Subscribe in a readerSnatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Buzz Baker | Positioning | June 26th, 2008When we last visited the Prussian military strategist, General Carl von Clausewitz, we noted that his tactical direction for armies attempting to cross wide rivers was not always appropriate for marketers attempting to aggressively reposition themselves.
But the good general also has other advice for aggressive marketers that may well be worth heeding. And while his language is not the language of today’s military or marketer, the message is clear:
“In general it is more advantageous to continue our blows in one and the same direction, because there is loss of time in striking in different directions; and at a point where the moral power is already shaken by considerable losses there is more reason to expect fresh successes, therefore in that way no part of the preponderance already gained is left idle.”
When Repositioning Your Brand, You May Want to Disregard Von Clausewitz
Buzz Baker | Positioning | June 23rd, 2008
The Prussian military strategist, General Carl Von Clausewitz, once said: “No army wanting to cross a wide river would cross only half of it first.”
His point was simple. Once the decision was made to cross the river, the objective was to get to the other side. No ifs, ands or buts…and certainly no dawdling or halting along the way. Stragglers to be shot. Perhaps on most occasions that would be the viable military strategy, but when it comes to repositioning a brand, it could just as likely be a formula for failure. The key determinant in that formula resides in the word “wide”. Here’s why: (more…)
Don’t Let your Business Get Caught in the Middle
Mike Marn | Positioning | May 28th, 2008A recent post by my colleague, Dick Hatch (about the slogan “Our people make the difference“) got me thinking. There are a number of common ad themes whose trite familiarity makes them invisible at best, laughable at worst. I’d like to nominate another candidate.
I’ve seen dozens, maybe hundreds, of banks, CPAs, furniture stores, builders, car dealers, and many other businesses claim in one way or another that they are:
“Big enough to serve you, small enough to care.” (more…)
Steer Clear of Price-Only Positioning
Richard Hatch | Positioning | April 17th, 2008
In another life, I worked in automotive marketing. A domestic brand. Every time the market tanked, the client, along with their domestic rivals, would predictably do the inevitable. Slap on rebates, trump one another’s incentives, slash prices, sweeten the deal, give away the store, compromise the brand and train customers already accustomed to never paying the asking price to never pay anything close-ever again. (I know. There’s a history of other complex dynamics at work here as well.) Nevertheless, any bump in the road and they squandered what brand integrity they had left to chase market share at almost any cost-and we all know what the painful outcome has been.
But you’d never do that, right? Let’s get real. (more…)
Our People Make the Difference (Yea, Right) and Other “Unbelievable” Claims
Richard Hatch | Positioning | April 7th, 2008For kicks, I tried Googling this tagline. On this particular day, the results produced several construction companies, a few carpet cleaners, realtors and brokers, hospitals, therapeutic clinics, a TV station, a web page from Deloitte Touche, a security firm, machine and metal fabricators, a change management consultant, staffing firms, a used car dealer, various banks, a plastic mold die maker, a dentist, an old WalMart uniform patch (with the slogan) for sale on e-Bay, a chemical company, a full-service boatyard, and a boatload of other indistinguishable, undifferentiated manufacturers, services, and firms in untold other industries. Unbelievable! (Granted, not in all cases were they necessarily using the line as a corporate positioning or tagline per say, although more did than not.) Doesn’t matter. They were using it as a point of differentiation in some form, and differentiating it is not. (more…)
Positioning inside the company
Galen De Young | Positioning | April 3rd, 2008
Positioning starts at home. If you can’t get positioning right inside the organization, there’s little chance it will be successful in the marketplace.
Typically, B2C marketing and sales have little personal interaction. If the purchase is fairly substantial, e.g., say for a $500 piece of consumer electronics, we may do some purchase research and talk to friends. However, the only personal interaction with the selling party during the buying cycle may well be the cashier.
That’s not the way it is in B2B marketing and sales. (more…)
The Importance of Positioning Strategy
Galen De Young | Positioning | March 27th, 2008Today I ran across a great blog posting at Brandeo regarding positioning strategy. I couldn’t agree more with the sentiments expressed in it. While the blog post mentions two consumer-marketing examples, the issues are equally relevant and critical to B2B marketing.
Concurring with the author, I believe that there is often too little time paid to developing the proper positioning, and that too often positioning strategy is confused by ambiguous talk about the amorphous “brand.” Discussions about the brand usually get people thinking about things they can see, like visual identities and taglines. While brand strategy should be nearly synonymous with positioning strategy, in today’s world it generally isn’t. (more…)
The Wisdom of Crowds?
Galen De Young | Positioning | March 10th, 2008
Look all too familiar to you?
Getting input from advisors is important. And necessary. But chiseling and rounding your positioning until it pleases everyone inside the company ensures it won’t mean much to anyone outside the company.
Your goal in positioning should be to make it easier for customers and prospects to understand exactly why your company should be one of their top choices, why there are few credible substitutes for your company in the market. Usually, that means narrowing your focus. And that’s likely to scare you. If it doesn’t scare you…if it doesn’t initially make you feel pretty uncomfortable…it probably won’t create meaningful change in your organization or in the marketplace.
The question is whether you want to be safe or successful.