Positioning: how to own a place in the buyer's mind

Who should use it, and when not to

Use it when a brand says many things and buyers remember none, when a challenger must compete with a dominant leader, or before stretching a brand name over a new product line or naming a new product.

For a step-by-step method that starts from customers' alternatives, see Obviously Awesome. To choose the first segment to win, see Crossing the Chasm.

The core ideas

The overcommunicated society. People defend themselves against too many messages by keeping only what matches what they already think. A message that doesn't find a slot is discarded.

The ladder. For each category, buyers hold a short ladder of brands. Moving up a ladder is hard; the leader's rung is usually taken.

Being first. The first brand in a category tends to keep the lead, because it set the slot.

Positioning against the leader. A challenger relates itself to the leader, often by turning the leader's strength into a weakness.

Creating a new category. If the ladder is full, find a narrower or different category where you can be first.

The name and line extension. A name should support the position. Putting a strong name on unrelated products blurs what it stands for.

A worked mini example

This is an illustration with fictional brands. Cuentafácil sells accounting software to small shops in Chile. In 20 interviews, 12 shop owners named Balanzo first, 5 named Librox, 2 named Cuentafácil. Reviews describe Balanzo as "for accountants". 80% of Cuentafácil's customers have no accountant and do their books in 10 minutes a week.

Cuentafácil is third on the ladder with no word of its own. The leader's strength, "for accountants", leaves its opposite open. The position: accounting for shop owners who do their own books, without an accountant. The word to own: "without an accountant". The team stops calling it a "complete business platform".

How to find your position

1. Name the category in buyers' words.
2. Draw the ladder: the brands buyers recall, in order, and the word each owns.
3. Find your rung and any word buyers already link to you.
4. Pick a strategy: reinforce the lead, position against the leader, or create a new category.
5. Choose one word that is true, distinct from the leader's, and matters to buyers.
6. Check the name and product line for anything that blurs the position.
7. Write the position in one sentence, and list what to stop saying.

The mind position check skill runs these steps with your interviews and reviews, and marks a ladder drawn without buyer evidence.

Common mistakes

• Several words. A brand that stands for everything owns nothing.
• Attacking the leader head-on. Aim at the weakness inside its strength.
• A word that isn't true. Buyers reject claims the product contradicts.
• Drawing the ladder from your own view. Use buyers' words, from interviews or reviews.

Where it comes from

Jack Trout wrote about positioning in Industrial Marketing in 1969, and Ries and Trout, both advertising executives, published a three-part series in Advertising Age in 1972. Their book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind followed in 1981. Marketing scholars note that the idea of positioning products existed earlier; Ries and Trout made it widely known.

This page is an independent summary in our own words. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the authors, their estates or their publishers. The book's title is used only to name it. More explainers are in the business books index.

Questions

What is positioning, according to Ries and Trout?

Not what you do to a product, but what you do to the mind of the prospect: finding the place a brand can hold among the few brands a buyer remembers for a category.

What is the brand ladder?

The short ranked list of brands a buyer keeps in mind for each category. The first rung is easiest to hold; brands lower down need a position relative to the leader or a new category of their own.

How is this different from April Dunford's positioning?

Ries and Trout focus on the place a brand holds in buyers' minds and on owning a word. Dunford's Obviously Awesome gives a step-by-step method for B2B and tech products, starting from customers' competitive alternatives.