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Buzz Baker | B2B Blog Postings, Positioning | January 13th, 2009In their 1981 marketing strategy classic (it must be a classic, there’s even a 20th Anniversary Edition!), Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout noted that if a brand occupies the category leadership position on the “ladder of consideration” of a customer, that position was essentially unassailable. The “high ground”, if you will. Their caveat, of course, was that the positioned leader could conceivably make a mistake significant enough to cause their displacement from atop that ladder…or that a competitor could “bring in a new ladder” with new discriminating variables favoring the competitor and more important to the consumer. Otherwise the category leader could remain on top indefinitely. With no variance in B2C vs. B2B. (more…)
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Words May Reposition a Brand. But They Must Also Define the Task.
Buzz Baker | Positioning | December 18th, 2008We who’ve been in the marketing communications business for years have certainly been exposed to a myriad of brand repositionings in our professional careers…and most likely participated in more than a few as well. Some simple and easy, some incredibly complex, but all with the intention of moving the perception of the brand closer to what the prospective customer wants to buy (even if requiring change in what the marketer has to “sell”).
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You Want to Position Your Brand “Righteously”? It May Not be Your Call.
Buzz Baker | Positioning | September 9th, 2008Years ago I was exposed to a psychographic segmentation model developed by Dr. John Cragan, at that time a Professor of Communications at Illinois St. University. By the time my colleagues and I became involved with Dr. Cragan and his model, it had be tested and applied in a number of B2B categories. Most importantly, the tests and applications validated that the approach was, in fact, purchase behavior predictive. That was important because the most recognized segmentation model of those times, VALS, developed by Stanford Research Institute, was lifestyle focused and with no direct correlation to buying styles. The same was true of Young & Rubicam’s Cross Cultural Consumer Characterizations model for global application. But Cragan was different.
Dr. Cragan posited and proved that there were essentially three different buying styles (although there could be also be permutations, with one style being primary and another having some degree of complementary influence). Those three buying styles were:
• Righteous: Accumulating and evaluating information. Establishing criteria through which to assess competitive alternatives. Doing it the right way. Not the “Innovators” in the Product Diffusion model; instead the “Early Adopters” characterized in that approach.
• Pragmatic: At first glance, the price-driven purchaser. Oftentimes “deal” or promotion driven. But not always…because the concept of lifetime value is not foreign to some in this segment, particularly when the pragmatism is supplemented by another buying style influence.
• Social: Often the most easily identified and thus predictable, the social purchaser is often dealer dependent. And even more often will wait to see what those whom he has identified as leaders will do/will purchase. Not doing the work, but benefiting from those who do. Primarily “Late Majority” in the Product Diffusion model, but could sometimes drop into “Laggard” mode as well. (more…)
Would Ebert and Roeper Give your Positioning a “Thumbs Up?”
Mike Marn | Positioning | July 29th, 2008
I saw a headline on CNN that made me laugh the other day. It said “Ebert and Roeper to leave ‘Ebert and Roeper.’” Boy, I’ll bet that show will never be the same!
Clearly, a B2B company isn’t a TV show. But this little news item might be a good excuse to do a little reviewing of your own. Exactly how deep does your company’s positioning really go? Is it a something everyone in the organization believes in and can recite on cue, or does it depend on the performance of the lead actors and a small supporting cast? It’s not uncommon for a B2B company to define itself by the personality and style of the executive(s) at the top. (more…)
Green Marketing. How Associative Positioning Breaks All Ties.
Buzz Baker | Positioning | July 16th, 2008Everyone has likely heard a few jokes starting with “A duck walks into a bar…”, and immediately become interested because of the unexpected imagery. Today, however, I walked into the office bathroom and was confronted with real imagery that also piqued interest. On top of the commode was a role of toilet paper fully packaged in white tissue with the word “green” depicted and underlined in green all over the package, and “office depot” in red, also underlined, but smaller and more subdued. Had it been Christmas time I might not have noticed. Everything is green and red then. But just after the 4th of July such packaging was unexpected. And inspired more contemplation than your average roll of toilet paper, which is rarely high on anyone’s “Wow! Look at that!” list. If ever. (more…)
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Buzz Baker | Positioning | June 26th, 2008When we last visited the Prussian military strategist, General Carl von Clausewitz, we noted that his tactical direction for armies attempting to cross wide rivers was not always appropriate for marketers attempting to aggressively reposition themselves.
But the good general also has other advice for aggressive marketers that may well be worth heeding. And while his language is not the language of today’s military or marketer, the message is clear:
“In general it is more advantageous to continue our blows in one and the same direction, because there is loss of time in striking in different directions; and at a point where the moral power is already shaken by considerable losses there is more reason to expect fresh successes, therefore in that way no part of the preponderance already gained is left idle.”
