“Positioning starts with a product. A piece of merchandise, a service, a company, an institution or even a person… 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.”
–Ries & Trout; Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, 20th Anniversary Edition

The fact is, our world is noisy and getting noisier by the day. Positioning can help to cut through the clutter and the noise. Positioning enables a company to establish itself in the minds of its customers, and shows how the firm fits within the competitive landscape. What comes to your mind when you hear “Think different” or “Highly advanced yet simple to use“?

“Being all things to all people is a recipe for mediocrity and below average performance.”
–Michael Porter

Ignoring the concept of positioning could either lead the firm to take on its competitors head on, or appear as if they are everything for anyone. Neither is effective. Remember Zune as the iPod killer? It is through positioning we can strategize how our strengths will help create a winning situation for us. And, it is through positioning that we touch up every tangible aspect of the product, price, place and promotion to support the overall strategy.

“Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image so that they occupy a meaningful and distinct competitive position in the target customers’ minds.”
– Philip Kotler

Design is the integrating voice that brings differentiation and positioning together to establish the expectation of the unique value that customers would receive from you versus your competitors. Apple is about imagination, design and innovation, where their goal is to shape the technology to the customer’s needs, instead of forcing the user to adapt to the technology. With their famous 1984 ad, Apple is branded as a symbol of counterculture — rebellious, free-thinking and creative. This positioning is still reflected in their latest MacBook line:

• Dream on…. Ultra-low-end MacBook…. — There was a great deal of anticipation that Apple would deliver a low end Mac notebook, perhaps $800 or lower. As much as I would enjoy seeing an entry level MacBook, MacBooks are not cheap nor meant to be cheap. But, considering the level of quality and performance, they are affordable. Apple customers demand more and expect more. At least for now, we will have to settle for a $999 13″ white MacBook.
• Once there was one, now there is none — Apple’s one button mouse has been a controversy from the beginning. Now, Steve Jobs’ mantra of simplicity and focus replaces the current design with the multi-touch trackpad, redefining the concept of the mouse as-we-know-it. It is certainly rebellious, free-thinking and creative.
• Perception… 80% of reality — If it looks and feels expensive, people will pay more for it. Attractive things work better — attractiveness produces positive emotions, improving creativity. The unibody case, carved out of a single piece of aluminum, is the new look of the MacBook. It is attractive, and makes the product light and solid. If nothing else, giving the perception of higher quality.
• Environmental performance as much as product performance — A Forrester Research study highlights that 12% of US consumers, who are classified as bright greens by Forrester, are willing to pay more for green technology products, or products that come from company that is environmentally responsible. Interestingly enough, their study also highlights Apple’s customer base is the greenest among other major PC manufacturers (17%). The new MacBook continues on this path. You can read more on Apple’s 2008 Environmental Performance here.

Once you establish your position, the key is to maintain it. As Motorola demonstrated with RAZR, this is easier said than done. Today, iPhone outsells RAZR. Also, with time, as your product and industry evolves, so should your initial positioning. And, this too should be managed carefully. Apple positioned iPhone as an iPod with a phone feature, initially targeted at the consumer market. Not until the iPhone was firmly established did Apple take on RIM, repositioning itself for enterprise customers.

In summary, positioning is the course you navigate for your firm and your customers. It is entangled into everything your firm is about, the products it produces, how it produces them, how they are marketed and to whom they are targeting. Learn from Hewlett-Packard the engineering company, producing great engineering products (measurement equipment, calculators, …). It semi-transitioned to HP the computing company, selling commodity PCs and peripherals; and then again to HP the consumer electronics company, selling plasma TVs and branded OEM digital cameras. It is all about positioning: some tell great stories and others are lost in the noise.

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