECT
66

Chapter 11
The Free Ride Trap
67

To establish a new position in the mind, one
needs a new name and should not take a free ride
on the existing name
Two different strategies: Use corporate name or a New
name- For a new product developed internally, the
corporate name is used; for a product developed by
external acquisition, the existing name is kept
It is important to determine when to use the house
name and when to select a new name
68

If you get into the mind of the consumer first, any
name will work, If not, we have to select an
appropriate name
A new product needs a new name. Overwhelming
thinking is to use well known names for new
products e.g. Xerox foray into computers using Xerox
name destroyed billions of dollars
69

Teeter-Totter principle –
In the prospects’ mind, One name can’t stand for
2 distinctly different products. If one goes up, the
other goes down- Eg. Heinz is now the No. 1
brand in ketchup but lost its pickle leadership
position
70

Anonymity is a Resource - Companies look for a
free ride because they underestimate the value of
anonymity
An unknown company with an unknown product
has more to gain from publicity than a well-known
company with an established product
71

Chapter 12
The Line Extension Trap
72

Two ways of Looking at the Name –
The consumer and the manufacturer see things
in totally different ways. What actually gets
driven into the mind is not the product at all but
the “name” of the product which the prospect
uses as a hook to hang attributes on
73

Bayer invented Aspirin
Anti Aspirin approach used by
Tylenol
Bayer Non Aspirin has a very tiny
market share
Dial Soap has the major market
share
Very Small market share in
Deodorant market
•Look at line extension from prospect’s
view and work backwards
•Brand Name becomes
surrogate/substitute for generic Name
•Get me Coke
•Where is Bayer ?
•Hand me the Dial
•Educates the prospect that Bayer is
brand name & not Superior aspirin
Inside-Out Thinking
Outside-In Thinking
JC Penny Vs DieHard
•Product name driven into consumer’s mind
•Diehard Automobile battery-lasts 48 months
•JCPenny- A very weak hook
•The obvious name isn’t always the best
CHAPTER 12: THE LINE-
EXTENSION TRAP
Protein 21
•The easiest way to kill a Brand is
through line-extension
Eveready
•Once dominated battery market
•Duracell outsells Eveready
Johnson’s Baby Shampoo
•Reverse line extension (broadening the base)
can work- Johnson’s baby shampoo is the first
and only baby shampoo being promoted as an
adult product too; J&J didn’t line-extend and
introduced adult shampoo
74

It is better to establish a position in the prospects
mind first and then worry how to establish retail
connection
In positioning, the shortest distance between 2
points is not necessarily the best strategy
The obvious name isn’t always the best name.
Inside-out thinking is the biggest barrier to
success. Outside-in thinking is the biggest aid
75

Positioning is making your brand name stand for
the generic. Yet line extension seems intuitively
right & the only way to resist the temptation is to
study the classic line-extension mistakes of
marketing history
Reverse Line Extension –Line Extension is
usually a mistake but the reverse can work. Best
example – Johnson’s baby shampoo has been
line extended into an adult shampoo
76

Chapter 13
When a Line Extension Can Work
77

13. When Line Extension Can
Work
Short Term Advantages :
As Line-extension name is related to the original
name, it achieves an instant recognition. Great
business in first six months as the initial order
pipeline gets filled
Long Term Disadvantages :
Line-extensions are easily forgettable - have no
independent position in mind. They blur the
position occupied by the original name. After
initial six months as reorders don’t come in,
things turn dark.
78

Work
A Name Is a Rubber Band:
It will not stretch beyond a point. The more you
stretch the weaker it becomes. How far a name
can be stretched?
Rules when to use the house name:
Small volume products but not potential winners.
In a vacuum, not in a crowded field. Small budget
brands should bear. commodity products should
bear not break through products. Off the shelf
items should not bear house name
79