When Repositioning Your Brand, You May Want to Disregard Von Clausewitz
Buzz Baker | Positioning | June 23rd, 2008
The Prussian military strategist, General Carl Von Clausewitz, once said: “No army wanting to cross a wide river would cross only half of it first.”
His point was simple. Once the decision was made to cross the river, the objective was to get to the other side. No ifs, ands or buts…and certainly no dawdling or halting along the way. Stragglers to be shot. Perhaps on most occasions that would be the viable military strategy, but when it comes to repositioning a brand, it could just as likely be a formula for failure. The key determinant in that formula resides in the word “wide”. Here’s why: (more…)
Don’t Let your Business Get Caught in the Middle
Mike Marn | Positioning | May 28th, 2008A recent post by my colleague, Dick Hatch (about the slogan “Our people make the difference“) got me thinking. There are a number of common ad themes whose trite familiarity makes them invisible at best, laughable at worst. I’d like to nominate another candidate.
I’ve seen dozens, maybe hundreds, of banks, CPAs, furniture stores, builders, car dealers, and many other businesses claim in one way or another that they are:
“Big enough to serve you, small enough to care.” (more…)
Steer Clear of Price-Only Positioning
Richard Hatch | Positioning | April 17th, 2008
In another life, I worked in automotive marketing. A domestic brand. Every time the market tanked, the client, along with their domestic rivals, would predictably do the inevitable. Slap on rebates, trump one another’s incentives, slash prices, sweeten the deal, give away the store, compromise the brand and train customers already accustomed to never paying the asking price to never pay anything close-ever again. (I know. There’s a history of other complex dynamics at work here as well.) Nevertheless, any bump in the road and they squandered what brand integrity they had left to chase market share at almost any cost-and we all know what the painful outcome has been.
But you’d never do that, right? Let’s get real. (more…)
Our People Make the Difference (Yea, Right) and Other “Unbelievable” Claims
Richard Hatch | Positioning | April 7th, 2008For kicks, I tried Googling this tagline. On this particular day, the results produced several construction companies, a few carpet cleaners, realtors and brokers, hospitals, therapeutic clinics, a TV station, a web page from Deloitte Touche, a security firm, machine and metal fabricators, a change management consultant, staffing firms, a used car dealer, various banks, a plastic mold die maker, a dentist, an old WalMart uniform patch (with the slogan) for sale on e-Bay, a chemical company, a full-service boatyard, and a boatload of other indistinguishable, undifferentiated manufacturers, services, and firms in untold other industries. Unbelievable! (Granted, not in all cases were they necessarily using the line as a corporate positioning or tagline per say, although more did than not.) Doesn’t matter. They were using it as a point of differentiation in some form, and differentiating it is not. (more…)
Positioning inside the company
Galen De Young | Positioning | April 3rd, 2008
Positioning starts at home. If you can’t get positioning right inside the organization, there’s little chance it will be successful in the marketplace.
Typically, B2C marketing and sales have little personal interaction. If the purchase is fairly substantial, e.g., say for a $500 piece of consumer electronics, we may do some purchase research and talk to friends. However, the only personal interaction with the selling party during the buying cycle may well be the cashier.
That’s not the way it is in B2B marketing and sales. (more…)
The Importance of Positioning Strategy
Galen De Young | Positioning | March 27th, 2008Today I ran across a great blog posting at Brandeo regarding positioning strategy. I couldn’t agree more with the sentiments expressed in it. While the blog post mentions two consumer-marketing examples, the issues are equally relevant and critical to B2B marketing.
Concurring with the author, I believe that there is often too little time paid to developing the proper positioning, and that too often positioning strategy is confused by ambiguous talk about the amorphous “brand.” Discussions about the brand usually get people thinking about things they can see, like visual identities and taglines. While brand strategy should be nearly synonymous with positioning strategy, in today’s world it generally isn’t. (more…)
The Wisdom of Crowds?
Galen De Young | Positioning | March 10th, 2008
Look all too familiar to you?
Getting input from advisors is important. And necessary. But chiseling and rounding your positioning until it pleases everyone inside the company ensures it won’t mean much to anyone outside the company.
Your goal in positioning should be to make it easier for customers and prospects to understand exactly why your company should be one of their top choices, why there are few credible substitutes for your company in the market. Usually, that means narrowing your focus. And that’s likely to scare you. If it doesn’t scare you…if it doesn’t initially make you feel pretty uncomfortable…it probably won’t create meaningful change in your organization or in the marketplace.
The question is whether you want to be safe or successful.