The Positioning Era Cometh By Ries And Trout

The Positioning Era Cometh By Al Ries and Jack Trout Today it has become obvious that advertising is entering a new era. An era where creativity is no longer the key to success. The fun and games of the '60s have given way to the harsh realities of the '70s. Today's marketplace is no longer responsive to the kind of advertising that worked in the past. There are just too many products, too manycompanies, too much marketing "noise." To succeed in our over-communicated society, a company must create a "position" in the prospect's mind. A position that takes into consideration not only its own strength and weaknesses, but those of its competitors as well. Advertising is entering an era where strategy is king.

A Tale of Two Ads If you had to pick an official date to mark the end of thelast advertising era and the start of the new one, your choice would have to be Wednesday, April 7, 1971. In the New York Times that day was a full-page ad that seemed to generate very little excitement in the advertising community. But then, an abrupt change in the direction of an industry isn't always accompanied by the blowing of bugles. You sometimes need the vantage point of history to realizewhat has happened. The ad that appeared that spring morning in 1971 was written by David Ogilvy. And it's no coincidence that the architect of one era called the tune for the next. In the ad, the articulate Mr. Ogilvy outlined his 38 points for creating "advertising that sells." In the first place on his list was a point Mr. Ogilvy called "the most important decision." Then he went on to say, "Theresults of your campaign depend less on how we write your advertising than on how your product is positioned." Blow the bugles, the positioning era has begun. Five days later, in the New York Times and in Advertising Age, another ad appeared that confirmed the fact that the advertising industry was indeed changing direction. Placed by Rosenfeld, Sirowitz & Lawson, the ad listed the agency's fourguiding principles. In first place was, you guessed it. According to Ron Rosenfeld, Len Sirowitz and Tom Lawson, "Accurate positioning is the most important step in effective selling." Suddenly the word and the concept was in everybody's ads and on everybody's lips. Hardly an issue of Advertising Age passes without some reference to "positioning." You Can't Beat 'em Head-On In spite of MadisonAve.'s current love affair with positioning, the concept had a more humble beginning. In 1969, we wrote an article entitled "Positioning is a game people play in today's me-too marketplace," which appeared in the June, 1969, issue of Industrial Marketing. The article made predictions and named names, all based on the "rules" of a game called positioning. One prediction, in particular, turned out tobe strikingly accurate. As far as RCA and computers were concerned, "a company has no hope to make progress head-on against the position that IBM has established."

The operative word, of course, is "head-on." And while it's possible to compete successfully with a market leader (the article suggested several approaches), the rules of positioning say it can't be done "head-on." Three years agothis raised a few eyebrows. Who were we to say that powerful, multibilliondollar companies couldn't find happiness in the computer business if they so desired? Desire, alas, was not enough. Not only RCA, but also General Electric bit the IBM dust. With two major computer manufacturers folding one right after another, the urge to say, "I told you so," was irresistible. Last November, a follow-uparticle, "Positioning revisited: Why didn't GE and RCA listen?" appeared in the same publication. We're an Over-Communicated Society As GE and RCA found out, advertising doesn't work anymore. At least, not like it used to. One reason may be the noise level in the communications jungle. The per-capita consumption of advertising in the U.S. is approaching $100 a year. And while no one doubts the...