What Are You Doing Today in This Positioning 4.0 Era of Marketing?
Al Ries & Jack Trout wrote "Positioning is a Game People Play in Today's Me-Too Marketplace", a seminal paper that was published in 1969.
This introduced a novel concept.
And forever altered the course of marketing.
So What Exactly is "Positioning"?
• "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", a follow-up book from the same authors, defines "positioning" as "an organized system for finding windows in the mind".
• That definition is rooted from the concept that "communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances".
• Simply put, this strategy represents the attempt to create a category in the mind of your customer, for them to intuitively associate that category with your brand.
• In today's modern marketing landscape where even the smallest niches have massive competitiveness -- This helps you stand out, grab attention, captivate your audience, and compel them to listen to your transformational value proposition.
How Did We Go from Simply Offering FBAs to Guiding Our Prospects Towards Transformational Value?
• Positioning ground zero was from the 50s to the late 60s, a time before markets got really crowded.
** There was so little noise at that time -- Businesses simply presented their offers, highlighted its unique benefits for customers, touched on its key advantages over a few other brands in the same markets, and made a killing.
** Volkswagen Beetle's ad campaign is a classic example -- The strategy was to simply present the car's unique FBAs in a straightforward, feature-focused approach.
• Next was Positioning 1.0 (70s to 80s), a time when businesses realized the importance of future-proofing their efforts through unique brand identity development and designing messages that resonated with particular audience segments.
** The positioning strategy at that time was chiefly focused on differentiating their brand from competitors, primarily through the value of their offers -- This allowed them to build a unique brand identity and establish a distinct place in the minds of their customers.
** A classic example in this era is Nike's early campaigns by Wieden+Kennedy -- This focused on building a brand image that resonated with athletes, positioning Nike not just as a shoe company, but as a symbol of athletic excellence.
• Then landed Positioning 2.0 (90s to 2000s), the era that saw businesses start to niche down, focus on more specific market segments, and target micro to sub niches, all thanks to the Internet.
** A time when globalization swept the world by storm -- This era saw the meteoric rise of insane competitiveness across lots of industries and markets, globally.
** Businesses saw the huge value of data-driven strategies in product development, sales and marketing -- After all, there was already technology at this time to do this faster, cheaper, better, and more accurately.
** So when markets rapidly started to saturate and consumer choices began to expand exponentially -- Businesses saw the urgent, immediate need to drastically refine their positioning strategies, techniques, and tactics, with key elements being to niche down, target micro markets, and build suitable brand identities for these segments.
** BMW's "The Ultimate Driving Machine" campaign is a classic example -- Here, it was no longer about luxury cars. Instead, their message aligned more to a particular audience segment that valued performance and prestige.
• And, we've been in Positioning 3.0 from the late 2000s to present (mid 2020s), thanks to massive Internet adoption, with mobile and social media greatly contributing to this ubiquitous deployment.
** This is an era where we focus on significantly improving our targeting strategies; on solving specific problems of niche customer groups and micro market segments; on refining our products, offers and messages so they can associate the identity of our brand with a particular category in their minds; and on redefining strategies for our content to reach them faster, cheaper and better through data-driven approaches.
** This is where content marketing, influencer outreach, social media networking and personalized advertising reign supreme -- As business owners, our approach today is data-driven, holistic, strategic, and tactical.
** Right now, we take a much, much closer look at our customer's journey and experience -- Our goal is to address their pain points and needs through a more direct approach.
This is NPO = Niche > Problems > Offer
• But because of remote work, massive video communication adoption, AI and other bleeding edge technologies like wearables, AR, VR and MXR that could sooner than later alter the landscape again -- We're at this transitional phase to bring the same transformation that we need for our businesses to the end customer.
And That Means NPO to NPOT™[1] = Niche > Problems > Offer > Transformation
• This is beyond targeting micro segments. This is beyond niching down. This is beyond solving problems. This is beyond addressing needs -- Positioning 4.0 is all about developing, communicating, providing and guiding customers towards a transformational change to their current condition.
A New Sales Paradigm? From a Salesman to a transformational Authority?
• Should our role change to that of a transformational expert?
• Should we realign our business, content, products and services to be capable of guiding the customer to successfully achieve the transformation they really want, and not just to address their pain points, to satisfy their immediate needs, and to solve their urgent problems?
After all, the customer already has a lot of information available to them.
But many of them don't know how to use that info to achieve the transformational goals that they really want.
And most often than not -- Only a few of them is likely to really know what their ends should be!
Plus, we all know that the more info we have, the more confused we're likely to become.
Especially if the end goal is to identify the transformational change that we really need for our current situation and condition.
Though this also means that in Positioning 4.0 -- Specialization is now oriented towards the transformation we can deliver to the customer. The content, product and services are just means to an end.
And as experts in our niches -- Our businesses should be capable of changing from content to content, from product to product, and from service to service, as market conditions change.
