The Role of Positioning in Determining Your Long-Term Success
March 31st, 2009
Posted by: Michel Fortin, Guest Blogger
Do you know the most important marketing strategy in your business?
In a world filled with marketing experts extolling the virtues of duplicating proven practices, I have a bit of a contrarian view. That’s because relying too much on copying others can actually work against you in your quest for long-term success.
Whether you are marketing your own products or services or promoting other people’s products as an affiliate, positioning is key in determining your long-term success.
By developing an intimate understanding of positioning and applying it to your writing for your own marketing materials and to those of your clients, you’ll build stronger and more persuasive campaigns.
What is Positioning?
Positioning is the process of placing your firm or product above your competition in the prospects’ mind in a way that pulls prospects to you.
Marketing pioneers Jack Trout and Al Ries wrote the definitive work on the concept, entitled: “Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind.” Even though this book was written several years ago, it is still vital in business today.
In every business or product category there are thousands of competitors fighting for the same market. The goal of positioning is to be the top choice to do business with and buy from.
Positioning is not about competing, but differentiating. To be specific, the goal is to differentiate yourself (or the product you are promoting) to the degree that you become the only viable choice in the customer’s mind.
Many companies try to outperform their competitiors by offering discounts and lowering their prices. Positioning, on the other hand, eliminates the need for price-based promotions and focuses on creating a consumer mentality where you are considered the most desirable option, no matter what the cost.
Pretty powerful stuff!
Of course, understanding what positioning is does nothing in and of itself. You need to learn and apply the tools of positioning in order to gain any benefit at all. It’s the application of these strategies that will put you in the favorable position of being that top-of-mind choice within your target market.
Vive la Difference?
Loosely translated from French, the phrase “Vive la Difference” simply means “celebrate the difference.” The first step towards the effective use of positioning within your marketing is to define how you are different from your competition.
Without differentiation, there can be no hope of achieving a strong positioning edge. As I often say in my work: don’t duplicate, differentiate. Be different so that you gain, and maintain, a top position in the mind of your market.
It’s quite common to receive marketing advice telling you to research your competition, but without care, this can be a deadly practice. It’s all well and good to know what your competitors are doing; after all, no business exists within a vacuum. You should absolutely keep tabs on and know what your competition is doing.
What you must avoid, however, is the trap of assuming that in order to be successful you should be replicating what the leaders are doing.
All this accomplishes is the creation of a series of copycats that remind the consumer who the leader is, and reinforces the message that they should buy from the leader. When you engage in such practices, you’re effectively paying for the advertising edge of your competition.
In other words, copy what others do and you’ll only remind people of them and not you.
The only way to avoid becoming a victim of copycat syndrome is to develop your core identity based on how you are different from your competition, and create a unique identity on which to hang your promotional hat.
Anything else is bound to come across as less than genuine in the minds of your target market and certainly won’t help you rise above the crowd.
Determining Your Positioning
Determining your positioning can seem like a daunting task, especially in a highly competitive market. Fortunately, it often isn’t as difficult as it initially seems.
For one thing, most businesses don’t spend much time at all developing their competitive edge through positioning. This means that as someone aware of positioning, it’s usually fairly easy to spot an opportunity.
For another, even if a strong, marketing savvy competitor exists, as a copywriter or marketer you likely already have the creativity you need to make the breakthrough you are looking for.
Before you begin brainstorming ways to help your audience come to a favorable impression, it’s important to note that differentiation need not be drastic. This is where your research skills and any experience you have within the industry is priceless.
In some cases there may be no difference at all other than the fact that no one else in the industry is actually stating it. For example, several years ago there was a car campaign that used the statement that seven out of 10 drivers who test-drove their car, bought one.
What the campaign didn’t say is that the statistic was true for everyone else in the industry, too. It was just that no one else had used this little-known fact before in their promotional efforts.
The best part is, it would be impossible for anyone else to successfully come in after the fact and not sound like a “me too” copycat. If they do they will only remind your market of you.
This brings about another factor that is essential to positioning. In order to gain the most traction from your efforts, you must be first. Or, at least, be perceived to be the first in some way, shape or form.
The difference you choose to exploit needs to work towards the building of a perception of originality. Granted, differentiation is only the beginning. Being different than or superior to the competition is one thing, but to consistently maintain that position is another story altogether. But that is a story for another day.
Until next time, practice unveiling the differences that can set you apart from the competition to develop a strong foundation and create top-of-mind-awareness. As a result, you will have a stronger marketing edge in your copywriting efforts.
Michel Fortin is a marketer, copywriter, and author of many books and courses. For more information about Michel, including how to get your hands on several free ebooks, visit his blog at http://www.michelfortin.com.
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Good point but so theoretical. Differentiation is difficult, because actually we don`t know, how well the message we have chosen bites the target group. I would like very much if you could show us techniques about how to create these differences and how to split test them.
Regards
Juhani Tontti
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am trying to learn this new “business” with no product of my own, and very little time to spend. I do know marketing, but first I have to learn the language!
Blanche
Hi Michel,
thank you for this profound article.I agree
100% that positioning is the only chance to be noticed in a competitive market.
But before the creative mind can go to work the basics of doing business online have to be understood and that takes time.
