Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Rating:
Summary: more relevant now than it was in the 80's
Review: Wow. I never thought that a twenty year old book in marketing, a field which ages rapidly, could maintain its relevance. After all, if we were nearly drowning in sea of information in the 80's, we are in riding a tidal wave in the midst of a hurricane, hanging on for dear life now. But this book is probably even more relevant now than it was then.

The basic tenant of this short, easy to read but brilliant book is straight forward enough: to be noticed in an over-communicated society, a brand must firmly hold a place (position) in a consumer's mind. Sure, that is relatively easy if you are #1 in a field. After all, Kleenex becomes generic for tissue, Kotex for tampons. But, if you cannot be there first, look for a `hole,' a niche not exploited by the market leader. As in strategy, it is easier to hit superior forces where they're not instead of head on. Think of Dell. Instead of fighting HP and Compaq for shelf space in Best Buys and Circuit City, it went whole-hog into direct sales. Now, it holds that niche pretty firmly.

However, the authors warn against a positioned brand diluting a clear `value position' by meaningless line extensions. That has been the demise of many brands, and the authors point out several.

Lastly, I like the fact that the authors also turn the ideas on themselves a little, and insert a chapter on positioning yourself. Sound career advice. Keep your brand positioned: strong, pure, and undiluted. This will definitely help you (and me!) manage our careers.


Rating:
Summary: Packed With Knowledge!
Review: Yes, this is the renowned marketing classic, revered for bringing to light the now ubiquitous strategy of positioning. If you're in business, you probably have at least a fuzzy notion of what the term means. If you're in marketing, you probably hear the word used at least five times a day. (Seriously, try counting.) But in terms of defining positioning and explaining how to use it as a foundation for your strategy, nobody has done a better job than Al Ries and Jack Trout in this original. Of course, the book does have a slightly historical flavor to it now, since the most contemporary business examples cited arrive from the 1970s and 1980s. While a lot has changed since then, a lot hasn't. You'll be surprised how similar this book sounds to the marketing missives of 2001, despite the fact that it was written before the arrival of the Internet, globalization and other buzzwords du jour. We [...] recommend that any executive charged with product development or general business strategy join those in marketing, advertising and sales by taking a few hours to read this book, and get back to the basics.