Short Term Advantages
•Instant flash of understanding
•Instant flash of Sales
•Business looks great for first six
months
Long Term Disadvantages
•No independent position in the
mind of the customers
•Satellites to the original brand
•Catastrophic results
The Shopping-List Test
•Well Known brands - Kleenex
tissue, Crest toothpaste, Listerine
mouthwash, Lifesavers Candy,
Bayer Aspirin and Dial Soap
•Confusion occurs when one
name stands for more than one
product- Eg: Heinz, Scott, Protein
21, Kraft
When to use House names
•Expected Volume – Small Volume
•Competition – Crowded field
•Advertising Support – Small budget brands
•Significance – Commodity products
•Distribution – Items sold by sales reps
Rules of the Road
•Line Extension is a trap and not a mistake
•Line extension works only when
•Your Volume is small
•No Competitors/ Foolish Competitors
•No expectation to build a position
•No advertising required
Volkswagen
•First automobile to capture the small car
position in the customer’s mind
•Then they thought big and sales collapsed
•Lesson: Don’t try to change a human mind
Work
80

Chapter 14
Positioning a Company –
Monsanto
81

Why Position a Company ?
To occupy the best positions in the minds of
prospective employees. Investors willingness to
pay premium for a company depends on the
strength of its position in buyers mind
14. Positioning a Company :
Monsanto
82

How to Position a Company ?
Name is associated with positioning. Names
have locked them to their past reputations.
Positioning boils down to some quality found
across the product range. Diversification is not
a right strategy to position.
Monsanto
83

The Monsanto Approach :
Objective : To make Monsanto the leader and
spokesperson for the industry.
1. Product Leadership : Monsanto is clustered
together with Dow and Union Carbide in second
place.
Monsanto
84

2. Business Leadership : Monsanto was not the
first to speak up for free enterprise.
3. Industry Leadership : Monsanto had the
perfect position to improve its leadership
position in chemical industry.
Monsanto
85

Monsanto Brought Chemical Facts to Life :
Monsanto decided to speak up about
chemicals. Told public about the benefits and
risks of using chemicals. By being the first to
speak for industry, Monsanto assumed
leadership mantle.
And Monsanto Got the Credit:
Positive attitudes among general public
increased from 36% to 42% in less than two
years. Business Week mentioned Monsanto as
spearheading the movement to build image of
Chemical Industry. DuPont followed Monsanto
Monsanto
86

Chapter 15
Positioning a Country
87

Belgium wasn’t one of the preferred
tourist destinations
Sabena Belgian World Airlines, flying to
Belgium, tried to induce travellers with
food. But, even the best food in the world
cannot induce someone to fly in an
airline that is not going to a place where
one wants to go
15. Positioning a Country :
Belgium
88

Sabena had to make Belgium a place where
a traveller wants to spend time (they tried
to position the country, not the airline)
They tried to relate Belgium to a
destination that was already in the mind of
the travelers
They created a strategy that related
Belgium to Amsterdam, a popular tourist
stop which was ranked 3 stars by Michelin
Guides
Belgium
89

Michelin ranked Belgium as having five-3
star cities. The campaign that was
established was “In beautiful Belgium, there
are five Amsterdams”
Amsterdam and the Michelin Guide were two
concepts already in the mind of the prospect
traveler and helped to put Belgium on the
map in tourism. Further, five cities to visit
made Belgium a bona fide destination. Even
TV ad was made to attract travellers
Belgium
90

However, organisational change at Sabena
reduced commitment to the ad.
The lesson: A successful positioning
programme requires a major long term
commitment by the people in charge
There were a lot of political differences in
Belgium, and other cities were asked to be
included. This led to confusion.
The lesson: Positioning may require you to
oversimplify your communications
Belgium
91

Chapter 16
Positioning a Product –
Milk Duds
92

Milk Duds were targeted mainly for the
teenagers at the movie hall; They wanted
to reposition the product to gain the
market share by targeting younger kids
The major insights that they found were:
- kids were disappointed in the
downgraded size of candy bars
- kids felt their enjoyment time wasn’t
worth the money they spent
16. Positioning a Product : Milk
Duds
93

The value proposition: Milk Dud candy was
a box of 15 individual slow chew pieces of
chocolate candy
Campaign: “When a candy bar is only a
memory, you’ll still be eating your Milk
Duds”
This campaign was well related to the kids;
The repositioning allowed them to sell
more units than ever in the history of its
sales
Duds
94