In my opinion positioning is possible when the marketer already knows what he is doing, has mastered the ways of marketing.
Many many affiliates who rush online to make money have no clue and the only way to
make them learn is through duplication at first.
cheers,
Nirusan
Good point, and very practical. Now down to some real hard innovation towards creation of the perception that I want from my clients. Thanks, Michel.
Thanks everyone.
Juhani – I understand your point, but to do this is a highly specific practice, something I don’t have the luxury of space to do in such a short article.
But let me give you some pointers.
If you’re the first in some category, you are also considered as the best. People have the natural tendency to attribute superiority to a product that’s first in its category. But if you’re not the first, you can usually create your own position.
For instance, Ries and Trout prove this point with a very simple question. They ask: “Who was the third person to fly over the Atlantic in a solo flight?” Now, if you’re not a history buff like me, you will more than likely be stumped. Almost everyone remembers that Lindbergh was the first because, being the first, he comes to mind immediately.
But if you were asked the SAME question but rephrased in a different way (e.g., “Who was the first woman to fly over the Atlantic in a solo flight?”), your answer will likely be “Amelia Earhart.”
See the difference? Essentially, both questions led to the same answer. But by repositioning Amelia Earhart, the answer came to mind instantly.
That’s top-of-mind awareness.
You can be the first to cater to a specific market, the first to offer an alternative to an existing product or service, or the first to cater to a market in a unique way? — such as by offering an ordinary product or service but with a unique twist.
You can also customize a general product or service for a specific market. For example, you might be a travel agency. You could decide on being the first to sell business trips catering exclusively to financial institutions.
However, if you’re not the first you might then market yourself as “the first to serve the financially inclined,” “the leader in business trips for bankers” or “the first travel agent for the smart financier.”
In other words, don’t be the best in some existing category. Be the first in one? — ?one you create.
For example, the Apple iPhone is not just another wireless phone. (And “wireless phone” or “cellular phone” are the more conventional categories. If iPhone promoted itself in these categories, it would have a lot of competition to contend with.)
However, it’s more than that. The entire keypad uses a touchscreen, as the phone doesn’t use any keys at all. And as such, it created its own product category?.
You can ?call it the “keyless phone.” But even better, the word “iPhone” itself puts the phone in a whole new category. When someone says, “iPhone,” we instantly know not just the brand but the type of phone, too.
We don’t think, “Oh, it’s just another wireless phone.” We think, “It’s an iPhone!”
If you sell a product on ClickBank that’s in a highly competitive category, especially if it’s a mass-market product, how can you make it different? What different twist can you give your product, its name, its branding, its promotions, its salesletter, than makes it appear different, even if it’s still, at is core, the same as every other product in the category?
Hopefully, this helps.
Thank you for your advice. I thought if you place a similar article to someone elses you might get a better chance in the market place. Also what can be done if you don’t have enough funds to start your business and you see the same persons add a thousand times what chance do I have to get at the middle or end let alone to the top!!! Thanks again if you have any advice on this I would really appreciate it.
Hi Michel,
Your write up is highly informative, exposing one of the main unseen pillars that makes marketing a success in our present highly competitive marketplace. Your students, including myself would would want PRACTICAL clue on how to go about differentiating one’s product or service. Differentiation here, as positioning strategy seem to be a professionalized project available only to the few. Please break it down to the grasp of all. Meanwhile I apprecretiate the information and it has made me thinking. I look forward to reading more strategies.
thanks
Mike Greenfields
Wouldn’t positioning require building trust concerning the product or service first in the mind of consumers?
Also it would take time to establish a unique positioning through the brand. That’s the thing.
I think we all have positioning potential but how to tap into it and use it is something else altogether. Focus and consistency is not easy.
By the way, great article…!
Michel, this is great and positioning is a great strategy. Like Trout & Ries said in another book “Marketing Warfare”, the marketing battleground is in the customers mind. It is our job as marketers to find a hill (position)we can conquer and defend. I agree with you about simply copying someone else’s stratgegy. It doesn’t really work because you don’t always know the system the competition has put in place to operate their business. I tried that and it only led me to frustration.
And you don’t have to be some big multi-national conglomerate to use this strategy. Just starting out small is okay. Just be different.
Thanks again.
Carlton
Thank you for the reasonable exhortation, difficult as the practice may be.
As a father, I have enjoyed watching various Disney animation movies with my children. Aside from Pixar specials, Disney seems to have developed a reputation for copying old fairy tales or Hans Christian Andersen remakes, but of course in a uniquely Disney way.
Perhaps there is something to be said for marketing the tried-and-true (like red tomatoes as opposed to–say, blue ones) as well as for injecting a unique personal twist.
Few of us can be as original as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, or Albert Einstein. But reinventing the wheel is unnecessary for most of us. All of have our two cents to add to existing patterns, products, and services if we work at it.
Wherever I browse, there he is… Michel Fortin at his finest, always giving out great advice. Just don’t listen to him while you drive… LOL!
Positioning, like anything else, takes time and thought. If you are in business to be in business for the long haul, developing a position is like developing a unique sales position (USP). The best example is the Dominos USP “Fresh Hot Pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it’s free.”
Nail down a few USPs for your own and eventually you may find that position that makes your name come to mind when people mention your product or service.