The Rule of Positioning tells us that advertising is not communication, advertising is positioning. Good advertising tells little about the product or service, it establishes or reinforces a position in the minds of the target audience. However, positioning is not about "where" you want to put or "position" your product.
E.g. "We want to position our brand as the premier product in the category." - Incorrect positioning statement.
Positioning is about finding the possibility or the "Open Hole" that might exist in the minds of the target audience or market.
E.g. "There is an open hole in the mind of the target audience for a premium product in the category. That is the position we want our brand to fill." - Correct positioning statement.
Can you notice the difference now? Yes, the key thing in positioning is "to fill the open hole in the T.A.'s mind".
So what could be the Open Hole in the mind?
Here are some examples:
1. The "Price" hole. e.g. for High-price positioning: Haagen-Daz in ice-cream; Rolex in Watch; Mercedes-Benz in automobiles.
2. The "Country of origin" hole. e.g. Heineken (first Holland beer in beer-drinker' mind).
3. The "First in the mind" hole. e.g. Sony Walkman (first on-the-go Hi-Fi); Gatorade (first sport drink); Red Bull (first energy drink); Apple (first user-friendly PC).
4. The "No.2 brand" hole. But it doesn't mean to fill the hole of "the other best" or "the other leader", because there is only one best, one leader in the market. Then how do you become a strong No.2 brand? Well, you got to become the opposite of the leader.
e.g. Coca-Cola is the old, established leader brand (that your parents drank), so Pepsi-Cola, filling the No.2 brand hole, said, "You don't want to drank the same as your parents did, you are the Pepsi Generation". Window (an OS that you need to buy), so Linux (an open source OS for free). Think about Large/Small; Men/Women; Black/White...
5. The "Specialist" hole. e.g. Starbucks (specialized in coffee); McDonald (specialized in hamburgers); Volvo (safety); BMW (driving).
6. The "Gender brand" hole. e.g. Marlboro (first cigarette for men); virginia Slims (first cigarette for women).
Add your comment to the rule please.
2 comments:
About the "No.2 brand", is that become the opposite of the leader a only way to position the brand??
英文不佳, 下文用中文
「蒙牛」在尚未成為國內奶業一哥之前, 曾經像「百事」位居第二一般, 位居「伊利」之下. 而「蒙牛」因為考慮到當時奶業一哥「伊利」將來可能會對蒙牛的種種打壓和攻擊的可能, 打出了一句口號:「向伊利學習」, 以此作為掩護, 及後在穩定的行業環境下, 業績直線上升. 其後, 「蒙牛」迅速超越了「伊利」成為奶業一哥, 在港台兩地, 蒙牛的品牌型象較伊利亦過之而無不及.
當然三鹿事件後, 蒙牛形象大受影響, 但畢竟蒙牛是營銷的一個傳奇例子. 故以此作參考回應.
Good observation.
I think we cannot simply apply the No.2 hole to the cases of Yili and Meng Niu. Because as a brand of dairy products, they are relatively young. Yili was founded in 1993 and Meng Niu in 1999. They might have just been competing to be the No.1 brand, also Meng Niu's slogan 「向伊利學習」might have already taken the idea of becoming the opposite brand (humbly learn from Yili) while Yili might have positioned itself as a "we know what's it about dairy products". Just quick thought!
Post a Comment