An Ode to Positioning by Ries and Trout

Positioning by Ries and Trout Was, And Still Is, a Must-Read

Any professional marketer of a certain age (pre-Google) was influenced by any number of books by thought leaders in the industry, and none had a greater impact on me than Positioning by Ries and Trout. Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote a masterpiece that revolutionized the art of marketing communication and still holds up today, decades later.

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The Battle for Your Mind

The Positioning book changed how I thought about advertising and made me a better marketer. In what was a very short read, Al and Jack described the “battle for your mind,” in which we all have these file folders of information. They described what makes it into those file folders and what doesn’t. And they offered case studies as the road map to position any business for marketing success.

5 Elements of a Good Position

One of the big takeaways my colleagues and I took away from the Positioning book is a litmus test I still use to this day. Whenever we’re developing messaging strategy for clients we consider the 5 elements of a good position:

• Relate to the Way People Think
• Be Believable
• Don’t Over-Promise
• Use Meaningful Words (Avoid Cliches)
• Don’t Get Too Cute and Miss the Point

This simple list, derived straight from Positioning by Ries and Trout, became one of our guiding principles as professional marketers. And it’s served us well over all these years since.

The Positioning book has been updated several times over the years. And after Jack’s passing, Al has continued to carry the flag with more recent help from his daughter. The concept is so darn simple, yet critical to know and follow.

How the Positioning Book Can Influence Your Success

Allow me to put this in terms of our basic marketing formula here at Source Local Media:

Whenever you’re building messaging strategy of any kind, consider how best to position your business to cut through the fire hose of wanted and unwanted communication coming at your target. This is all paraphrased from Positioning by Ries and Trout:

A great position relates to the way people think. One of the best examples in the Positioning book, which I think illustrates this perfectly is Avis Car Rental. Back in the day, Avis was lagging behind Hertz and it seemed nothing would crack that glass ceiling. Then Avis re-positioned itself as “We’re Number Two, and We Try Harder.” It struck a chord with consumers, who could relate to being second and understood that the number-two competitor was trying harder to be number one. It also implied that Hertz was somehow sitting back on its laurels at number one. That one campaign changed the course of the car rental business forever.

A great position is believable. In other words, don’t say you’re fastest if someone else owns fast. Don’t say you’re cheaper than Walmart if everyone believes Walmart can’t be beat on price.

Can you deliver? A great position doesn’t over-promise something you can’t really deliver. It’s really important to make sure you’re building around a strength, not a weakness.

A great position uses words with meaning. Avoiding cliches like quality, convenience, and affordability is critical when you’re building your position. It’s important to use words that mean something to people and don’t just bounce off them like clutter. In a day an age where we value MOVEMENT more than any other engagement in marketing, words have to connect emotionally, meaningfully with our target customer.

Don’t get too cute and miss the point. We can all remember a time when a company built a “fantastic” campaign that was highly-memorable, but didn’t sell anything. It’s like when they say a movie is “critically-acclaimed,” that typically means it was a movie that moviemakers loved, but no one saw.

Great positioning of your business really cuts through the clutter and makes your marketing more effective. It connects emotionally with your best customer prospects and motivates movement in your direction. Good movement. The kind that can really move the needle.

Struggling with Positioning Your Business?

Maybe your marketing is missing something, and you just haven’t been able to put your finger on it. Or maybe you know you’re just not communicating the best way with your customer prospects. We believe poor messaging strategy is one of the 3 most common mistakes made in marketing today, and one of the biggest causes of frustration.

Positioning by Ries and Trout offers some insight into why your messaging may be off, and how to make it better. And you’re not alone. Getting messaging right often takes testing and iteration. That’s the foundation of our unique Bullseye Marketing Method, our structure designed to get to advertising success faster.

At Source Local Media, we invest in clients long before they ever invest in us. One way we do that is to offer a free initial marketing consultation. Just schedule time with our team and let us know you want to talk messaging strategy. We’ll make sure the right expert from our team is on the call so it’s not a waste of your time.

If it’s not time for that step yet, subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter so you’ll get notified when more helpful articles like this one are published in our Local Marketing blog.

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