Full-Stack Marketing Series #1: Positioning

By
MarieYveline

Vector Marketing. Broken textYesterday, I spoke with the CEO of an awesome startup whose team I’d love to join one day. During our chat, she shared her concerns on the legitimacy of making a first marketing hire before the product had found its position. Which makes it extremely ironic that I’d set out to write this post about the first full-stack marketing skill on my list today: positioning.

I like to start with a definition (or three).

According to Al Ries and Jack Trout, who co-wrote the reference work on the subject Positioning: The Battle for your Mind, “Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect. […] Positioning is also the first body of thought that comes to grips with the problems of getting heard in our over communicated society.”

More recently, Louis E. Boone and David L. Kurtz, in their book Contemporary Marketing, added: “Product positioning refers to consumers’ perceptions of a product’s attributes, uses, quality, and advantages and disadvantages relative to competing brands.”

The Business Dictionary brings it all together in simple terms: “A marketing strategy that aims to make a brand occupy a distinct position, relative to competing brands, in the mind of the customer.” A MARKETING strategy (just sayin’).

To occupy a position in the mind of the consumer. It’s not about getting TO the consumer. It’s about getting INTO his head and sticking there one you’ve got to him. It’s the difference between advertising dollars that yield returns… or go to waste.

If you break it down, positioning comes down to answering these three questions about a product or service and making the answers make sense with one other.

– Who is the target customer?

– What does the product or service do?

– How is the product or service unique and different from competitors’?

Academics (and also dummies) like to tie it all together with a positioning statement, which is really just your three answers lined up: Positioning statement = business or product name + what makes the business unique & different + the target market description.

Let’s try mine: O! Malou is a blog that covers marketing, nutrition, traveling and sometimes random questions in a down-to earth kinda way for tech-savvy bon-vivants (and my mom).

1 – Who is the target customer?

The first step in building a product is to define who, if anybody, would likely purchase it. A brilliant product with no target is as good as a crappy product with one, like combs for the bald and skateboards for grannies, or something. Ahh, I wish it was always that obvious.

In reality, bigger companies might order extensive segmentation studies while a startup founder will most likely pick the brains of friends and relatives. Either way, the point is to intelligently define this target group (“single mothers”, “pre-teen boys from affluent neighborhoods”, “retired couples” and so on) and stick to it. Only then may a targeted positioning message, one likely to resonate with the group, be elaborated.

2 – What does the product or service do, exactly?

Arguably a products, by its nature, can have built-in elements of positioning. It would have been pretty hard to position a Smart car as a lean-mean driving machine, for instance. Objectively and clearly defining the product or service and what it does is the starting point to establishing its position in the minds of its target market.

3 – How is the product or service unique and different from competitors’?

Adding positioning elements above and beyond those that are intrinsic to the product or service is what makes a brand by distinguishing it from competing offers, even offers that essentially provide the same exact benefits. These positioning elements are what makes the difference between a Coke and a Pepsi, a BMW and a Mercedes or a Nike and an Adidas. And they must be engraved in consumer perception fast, before another brand gets the chance to fill that position.

Al Ries and Jack Trout argue that once a brand has “won” a position or category in the consumers’ mind, there is no replacing it. This does not mean going to market first, but being the first to take the position in consumers collective mind. So really, there can not be more than one, maybe two competitors in the same position.

Your best bet if another brand beat you to it? Go play in another field; make up a category that noone else has won yet. Once again, this does not mean changing the product – it can be exactly the same as the other guy’s, just its perception in the mind of consumers. So how do you differentiate the exact same product in the mind of consumers? EMOTIONS. Emotional benefits.

Let’s take a healthy food delivery service for example. Different positioning choices could suggest different emotional benefits.

-We bring diet meals to your door so you can lose weight, look better and finally land hot dates: feel beautiful & desirable
-We deliver meals containing only 100% good ingredients, so you’re always full of energy, rosy cheeks and all: feel healthy & happy
-We give you the practicality of takeout without the negative health impacts: feel productive & successful
We know that emotional benefit #1 already has its winners, Jenny Craig and the likes. We probably wouldn’t stand a chance in that space. What about number #2? There must be a few guys on the market, but from top-of-mind recollection no one big enough to have claimed the big win, so there might be something to work with. But that’s probably niche, you know, for those organic and paleo snobs *just making an example guys, I don’t care to insult anyone*.
And #3? Hm, people can eat healthy without wasting a minute on food prep or nerdy packed lunches? Work overtime and look good too? Gulp down a quick lunch then nail an important presentation without suffering from junk-food sweats? Why, people who use this service may just be the coolest, best looking, most successful people on the planet. I want to be like them, let  me have some! Same. Exact. Product. Different positioning.
Once position is pinned down there are just a couple things to left to do: give that brand a name and communicate synthetically & at the right time.
Brand name
Ries and Trout emphasize the importance of a brand’s name in consumers’ perception of it. They recommend making the name highly memorable so that it is retained amidst the flow of constant information that each individual receives daily. As such, they favor descriptive names over coined ones, names that aren’t too generic or precice and that tell the major product benefit.
Message simplicity
In our highly over-communicated society, it’s lucky to get people to remember one message. Even luckier if they can remember it AND associate it back to a product. In this aim, less is more. Sticking to a single message and linking it to one product is the best bet.
Timing
It is crucial in two ways. The first: you can’t communicate too early (before position is defined). Why? First impressions stick, so communicating before postitioning is established is a waste. Your core market is the group of customers for whom that first impression was just right – you WILL NOT get to them before you’ve got it down to a T, so whoever you get to, you’ll eventually lose once you get to your position.
But that’s not all. Also, you can not communicate at the wrong time. Because -I’ll say it one last time- positioning is all about the consumer’s mind, you have to communicate at a moment where it is open to receiving the brand message. If you’re selling Caribbean vacation packages, aim for lunchtime on a rainy winter day, right?
I’ll leave you with a past experience of mine, a pretty vivid illustration of the harm that bad positioning can cause on a project.
One of my most recent roles was to manage customer acquisition for a poorly branded website whose founders had never really questioned positioning, despite the busy competitive landscape. The concept was roughly copied from overseas (if it worked there, why shouldn’t it over here?) Bad mistake. Our advertising dollars got us to the customer, but our message didn’t stick in his/her mind. This is a typical outcome of poor positioning. Trust me, it’s not a cheap one.
And because first impressions last, repositioning is uncertain. You can rebrand, which is what we did, but can you make that prospect conception change? Not so sure. The project was interrupted shortly after the rebranding, so we won’t know. But even though, I don’t believe we would have ever made up for lost time, money and energy.