What do you think? What are your strategies, techniques and tactics for Positioning 4.0?
1: [Link removed by Moderator]
This introduced a novel concept.
And forever altered the course of marketing.
So What Exactly is "Positioning"?
• "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", a follow-up book from the same authors, defines "positioning" as "an organized system for finding windows in the mind".
• That definition is rooted from the concept that "communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances".
• Simply put, this strategy represents the attempt to create a category in the mind of your customer, for them to intuitively associate that category with your brand.
• In today's modern marketing landscape where even the smallest niches have massive competitiveness -- This helps you stand out, grab attention, captivate your audience, and compel them to listen to your transformational value proposition.
How Did We Go from Simply Offering FBAs to Guiding Our Prospects Towards Transformational Value?
• Positioning ground zero was from the 50s to the late 60s, a time before markets got really crowded.
** There was so little noise at that time -- Businesses simply presented their offers, highlighted its unique benefits for customers, touched on its key advantages over a few other brands in the same markets, and made a killing.
** Volkswagen Beetle's ad campaign is a classic example -- The strategy was to simply present the car's unique FBAs in a straightforward, feature-focused approach.
• Next was Positioning 1.0 (70s to 80s), a time when businesses realized the importance of future-proofing their efforts through unique brand identity development and designing messages that resonated with particular audience segments.
** The positioning strategy at that time was chiefly focused on differentiating their brand from competitors, primarily through the value of their offers -- This allowed them to build a unique brand identity and establish a distinct place in the minds of their customers.
** A classic example in this era is Nike's early campaigns by Wieden+Kennedy -- This focused on building a brand image that resonated with athletes, positioning Nike not just as a shoe company, but as a symbol of athletic excellence.
• Then landed Positioning 2.0 (90s to 2000s), the era that saw businesses start to niche down, focus on more specific market segments, and target micro to sub niches, all thanks to the Internet.
** A time when globalization swept the world by storm -- This era saw the meteoric rise of insane competitiveness across lots of industries and markets, globally.
** Businesses saw the huge value of data-driven strategies in product development, sales and marketing -- After all, there was already technology at this time to do this faster, cheaper, better, and more accurately.
** So when markets rapidly started to saturate and consumer choices began to expand exponentially -- Businesses saw the urgent, immediate need to drastically refine their positioning strategies, techniques, and tactics, with key elements being to niche down, target micro markets, and build suitable brand identities for these segments.
** BMW's "The Ultimate Driving Machine" campaign is a classic example -- Here, it was no longer about luxury cars. Instead, their message aligned more to a particular audience segment that valued performance and prestige.
• And, we've been in Positioning 3.0 from the late 2000s to present (mid 2020s), thanks to massive Internet adoption, with mobile and social media greatly contributing to this ubiquitous deployment.
** This is an era where we focus on significantly improving our targeting strategies; on solving specific problems of niche customer groups and micro market segments; on refining our products, offers and messages so they can associate the identity of our brand with a particular category in their minds; and on redefining strategies for our content to reach them faster, cheaper and better through data-driven approaches.
** This is where content marketing, influencer outreach, social media networking and personalized advertising reign supreme -- As business owners, our approach today is data-driven, holistic, strategic, and tactical.
** Right now, we take a much, much closer look at our customer's journey and experience -- Our goal is to address their pain points and needs through a more direct approach.
This is NPO = Niche > Problems > Offer
• But because of remote work, massive video communication adoption, AI and other bleeding edge technologies like wearables, AR, VR and MXR that could sooner than later alter the landscape again -- We're at this transitional phase to bring the same transformation that we need for our businesses to the end customer.
And That Means NPO to NPOT™[1] = Niche > Problems > Offer > Transformation
• This is beyond targeting micro segments. This is beyond niching down. This is beyond solving problems. This is beyond addressing needs -- Positioning 4.0 is all about developing, communicating, providing and guiding customers towards a transformational change to their current condition.
A New Sales Paradigm? From a Salesman to a transformational Authority?
• Should our role change to that of a transformational expert?
• Should we realign our business, content, products and services to be capable of guiding the customer to successfully achieve the transformation they really want, and not just to address their pain points, to satisfy their immediate needs, and to solve their urgent problems?
After all, the customer already has a lot of information available to them.
But many of them don't know how to use that info to achieve the transformational goals that they really want.
And most often than not -- Only a few of them is likely to really know what their ends should be!
Plus, we all know that the more info we have, the more confused we're likely to become.
Especially if the end goal is to identify the transformational change that we really need for our current situation and condition.
Though this also means that in Positioning 4.0 -- Specialization is now oriented towards the transformation we can deliver to the customer. The content, product and services are just means to an end.
And as experts in our niches -- Our businesses should be capable of changing from content to content, from product to product, and from service to service, as market conditions change.
What do you think? What are your strategies, techniques and tactics for Positioning 4.0?
1: [Link removed by Moderator]
