“What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
How often have you heard that bromide? “Failure to communicate” is the single, most common, most universal reason people give for their problems.
Business problems, government problems, labor problems, marriage problems.
If only people took the time to communicate their feelings, to explain their reasons, the assumption is that many of the problems of the world would somehow disappear. People seem to believe any problem can be solved if only the parties sit down and talk.
Unlikely.
Today, communication itself is the problem. We have become the world’s first overcommunicated society. Each year, we send more and receive less.
This book has been written about a new approach to communication called positioning. And most of the examples are from the most difficult of all forms of communication—advertising. A form of communication that, from the point of view of the recipient, is held in low esteem. Advertising is, for the most part, unwanted and unliked. In some cases, advertising is thoroughly detested.
To many intellectuals, advertising is selling your soul to corporate America—a subject not worthy of serious study.
In spite of its reputation, or perhaps because of it, the field of advertising is a superb testing ground for theories of communication. If it works in advertising, most likely it will work in politics, religion, or any other activity that requires mass communication.
So the examples in this book could just as well have been taken from the field of politics, war, business, or even the science of chasing the opposite sex. Or any form of human activity which involves influencing the minds of other people. Whether you want to promote a car, a cola, a computer, a candidate, or your own career.
Positioning is a concept that has changed the nature of advertising, a concept so simple, people have difficulty understanding how powerful it is.
Every successful politician practices positioning. So do Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.
Positioning starts with a product. A piece of merchandise, a service, a company, an institution, or even a person. Perhaps yourself.
But 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.
So it’s incorrect to call the concept “product positioning.” You’re not really doing something to the product itself.
Not that positioning doesn’t involve change. It often does. But changes made in the name, the price, and the package are really not changes in the product at all. They’re basically cosmetic changes done for the purpose of securing a worthwhile position in the prospect’s mind.
Positioning is the first body of thought that comes to grips with the difficult problem of getting heard in our overcommunicated society.
If one word can be said to have marked the course of advertising in the past decade, the word is “positioning.”
Positioning has become a buzzword among advertising, sales, and marketing people. Not only in America, but around the world. Teachers, politicians, and editorial writers are using the word.
Most people think positioning got started in 1972 when we wrote a series of articles entitled “The Positioning Era” for the trade paper Advertising Age.
Since then, we have given more than 1000 speeches on positioning to advertising groups in 21 different countries around the world. And we have given away more than 150,000 copies of our “little orange booklet” which reprints the Advertising Age articles.
Positioning has changed the way the advertising game is being played today.
“We’re the third largest-selling coffee in America,” say the Sanka radio commercials.
The third largest? Whatever happened to those good old advertising words like “first” and “best” and “finest”?
Well, the good old advertising days are gone forever and so are the words. Today you find comparatives, not superlatives.
“Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder.”
“Seven-Up: the uncola.”
Along Madison Avenue, these are called positioning slogans. And the advertising people who write them spend their time and research money looking for positions, or holes, in the marketplace.
But positioning has stirred up interest well beyond Madison Avenue. With good reason.
Anyone can use positioning strategy to get ahead in the game of life. And look at it this way: If you don’t understand and use the principles, your competitors undoubtedly will.