The learning from this chapter:
“THE SOLUTION TO A POSITIONING
PROBLEM IS USUALLY FOUND IN THE
PROSPECT’S MIND, NOT IN THE
PRODUCT”
Duds
95

Chapter17
Positioning a Service : Mailgram
96

Positioning a Service
In a service, the dominant element is usually the
words, the verbal element.
Illustration: With a service like Mailgram, the
primary medium was radio, a verbally oriented
vehicle.
97

Positioning a Service
Regardless of how much money is spent,
regardless of how technologically interesting the
service is, you have to relate to what’s already
there.
Rather than the positioning offering short term
benefits, that offering benefits expected to last
over a longer period of time should be preferred.
98

Chapter 18
Positioning a Long Island Bank
99

Positioning Long Island Bank
To successfully position a regional service, the
territory must be known.
Illustration: For a bank like the Long Island Bank,
the territory that really counts is in the mind of the
banking prospect.
“Mapping the prospect’s mind “ is normally done
with a research technique called “semantic
differential”. In this, the prospect is given a set of
attributes and then asked to rank each competitor
on a scale, generally from 1 to 10.
100

Positioning Long Island Bank
To develop a strategy for positioning, those
attributes are selected in which prospects ranked
the service higher. That is, positioning theory
says you must start with what the prospect is
already willing to give you.
The best positioning ideas are so simple that most
people overlook them.
101

Chapter 19
Positioning the Catholic Church
102

Positioning Catholic Church
Even an institution can benefit from good
positioning.
It is important to have a clear presentation of what
the institution is about to position it right.
A positioning exercise is a search for the obvious.
Those are the easiest concepts to communicate
because they make most sense to the recipient of
a message.
103

Positioning Catholic Church
Simplicity is not as attractive as complexity.
Case Study: Not long ago the Catholic Church
struggled with presenting a clear view of what
the church was about and it lead to confusion
among the people. The church had to figure out
their role in the modern world in order to be
trusted again. This role was proven to be the
“teacher of the word.” After this was identified it
had to be implemented and a positioning
strategy was needed to be taken into action. The
plan had to be executed but with much
resistance from the management of the Catholic
Church it never went through.
104

Chapter 20
Positioning Yourself and Your Career
105

20. POSITIONING YOURSELF
DEFINE YOURSELF- Most difficult part of
positioning is selecting that one specific
concept to make an impact in the prospect’s
mind
MAKE MISTAKES- Anything worthwhile
doing is worthwhile doing lousy instead of
waiting for doing it perfectly
MAKE SURE YOUR NAME IS RIGHT-
Common law grants the right to adopt any
name as long as there is no intention to
defraud or be deceptive
106

AVOID THE NO-NAME TRAP- Many fall
victim to initialitus as they see top
management using initials; one can afford
it only if everyone knows him, otherwise,
one needs to burn his name in top
management’s mind; one actually needs a
middle name to differentiate as one can’t
burn in a name that is too common
107

AVOID THE LINE-EXTENSION TRAP- To
have a clear-cut identity in public mind,
even a famous last name should not be
used
FIND A HORSE TO RIDE- One must try
smarter than harder; road to fame and
fortune is rarely found within one’s own-
self; keeping eyes open and finding a
horse to ride is the best option
108

WHICH HORSES TO RIDE?
• Worse is the company with less
than average chances for growth
• If you company is going
nowhere, get yourself a new one;
you ought to do considerably
better than average
• Place your bets on growth
industries and tomorrow-type
products
• Soft services are growing at
faster rates than hard products
YOUR
COMPANY
109

• Work for the smartest, brightest
and the most competent person
• If your boss is going places,
chances are that you are too
YOUR
BOSS
110

• Big career breaks happen due to
business friend
recommendations
• The more business friends you
make outside your organization,
the more likely you are to wind
up in a big, rewarding job
• Keep in touch regularly with all
your business friends
A FRIEND
111

