POSITIONING IS a vital part of the marketing mix and of marketing strategy. A focus on positioning strategy means structuring your business in the marketplace so that you are perceived to be different and better than your competitors.
How do you want your product, service, and company to be viewed by your customers? What would you like them to say about you and your offerings? How would you like them to describe you to other people? If someone were to call one of your customers to ask for a referral or recommendation, how would you like to be talked about by your customer? And most important of all, how can you achieve this ideal perception in the hearts and minds of your customers?
Your positioning is contained in the words that customers use to describe you, and to describe your product and service to others. These are the words that are triggered when your company name, product, or service is mentioned or when the customer thinks of them during the course of a day.
What words do you own in your customers’ minds? What words would it be helpful for you to own in your customers’ minds? What words would cause your customers to buy from you more readily and to tell their friends to buy from you as well? Your answers to these questions cannot be left to chance. They are the critical determinant of your success or failure in business.
Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote a book many years ago entitled Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. It is now a classic of marketing literature that every person in business should read—even if it causes them to cringe a little as they go through it. What Ries and Trout identified was what is considered by most people to be the heartbeat of success in modern marketing.
Sit down with your key people and ask the question, “What words would we like people to use when they refer to us?” Then ask, “What would we have to do, starting today, to trigger those words in our customers’ minds as the result of the impression they get when they do business with us?”
In his time, Sam Walton was the richest man in the world, worth more than $100 billion. He started off as a young man with a discount clothing store in Bentonville, Arkansas. He had one simple concept: He wanted his store to be perceived as one that cared about its customers and supplied good quality merchandise at fair prices. Not the lowest prices, but good quality at fair prices. He managed to achieve that perception to the point where he went on to make Walmart the most successful retailing operation in history.
What perception do you want to create? How would it be useful for you to be viewed by your customer? Would you like to be described as the quality leader? Service leader? Low price leader? Think in terms of how you want people to think and feel about you and your business. What could you do starting today to begin creating that perception?
IBM created the perception that it gave the finest customer service of any company in the world. That perception became so prevalent that people who didn’t even know much about IBM would tell you that the company gave excellent customer service.
The perception that you generate on the outside can only be accomplished if you make fundamental critical changes on the inside of your business. In other words, you cannot create a false perception that will last for any period of time. A customer perception that endures must be a real reflection of the internal structure and values of your organization. It can only be based on the way that you treat your customers, every single time.
So once again, how can you position your product or service so that it stands out from your competitors? How can you get people to feel that your product or service is different, better, and worth paying for in competition with others?