Share small business news, blogs and social media tips with Project Eve’s community of small business owners and entrepreneurs today. Our contributors come from a wide range of backgrounds; so whether you are a small business owner, social media strategist, financial adviser, serial entrepreneur, or write an amateur blog we urge you to contribute a blog to our 500,000+ community today. For more information, please refer to our Content Submissions Guidelines.

Add a Blog

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

34 COMMENTS

  1. 15724 295110I was reading some of your content on this web site and I believe this internet site is truly informative! Keep putting up. 591522

  4. 350987 884277Very good day. Very cool weblog!! Man .. Exceptional .. Amazing .. Ill bookmark your internet site and take the feeds additionallyI am glad to locate numerous helpful information appropriate here within the post. Thank you for sharing.. 733029

  8. Fantastic website you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any message boards that cover the same topics discussed in this article? I’d really love to be a part of group where I can get feed-back from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Cheers!

  10. 313865 243018Greetings! This is my very first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and let you know I genuinely enjoy reading via your blog posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics? Thank you so considerably! 704733

  11. 465631 912748Hello! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a wonderful job! 565045

  12. 212809 804836In case you tow a definite caravan nor van movie trailer your entire family pretty soon get exposed to the down sides towards preventing finest securely region. awnings 691671

  13. 49944 451562Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or something, website theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Excellent task.. 568783

  14. Hi! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone 4! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts! Carry on the outstanding work!

  15. I will right away grab your rss feed as I can’t find your email subscription link or newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please let me know in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.

  16. My husband and i ended up being so ecstatic that Albert managed to carry out his survey using the ideas he came across using your site. It is now and again perplexing to simply be giving away thoughts which usually other people may have been selling. And now we already know we need you to be grateful to for that. The entire illustrations you have made, the straightforward site navigation, the relationships you can assist to instill – it’s got mostly remarkable, and it is assisting our son and our family feel that this subject is fun, and that’s unbelievably essential. Thanks for the whole lot!

  17. Throughout the awesome scheme of things you actually receive a B+ for effort and hard work. Exactly where you actually confused me personally was first on the facts. You know, they say, the devil is in the details… And it couldn’t be more correct in this article. Having said that, let me tell you precisely what did work. Your writing is certainly very convincing which is most likely the reason why I am taking an effort to opine. I do not really make it a regular habit of doing that. 2nd, while I can certainly see the jumps in logic you make, I am not convinced of exactly how you appear to unite the details which make the final result. For the moment I will, no doubt subscribe to your issue however trust in the future you link your facts better.

  18. 152232 616448Hi. Cool post. Theres an issue with your site in chrome, and you could want to test this The browser is the marketplace chief and a great element of folks will omit your exceptional writing because of this problem. 102132

  19. 569568 39794Hi there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and located that its truly informative. Im gonna watch out for brussels. I will appreciate should you continue this in future. Lots of folks is going to be benefited from your writing. Cheers! 501826

  22. 371034 49062yourselfm as burning with excitement along accumulative concentrating. alter ego was rather apocalyptic by the mated ethical self went up to. Its punk up to closed ego dispirited. All respecting those topics are movables her should discover no finish touching unpronounced. Thanks so much! 97265

  28. 743639 703906Spot on with this write-up, I must say i believe this superb web site needs significantly much more consideration. Ill probably be once once more to learn a terrific deal much more, many thanks that data. 396104

  32. 490393 753995An fascinating discussion is worth comment. I do feel that you really should write read a lot more about this subject, it will not be considered a taboo subject but generally every person is too few to communicate in on such topics. To one more. Cheers 23103

  33. 122761 790206You produced some decent points there. I looked on-line for any difficulty and discovered most individuals will go in conjunction with together with your internet site. 64717

  34. 358306 259972Wow, incredible blog structure! How lengthy have you ever been blogging for? you created running a weblog appear easy. The full appear of your web site is fantastic, effectively the content material! 846838

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.