Several years ago, Jack Trout and Al Reis published “Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind”.
This quickly became the seminal work on strategy positioning for brands in businesses. Trout and Reis flipped the script from how the seller, creator and manufacturer viewed the product, service or company to the viewpoint of how it was perceived by the buyer to be of the utmost importance. Like more expertly written works, the book won’t tell you HOW but really focuses on the importance of WHY this is important.
Even though, several years have passed and the authors have gone on to write subsequent books, Positioning is still extremely important.
The customer’s perception of you and your company is their reality and will determine their buying preference. It doesn’t matter what the real actual reality is, it only matter what their reality is.
If you have been paying close attention to your buyers, you have realized this has played out time and time again.
Your thoughts have probably gone along this line: You probably should have been chosen. You probably should have been purchased. You probably have thought they made a dumbass choice by choosing someone less qualified, less experienced and not as good as you are.
The way the customer and prospect thinks about you, talks about you and describes you to others is the only perception that is important. That perception will determines everything they do or do not do in relation to you and your offering. Every product or service offering must be perceived positively by the customer before they can make an affirmative buying decision.
If I haven’t convinced you so far, here is why positioning is so important. Every visual element of product, service, packaging, printing and promotion helps create a perception of some kind.
Nothing is neutral. Everything counts. Everything. That includes all the prospect or customer sees (or does not see), hears (or does not hear) contributes to their perception of you and your company. The ultimate objective is to create a brand with positioning so stong that no prospect or customer would even consider anyone else in your category.
Be the:
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Be the standard that is the ultimate against which others are compared. That is why positioning is still really important.
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