book.chapter Understanding positioning

Positioning is essentially the art of providing people with a context regarding your product and elucidating how it can be beneficial for them. This context is crucial as it enables individuals to discern what is significant, akin to the introductory scenes in a movie. The vast majority of products available in the market today are only deemed exceptional when they are viewed and understood within the correct frame of reference. Positioning furnishes precisely that context. The concept of positioning first gained prominence in the year 1981 when Al Ries and Jack Trout published their seminal book titled "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind." In their work, Ries and Trout posited that positioning was indispensable for distinguishing oneself from the competition during the 1980s. This notion holds even greater importance in the contemporary marketplace, where, as of 2019, Apple's AppStore boasts over 2 million apps vying for your attention, and Amazon's marketplace offers more than 580 million products for selection. So, what does positioning entail in the tangible world? In its simplest form, positioning involves attempting to provide customers with contextual clues which will assist them in understanding who your product is intended for, the benefits they will derive from it, and the reasons why they should be interested. Positioning establishes the appropriate context for your product to be perceived accurately. Context invariably matters. A notable experiment conducted by The Washington Post involved Joshua Bell, an internationally acclaimed violinist, performing outside a bustling subway station in Washington D.C. During his forty-five-minute performance, 1,070 people passed by, with 27 offering him money and only 7 pausing to listen, resulting in Bell collecting a total of $32.17. Conversely, later that same day, Bell performed the same pieces at a concert hall, accompanied by an orchestra, to a sold-out audience who paid $300 or more per ticket. This stark contrast underscores the significance of context in the perception of value and quality. Marina Abramovic, the renowned performance artist, once remarked, “If you’re a baker, making bread, you’re a baker. If you make the best bread in the world, you’re not an artist, but if you bake the bread in the gallery, you’re an artist. So the context makes the difference.” This statement aptly illustrates that most products are identical in essence. They are only perceived as exceptional when viewed in their most favorable frame of reference. However, marketers and those who manufacture and sell these products might erroneously assume that the context is evident to the consumer, which is often not the case. Moreover, the context is more variable than one might anticipate. Instead of being confined to a single "default" context, you have the liberty to select a context that will cast your product in a favorable light. Dolly Parton once advised, "Find out who you are and do it on purpose." This wisdom is particularly pertinent to the traditional approach to positioning, which typically involves crafting a positioning statement. However, the conventional method of preparing such a statement is fraught with assumptions about knowing the answers in advance without engaging with customers, presuming the best way to fill in the blanks, and ultimately, maintaining the status quo without providing any direction for future actions. This type of positioning statement is challenging to remember because it documents your current thinking but not in a memorable or impactful way, resulting in a bland outcome. A far superior approach is to deconstruct your positioning into six components that collectively define what you do, why you're special, which customers you can best serve, and the market you aspire to dominate. An effective positioning statement that addresses these questions is actionable. Notably, in this kind of positioning statement, each component is interrelated with the others, and the sequence in which the components are defined is crucial. There is no point in devising the latter components until the earlier ones have been established. "Attributes of your product are only 'unique' when compared with competitive alternatives. Those attributes drive the value, which determines who the best target customers are, which in turn highlights which market frame of reference is the best one to underscore your value. Trends must be relevant to your target customers and can be utilized in conjunction with your market category to make your product more relevant to your buyers right now," as April Dunford elucidates. To exemplify how this operates, consider the case of Sampler, founded by Marie Chevrier Schwartz. Marie, while working at a marketing agency, recognized that consumer companies were expending nearly $10 billion annually on distributing product samples in pharmacies, grocery stores, and retail stores without an effective means to track the outcomes. To address this perceived need, she initiated Sampler to enable brands to select target customers, deliver samples, and monitor redemption rates and other metrics. Initially, Schwartz struggled to position Sampler effectively. It was evident that Sampler was a "product sampler provider," yet this failed to distinguish it from what other companies were already offering. Consequently, Marie Schwartz repositioned Sampler as a "direct-to-consumer sampling company" that constructs a targeted buyer list, dispatches samples, and then garners deep insights about consumer behavior and preferences. This repositioning allowed Sampler to communicate more clearly how sampling could be strategically utilized to build brands. As a result, Sampler's new positioning proved to be significantly more powerful, and the company now collaborates with major brands such as L'Oreal, Kimberley-Clark, and Unilever. Jeroen De Flander aptly stated, “You cannot be everything to everyone. If you decide to go north, you cannot go south at the same time.” This principle is crucial in understanding that when customers encounter a product they have never seen before, they seek contextual clues to ascertain what it is, who it’s intended for, and why they should be interested. The collective messaging, pricing, features, branding, partners, and customers create context and set the scene for the product. Context enables individuals to discern what’s important. Positioning products is akin to setting the context in the opening of a movie, as April Dunford highlights, “We have the power to imagine better,” echoing the words of J.K. Rowling.