Jeremy reviewed it first, I reviewed/criticised it second. And I guess this is the third take on it, after I managed to finish it. “Positioning” is a short book, well-written, and the only problem I had finishing it was that it was somewhat outdated. That said, the principles in it are fundamental to “positioning” a business, brand, or product in the mind of consumers.

A one-paragraph retraction
What I said about conversation the last time, don’t ignore it, but take it with the grain of salt that this doesn’t apply to 98% of businesses yet. Sure, there is the social media hype going on, but I’m not sure how relevant the conversation going on online is for many businesses and their (mainstream) consumers. An immediate problem that arises from too much consumer-exposure, is the danger of featuritis, reducing the real value you get from a product that is also a tool for something. On the company-level, the problem can come from dedicating too much energy to consumer-requests, and too little in surviving & growing as a company. Conversation is nice, but it’s not everything for everyone.

The review
I actually think that I learned a lot from this book and that it will always reserve an honoured space on my bookshelf.

Some key-lessons include:

• Consumers think in ladders: they rank products from best to good enough and do so mainly on the basis of “who came first.”
• Launching new products means either fighting incumbents head-on (expensive), focussing on niches, or displacing the ladder altogether and starting a new one.
• Naming a business is tricky: things like initials are a definite don’t, and names should evoke an association with the purpose of your product.
• Once you name your business or product, it’s dangerous to extend that name to another product. An example mentioned was Xerox, which we all associate with copying, but which at some point made a faux pas into computing. Once people see Xerox copiers and Xerox computers, it disrupts the original association and weakens a company’s position on the ladder.

Plenty of examples in the book, the ones most interesting to me were about positioning yourself when applying for jobs, and when running a business. But all examples, from ski resorts, whole countries, to drinks, show that there are shared underlying principles to positioning, which are essentially quite logical.

In conclusion
This is a must-read book, if you are thinking about marketing a product, a business, or yourself. The point I made before, is that we are all involved in marketing in some form or other. Whether it’s applying for jobs, launching campaigns, and starting a business. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Vincent

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