Zhiqi recommended reading: "Positioning".
Written by Al Reese and Jack Trout, this book proposes what is known as "the concept that has had the greatest impact on American marketing in history", changes the old marketing understanding of human beings to "meet needs", and creates a marketing method of "winning the competition".
This article is a 4-article of "Positioning" prepared by the Zhiqi team for you to read. With this statement, the following views are only from the individual who wrote Zhiqi's "Positioning" after reading, and do not represent Zhiqi's views with full authority! If there are any deficiencies, welcome to leave a message, correct the error, let us work together to locate the way, thank you!
#
"Positioning": the battle for the "mind".
Positioning is a co-authored book by Al Rees and Jack Trout, the essence of the book: understand the essence of positioning, and seize the customer's mind through positioning to become a category representative.
The core concept of the book, "mind", tells us that in a huge market, people's minds are limited, and if brands want to compete for and occupy this space, they must find a special place in the minds of consumers, so as to cleverly avoid direct competition with competitors and gradually form their own brand position. A typical example is the competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, although their products are similar, but through their unique advertising, brand image and market positioning, they are presented in the minds of consumers but are very different, one is red and one is blue, one is biased towards "happy" and the other is biased towards "freedom".
One of the most important aspects of positioning is the name. The book argues that "the mind works by the ear, not by the eye." ”There is an idiom that has the same effect as this sentence, that is, "familiar", only when the ear often hears it and goes straight to the heart, can it take root, become a mind, and form a word-of-mouth, so it is very important to give a name that can allow users to quickly remember and make associations. The name should not be too awkward, let alone have rare words, and of course it should not be ambiguous. For example: Huawei, Gree, Eleme, etc. are all very catchy.
In addition, the book "Positioning" teaches us to have long-term strategic thinking, and companies that focus too much on short-term sales goals may quickly emerge in the market, but in the long run, if they lack unique positioning, it is easy to be drowned in the highly competitive market wave. Just like Nokia, the former "overlord of the mobile phone industry", lost its position in the hearts of consumers because it failed to adjust its market positioning in time when smartphones were emerging. In stark contrast to Apple, they have managed to stay ahead of the market through a series of innovations and unique designs. Of course, positioning is not only for brands, enterprises, but also for countries, organizations, and even individuals, when you can let others think of you, the first time to understand who you are, what to do, and what you can get by cooperating with you, so that positioning is successful.
All in all, after reading "Positioning", I deeply feel that marketing is not just a simple combination of advertising and sales, but also a battle for the mind, unique and clear positioning, strategic thinking, and keen insight into the market.
#
Positioning is to occupy the minds of consumers
Positioning: The book provides many insights into brand positioning and marketing strategy, and has become a guide for many practitioners. In the process of reading, I deeply realized that the goal pursued by brand positioning is to find and stabilize one's position in the mental map of consumers through a series of strategies and communication means. This location is not only about the attributes of the product or service, but also about the emotional value that the brand conveys, the cultural atmosphere, and the emotional bond that it has established with the target consumer.
Create a clear impression in the minds of consumers that makes your product or brand unique in their minds and makes a clear difference from your competitors. Rees and Trout believe that the competition in the market has become so fierce that it is no longer enough to simply pursue the quality and functionality of the product, but must occupy a unique position in the minds of consumers through effective positioning.
The importance of strategic positioning, unlike some traditional marketing views, advocates focusing on a certain market segment and becoming a leader in that market. Through strategic positioning, companies can build a unique perception of their brand in the minds of consumers, thereby building brand loyalty and a sustainable competitive advantage.
To stand out in the market, businesses must find a clear differentiation from their competitors and make it stand out. Whether it's through product features, brand image, or market positioning, uniqueness needs to be built into the minds of consumers, making it easier to remember and understand when choosing.
The "positioning trilogy" is to select the target market, choose the advantages of differentiation, and choose the right way of communication. This concept is instructive for developing a sound marketing strategy. When choosing a target market, it is necessary to make a wise choice according to the actual situation and resource situation of the enterprise; When choosing a point of differentiation, it is necessary to find the point that can truly resonate with the target consumer through deep market insight; Finally, the communication method should ensure that it is in line with the characteristics of the target market to effectively convey the brand message. At the same time, positioning takes time to take root in the minds of consumers. Ongoing marketing activities and communications are key to maintaining the effectiveness of positioning, and companies need to constantly emphasize and consolidate their unique position in the market to avoid being imitated or replaced by competitors.
Therefore, with strong brand positioning, brands can leave a deep imprint on consumers' minds and become their first choice for shopping decisions. This also underscores the importance of brand positioning as a key strategy, which needs to take into account multiple factors such as the market environment, target audience, and differentiation advantages to ensure that the brand finds a unique and powerful place in the minds of consumers.
#
"Positioning": strategic positioning and brand excellence
In this era of fierce marketing competition, how to stand out in the market and become the first choice in the minds of consumers has become an indispensable topic for brand marketers. With its insights and practical experience, this book reveals how strategic positioning can be used to achieve brand excellence and market leadership on the business battlefield, opening the door to successful brands.
What is targeting? Positioning theory advocates that companies should establish a unique position in the minds of consumers to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This is not only a product feature, but also a psychological cognition, that is, the unique impression of consumers on a certain brand. The impression needs to be vivid enough to leave a deep imprint in the minds of consumers. Positioning theory provides a strategic approach for businesses to gain a competitive advantage in the market competition. The traditional product orientation may allow the company to chase the market, while the positioning theory is to let the market chase the company. Through in-depth insight into the target market, understanding consumer needs, and analyzing competitors, enterprises can meet consumer needs in a more targeted manner and achieve market occupation.