• If you wait until an idea is ready to
be accepted, someone else will pre-
empt it
• You must be willing to expose
yourself to ridicule and controversy
• Go against the tide- Never be afraid
of conflicts
AN
IDEA
112

• Faith in others and their ideasFAITH
• It is possible (but not easy) to
succeed in business / life all by
yourself
• Jockey with the best horse wins the
race- pick yourself a horse to ride
and then ride it for all it’s worth
YOURS
ELF
113

Six Steps To Success
Chapter 21
114

3. WHOM MUST YOU OUTGUN?
a) Try to select a position that no one else has a firm grip on
b) Spend as much thinking about the situation from the point of view of your
competitors as you do thinking about it from your own
c) Don’t get involved in a head-to-head approach against a marketing leader
2. WHAT POSITION DO YOU WANT TO OWN?
a) Figure out the best position to own from a long-term point of view
b) Don’t try to be all things to all people - Narrow the focus of your expertise and be a
specialist
1. WHAT POSITION DO YOU OWN?
a) Positioning is thinking in reverse- ask what position you already own in the minds of
the consumers
b) In determining the state of the prospect’s mind, don’t let corporate egos get in your
way
115

6. DO YOU MATCH YOUR POSITION?
a) Positioning thinking restricts creativity
b) Creativity by itself is worthless. Only when it is subordinated to the positioning
objective can creativity make a contribution
5. CAN YOU STICK IT OUT?
a) To cope with changes, take a long-term view in determining your basic position
b) Positioning is a cumulative concept and takes advantage of advertising’s long-
range nature
c) A company should never weaken its basic positioning by line-extension
4. DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH MONEY?
a) Today noise level is fierce from me-too products and me-too companies
b) It takes money to build a share of minds, establish and hold a position there
c) Reduce geographical scope of your problem (introduce new ideas on a market-by-
market basis, select first location appropriately, roll out to other places after success)
116

THE ROLE OF THE OUTSIDER
117
WHAT THE
OUTSIDER
SUPPLIES?
WHAT THE
OUTSIDER DOES
NOT SUPPLY?
• An ingredient called
ignorance or
objectivity- By not
knowing what goes on
inside a company, the
outsider is better able
to see what is
happening on the
outside i.e. in the mind
of the prospect
• Outside-in thinking
unlike the insiders
• Magic- Some managers
believe role of an
advertising agency is to
wave a magic wand
which causes
prospects to
immediately rush out;
the wand is called
creativity. But today
creativity is dead-
The name of the game
is POSITIONING

Playing The Positioning Game
Chapter 22
118

• A word has no meaning until one
uses it and fills it with meaning
• Discard a leaky word (like
“Volkswagen”- it doesn’t hold the
concept of a medium-sized luxury
car)
• To be successful today at
positioning, one must have a large
degree of mental flexibility. He must
select and use words with as much
disdain for history books as for
dictionary
• Select words which trigger
meaning you want to establish
• Words are empty containers- To
reposition you often have to
change the container
YOU MUST
UNDERSTAND
WORDS
119

• Words trigger meanings buried in minds of people
• Insane people try to make the world of reality fit
what is in their heads; the same people constantly
analyses the world of reality and then changes
what’s inside his head to fit the facts
• Most people are unsane- they make up their minds
and find facts to “verify” the opinion as it is lot
easier to change facts; often they accept word-of-
mouth without bothering about facts at all
• Power of psychologically right name- The mind
makes the world of reality fit the name
• Language is currency of mind- mind thinks with
words and not abstract thoughts; with right choice
of words, you can influence the thinking process
itself
• There are limits- If word is far out of touch with
reality, mind refuses to use the word
YOU
MUST
UNDERST
AND
PEOPLE
120

• The only permanent thing
today is change; but the
more things change, the
more they remain the
same
• Today, a product’s
lifecycle is much shorter
than earlier days
• The landscape is littered
with debris of projects that
companies rushed into in
attempting to keep pace
YOU MUST
BE
CAREFUL
OF CHANGE
121

