On Positioning

I recently finished reading the book Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

This is a classic in the marketing field. The authors define positioning as “a new approach to communication…But positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect.”

The book then goes on to present the concept of positioning, and the associated challenges and opportunities. What sets this book apart is the plethora of examples that are provided from a variety of industries (both services and products) that illustrate both how position can and should be used, and how it shouldn’t be.

Finally the authors extend the concept of positioning and show how it can be applied to one’s self and career. In addition how one can start a positioning program for a business.

A very insightful and educational book –  a must read in the business arena and particularly the marketing field.

Below are some key excerpts from this book:

1) “Positioning is an organized system for finding a window in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstance.”

2) “Leaders should use their short-term flexibility to assure themselves of a stable long-term future. As a matter of fact, the marketing leader is usually the one who moves the ladder into the mind with his or her brand nailed to the one and only rung.”

3) “This is the classic mistake made by the leader. The illusion that the power of the product is derived from the power of the organization. It’s just the reverse. The power of the organization is derived from the power of the product, the position that the product owns in the prospect’s mind.”

4) “But today in the product arena and in the political arena, you have to have a position. There are too many competitors out there. You can’t win by not making enemies, by being everything to everybody. To win in today’s competitive environment, you have to go out and make friends, carve out a specific niche in the market. Even if you lose a few doing so.”

5) “With a good name your positioning job is going to be a lot easier.”

6) “A name is a rubber band. It will stretch, but not beyond a certain point. Furthermore, the more you stretch a name, the weaker it becomes.”

7) “The lesson here is that a succesfull positioning program requires a major long-term commitment by the people in charge.”

8) “The solution to a positioning problem is usually found in the prospect’s mind, not in the product.”

9) “Positioning yourself and your career…Define yourself…Make mistakes…Make sure your name is right…Avoid the no-name trap…Avoid the line-extension trap…Find a horse to ride…The first horse to ride is your company…The second horse to ride is your boss…The third horse to ride is a friend…The fourth horse to ride is an idea…The fifth horse to ride is faith…The sixth horse to ride is yourself.”

10) “Positioning your business…What position do you own?…What position do you want to own?…Whom must you outgun?…Do you have enough money?…Can you stick it out?…Do you match your position?…The role of the outsider…What the outsider doesn’t supply.”

11) “Playing the positioning game…You must understand the roles of words…You must know how words affect people…You must be careful of change…You need vision…You need courage…You need objectivity…You need simplicity…You need subtlety…You must be willing to sacrifice…You need a global outlook…What you don’t need.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Positioning

On Selling The Invisible

I just finished reading the book Selling The Invisible by Harry Beckwith. As Harvey Mackay notes on the cover “The one book on marketing I’d have if I could have just one. A CLASSIC.” This books changes the way we think about marketing: “It begins with an understanding of the distinctive characteristics of services – their invisibility and intangibility – and of the unique nature of service prospects and users – their fear, their limited time, their sometimes illogical ways of making decisions, and their most important drives and needs”. Harry then goes on to discuss a number of fundamental topics: surveying and research, planning, positioning and focus, pricing, branding, communicating and selling, nurturing and keeping clients etc.

Below are some excerpts that I found particularly insightful:

a) “Your opportunities for growth often lie outside the confines of your current industry description.” – This can be reworded to apply to one’s personal career

b) “In most professional services, you are not selling expertise – because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead, you are selling a relationship. And in most cases, that is where you need the most work.”

c) “First, accept the limitations of planning…Second, don’t value planning for its result: the plan…Third, don’t plan your future. Plan your people.”

d) “Positioning (Al Ries and Jack Trout) says: 1) You must position yourself in your prospect’s mind. 2) Your position should be singular: one simple message. 3) Your position must set you apart from your competitors. 4) You must sacrifice. You cannot be all things to all people; you must focus on one thing.”

e) “To succeed spectacularly in a service business, you must get all your ducks in a row. Marketing is just one duck. But it is one very big duck.”

f) “…And for marketing purposes – for the purpose of attracting and keeping business – a service is only what prospects and clients perceive it to be. So “get better reality”: Improve your service quality. But never forget that the prospect and client must perceive that quality.”

g) “Services are human. Their successes depend on the relationships of people…But you can spot some patterns in people. The more you can see the patterns and understand people, the more you will succeed – and this book as written with the hope that it will help you do just that.”

h) “Nothing beats experience, of course, but reading books about others’ experiences comes in a competent second. The risk in learning only from personal experience is that too often, we draw conclusions from too little data – we learn too much from too little. We also tend to credit our company’s successes to everything that went into them…And so we keep repeating things that hurt our business.”

One of the best features of the book is the way its written and structured. Each area is covered through small stories featuring numerous real-life examples. This makes the book very practical and enjoyable to read. All in all, a great book on Marketing and one that is recommended for anyone. We are all in some aspect a marketer of services.

As a final remark, you can follow the author Harry Beckwith’s latest thoughts here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/unthinking .

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Selling The Invisible

On Team Management

As the FIFA World Cup is underway, I was inspired to blog on the importance of the team manager (head coach). He has at his disposal a very talented set of individuals, which have proven records of delivering results in their respective teams/leagues. That being said, his job in selecting his starting lineup, his substitutes and who would play in what position is an extremely tough one. This job ultimately dictates the results that the team can generate and what they will achieve.

The parallels between the team manager and managers in the corporate world are not far fetched. Yet I find from my limited corporate experience so far, that the aspect of talent placement is not one that is very actively and effectively managed. In many instances, managers adapt a passive approach, relying on external events to self-drive the configuration. While driven individuals eventually find themselves where they need to be eventually, a number of individuals might not get the chance to shine in the team and will become disengaged, leading to lowered overall performance .

The process of positioning talent is not an exact science. However managers need to give each team member the required chances as well as honest and objective feedback. They should also have the required guts to make changes as required, when they feel things are not going the right way, neither for the individual nor the position. Finally this process is a very active and dynamic one that needs constant attention. If performed correctly, it can yield high performing teams that are not only great to work in, but also achieve at an entirely new level.

Regards,

Omar Halabieh