How to position it? The first core idea mentioned in the book is to establish a leadership position. Typical cases such as Apple, Coca-Cola, etc. In a highly competitive market, companies must strive to be industry leaders and become synonymous with consumers. This strategy is based on the herd mentality of consumers, who prefer to choose brands that are leading in a certain field. For marketing professionals, this is a strategic direction that cannot be ignored. Think about it, when you think of search engines, what's the first thing that pops up? Google, right? This is the magic of leadership, to be irreplaceable in a certain field. In brand planning, some words such as "first" and "leader" are often used to package enterprises, so that they occupy a unique position in the hearts of consumers.
Secondly, the use of authority and celebrity effect is another key point mentioned in the book. Consumers are often more willing to trust the opinions of experts or the endorsements of celebrities, which provides an effective way for businesses to gain trust and recognition. This dovetails with the principle of authority in psychology, which states that people are more likely to trust those voices that are perceived to be authoritative. In this era of social **, the power of the celebrity effect cannot be underestimated. KOC KOLs, which are commonly used in communication now, are to drive the sales of products through their own influence, and you can feel the magic of the celebrity effect. When consumers see their favorite celebrities using a certain brand, they will unconsciously have a good impression of the brand, which is an ingenious strategy of brand marketing, which can enhance the influence of the product or brand to a certain extent and win the trust of more consumers.
The third core idea is simple repetition. Once a company has identified the positioning of its products, it needs to communicate the brand's core philosophy in a simple, direct, and consistent way. This is especially critical in brand building and marketing communications. Consumers often need time to accept and remember the positioning of a brand, so through continuous repetition of publicity, the impression of the brand in the minds of consumers can be deepened, and the stickiness of brand recognition can be formed. Many successful advertisements, such as BOSS Zhipin's "Talk to the boss directly", Brain Platinum's "No gifts for the holidays this year, only Brain Platinum will be accepted for gifts", etc., are to simplify and emphasize the core message, and through constant repetition to deeply root in the minds of consumers, which is a quite practical strategy to make the brand message easier to accept and remember. In general, successful brands are not only about satisfying consumer needs, but also about seizing the minds of users and becoming the representative of a certain category, only in this way can they be invincible in the highly competitive market.
#
If you believe in "Positioning", it is better to have no positioning!
If you only read a marketing book, "Positioning" is the first choice;
The concept that has had the greatest impact on U.S. marketing in all time – positioning;
No. 1 in the 100 best business classics in history;
More and more enterprises and individuals use "positioning" to guide their business practices, and many consulting companies with "positioning" as the theory leading have also been born, which are regarded as the "marketing bible" by more and more people.
It seems that if you don't understand positioning, you can't get a foothold in modern business, and if you don't talk about positioning, you will be considered to be a dwarf who doesn't understand business common sense. Market positioning, consumer positioning, brand positioning, product positioning, and even more so, the suffix of positioning can become a kind of political correctness. In fact, the vast majority of enterprises and even positioning consulting companies may have certain misunderstandings, which are mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
OneSingle-reading positioning is useless, and 23 books are required to be systematically read
The marketing of an enterprise is a systematic project. If entrepreneurs learn positioning, it would be whimsical to expect a book to understand all the mysteries of business. On the basis of familiarizing yourself with positioning, you may also have to study a series of systematic knowledge such as strategy, brand, category, business war, etc., and most entrepreneurs in China are forced to operate under pressure and pursue efficiency first, and they simply have no patience to read all 23 books in the positioning series, let alone digest and absorb them for actual combat. As a theory that has been applied by the market for decades and has given birth to countless classic marketing cases, the deep-seated reason behind it is by no means "let your brand occupy the minds and cognition of consumers and become a representative brand in a certain field." Rather, after the positioning theory was proposed, with the continuous business practice, the subsequent published books gradually enriched and improved the positioning theory supplemented. The positioning is not a book, it is a series of 23 books. To learn positioning, in addition to "Positioning", you also need to read 22 other series of books and corroborate each other.
Second, there are boundaries in positioning, which cannot explain all phenomena
People who believe in positioning, often hanging on the side of the mouth of the case is the classic battle between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, there are also Mengniu and Yili in love and killing each other for more than 20 years, people who do not believe in positioning also have Alipay, Xiaomi and car buckets use positioning but fail to refute that positioning is dead. The controversy over positioning has never been broken, and the pros and cons are clearly distinguished. Just as Newtonian mechanics does not apply to the microscopic world, the theory of localization has its own boundaries. Similarly, in addition to positioning, there are many tools, strategies, and analytical methods that can help companies win the competition.
IIPositioning is a reliable and easy-to-use analytical tool, but it needs to go further
Positioning is not mysterious, nor is it metaphysical. It's just that the positioning theory has experienced the first ten years of traditional TV in China, and has been hyped by a large number of theoretical followers, giving birth to many well-known brands and brand slogans. In this way, no one refutes and questions it, and the positioning is covered with a veil of mystery. Aside from the huge amount of media investment affecting cognition, positioning theory still plays an important role in sorting out brands and products. However, just as positioning cannot explain all business phenomena, there is a certain gap between it and the 4P theory, which exhausts the phenomena in related fields, and the five forces analysis model in competitive strategy. Especially in the face of today's consumers, they care more about the experience, the culture and personality behind the brand, and in the face of the decentralized and authoritative Internet**, they will not favor you just because you are a leader, an expert, and the number one salesperson.
There is no right or wrong approach, only good or bad. We need to choose the right method to help enterprises win market competition at different stages of development, according to their endowments and resources. Positioning, on the other hand, may be the least feasible way to win the competition.