• Change is a wave on ocean of time- In
short term, the waves cause agitation
and confusion; in long term, the
underlying currents are much more
significant
• Take a long-range point of view to
determine your basic business and
stick with it
• A company must point itself in the
right direction
• You have to be able to see between
what works and what doesn’t
• Learn to separate your efforts from
the general movement of the
economy
• Be wary and patient- But when an
opportunity arises, the company
must move quickly
YOU NEED
VISION
122

• Seize the initiative before
competitor has chance to
get established
• Leader pours in the
marketing money while the
situation is still fluid
• Establishing a leadership
position depends not only
on luck and timing but
also upon a willingness to
pour it on when others
stand back and wait
YOU NEED
COURAGE
123

• You must be brutally frank
and eliminate all ego from
decision-making process
• One of the most critical
aspects of positioning is
being able to evaluate
products objectively and
see how they are viewed
by prospects
• You need someone to
bounce your ideas off-
positioning is a game best
played by two people as it
increases objectivity
YOU NEED
OBJECTIVITY
124

• Only an obvious idea will work
today due to an overwhelming
volume of communication
• Simple concepts expressed in
simple words and used in a
straight-forward way are the
best
• We must be suspicious of
clever/ complicated idea as it
will not work probably due to
lack of simplicity
• An ad should be simple enough
so that it is the strategy
YOU NEED
SIMPLICITY
125

• Difficulty is in finding an open
as well as effective position in
the prospects’ minds
• Find an opening near the centre
of the spectrum- calls for great
restraint and subtlety
• You can have a positioning
success and a sales failure-
“Rolls-Royce thinking”
• Secret to establish a successful
position is to keep two things in
balance- (1) a unique position
with (2) broad appeal
YOU NEED
SUBTLETY
126

• Geographic roll-out emphasizes
on building product in one
market and moving on to
another
• Demographic roll-out
emphasizes on building a
product in a particular segment
based on demographics and
then moving on to other
segments
• Chronologic roll-out builds the
brand among a specific age
group and then rolls it out to
others
• Distribution is another roll-out
technique
YOU NEED
PATIENCE
127

• Don’t overlook the
importance of worldwide
thinking as a company
owning a position in one
country can use that
position to wedge its
way into another
• As companies start to
operate on a worldwide
basis, they often
discover they have a
name problem
YOU NEED
A GLOBAL
OUTLOOK
128

• 2 kinds of marketing people- “We” people
who have trouble understanding the concept
that positioning is done in prospects’ minds,
they believe with innovation, anything is
possible, make dynamic speakers and drove
for self-help seminars; “They” people see
things more clearly, focus attention on
competition as they seek out competitive
weaknesses to exploit and learn to avoid
competitive strengths, rapidly abandon the
idea that superior people are the key to
success
• Levelling factor for human resource between
two companies is the numbers- as a result
not great difference in average personnel
quality is observed between competitors
• Outcome largely depends on which side has
the better generals and, hence, the better
strategy
YOU NEED
TO BE
“THEY”-
ORIENTED
129

• You don’t need a reputation as a marketing
genius- in fact, it could be a fatal flaw; A
product leader often attributes its success to
marketing skill and tries to transfer that skill
to other products, resulting in failure
ultimately
• Rules of positioning hold for all types of
products- Companies going head-on against
established competitors is suicidal; to move
up the ladder one needs to follow the rules of
positioning
• Name of the game is positioning where only
the better players will survive
WHAT YOU
DON’T
NEED
130

REFERENCES
Book Reference:
 Trout , J., & Ries, A. (2013). Positioning: The battle for your mind. McGraw-Hill Education (India) Private
Limited.
Image References:
 Sanidopoulos, J. (2009, Nov 17). Atheist admits human mind cannot be explained by darwinian
mechanisms. Retrieved from http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/11/atheist-admits-human-mind-
cannot-be.html
 Bernbach, B. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.dna.co.vn
 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sodamuseum.com
 (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19710224&id=fPAgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xHMFAAAAIBAJ&p
g=5235,3726985
 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ebay.com
 The "monsanto protection act". (2013, April 5). Retrieved from http://universalcritique.blogspot.in
 (n.d.). Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Personal_computer
131

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