Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (Al Ries)

A book recommended by a recent ACE group speaker on marketing.  It turned out to be something of a marketing classic written a few decades ago but still containing quite a few truths we could apply today.

The biggest insight for me was to think not of how we can change the product but rather change the perception of the product to more effectively market it.  Coupled with the thought that you do this by linking onto what is already in the mind of your potential customer.


Page 1 | Loc. 255-56  Today, communication itself is the problem. We have become the world’s first overcommunicated society. Each year, we send more and receive less.
Page 2 | Loc. 261-63  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.
Page 2 | Loc. 271-73  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.
Page 5 | Loc. 306-7  The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what’s already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist.
Page 6 | Loc. 317-18  In the communication jungle out there, the only hope to score big is to be selective, to concentrate on narrow targets, to practice segmentation. In a word, “positioning.”
Page 8 | Loc. 343-44  In communication, as in architecture, less is more. You have to sharpen your message to cut into the mind. You have to jettison the ambiguities, simplify the message, and then simplify it some more if you want to make a long-lasting impression.
Page 8 | Loc. 354-56  You look for the solution to your problem inside the prospect’s mind. In other words, since so little of your message is going to get through anyway, you ignore the sending side and concentrate on the receiving end. You concentrate on the perceptions of the prospect. Not the reality of the product.
Page 32 | Loc. 660-62  too many companies embark on marketing and advertising programs as if the competitor’s position did not exist. They advertise their products in a vacuum and are disappointed when their messages fail to get through.
Page 41 | Loc. 786-88  In truth, outright failure is often preferable to mediocre success. An also-ran can easily be tempted to think that the answer to the problem is trying harder. A company stuck with a losing position is not going to benefit much from hard work.
Page 51 | Loc. 942  Leaders should constantly use the power of their leadership to keep far ahead of the 
Page 53 | Loc. 950-51  It’s not enough to be better than the competitor. You must introduce your product before someone else has a chance to establish leadership.
Page 55 | Loc. 986-87  Some brands base almost their entire product message on the high-price concept.
Page 63 | Loc. 1103-4  For a repositioning strategy to work, you must say something about your competitor’s product that causes the prospect to change his or her mind, not about your product, but about the competitor’s product.
Page 98 | Loc. 1593-97  When a really new product comes along, it’s almost always a mistake to hang a well-known name on it. The reason is obvious. A well-known name got well known because it stood for something. It occupies a position in the prospect’s mind. A really well-known name sits on the top rung of a sharply defined ladder. The new product, if it’s going to be successful, is going to require a new ladder. New ladder, new name. It’s as simple as that.
Page 100 | Loc. 1627-31  In dealing with media, you must conserve your anonymity until you are ready to spend it. And then when you spend it, spend it big. Always keeping in mind that the objective is not publicity or communication for its own sake, but publicity to achieve a position in the prospect’s mind. An unknown company with an unknown product has much more to gain from publicity than a well-known company with an established product. “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes,” Andy Warhol once predicted. When your 15 minutes arrive, make the most of every second.
Page 124 | Loc. 1980-87  So we offer some rules of the road that will tell you when to use the house name and when not to. 1. Expected volume. Potential winners should not bear the house name. Small-volume products should. 2. Competition. In a vacuum, the brand should not bear the house name. In a crowded field, it should. 3. Advertising support. Big-budget brands should not bear the house name. Small-budget brands should. 4. Significance. Breakthrough products should not bear the house name. Commodity products such as chemicals should. 5. Distribution. Off-the-shelf items should not bear the house name. Items sold by sales reps should.
Page 146 | Loc. 2252-54  Conceptually, this approach says to tourists that the things they travel a great distance to Hawaii for (natural beauty, big green mountains, beautiful beaches, wonderful year-round weather) can be found a lot closer to home, down in the Caribbean.
Page 152 | Loc. 2314-15  The solution to a positioning problem is usually found in the prospect’s mind, not in the product.
Page 158 | Loc. 2391-92  Your problem is not just one of developing a good strategy. Equally important is the courage you will need to keep hammering at the same theme, year after year.
Page 160 | Loc. 2413-16  “Mapping the prospect’s mind” is normally done with a research technique called “semantic differential.” This was the procedure used to develop a positioning program for the Long Island Trust Company. In semantic differential research, the prospect is given a set of attributes and then asked to rank each competitor on a scale, generally from 1 to 10.
Page 170 | Loc. 2518-19  When the bank’s performance matched the promises the advertising was going to make, the advertising started to make the promises.
Page 191 | Loc. 2791-93  So remember, the winningest jockeys are not necessarily the lightest, the smartest, or the strongest. The best jockey doesn’t win the race. The jockey that wins the race is usually the one with the best horse. So pick yourself a horse to ride and then ride it for all it’s 
Page 196 | Loc. 2837-39  Prospects don’t buy, they choose. Among brands of automobiles. Among brands of beer. Among brands of computers. The merit, or lack of merit, of your brand is not nearly as important as your position among the possible choices.
Page 203 | Loc. 2934-35  people make up their minds and then find the facts to “verify” their opinion. Or even more commonly, they accept the opinion of the nearest “expert,” and then they don’t have to bother with the facts at all.
Page 206 | Loc. 2991-93  But the obvious isn’t always so obvious. “Boss” Kettering had a sign which he placed on the wall of the General Motors Research Building in Dayton: “This problem when solved will be simple.”
Page 208 | Loc. 3022-25  In positioning, smaller may be better. It is usually better to look for smaller targets that you can own exclusively rather than a bigger market you have to share with three or four other brands. You can’t be all things to all people and still have a powerful position.
Page 210 | Loc. 3050-52  The suicidal bent of companies that go head-on against established competition is hard to understand. Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Nine times out of ten, the also-ran that sets out to attack the leader head-on is headed for disaster.