Who?
Anyone that has never taken a marketing class should read this book.
When?
As soon as you begin doing any marketing or product development work.
Why?
Positioning is a great Marketing 101 explanation of branding, extending, and even developing a product.
Best Quote
Today’s marketplace is no longer responsive to the strategies that worked in the past. There are just too many products, too many companies, and too much marketing noise.
Review
If you studied marketing and/or work in it, you can probably skip this book, but if you do read it, you’ll probably enjoy it. I found the stories and examples rather simple, but the person that said I must read it, and isn’t a marketer by the way, thought it was amazing. The thing that marketers will enjoy in this book is all of the solid stories about how large brands tackled their problems.
Some main points that really stick out:
- Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what your customers say it is.
- People are inundated with information and attempts at communication. Forcing your way into someone’s life will almost always not work.
- Change minds by simplifying your message.
- If you can’t win in your category, create a new one. For a more recent example than the book gives, this is what Tim Ferriss did when he made up “lifestyle design.”
- 80% of learning and sensing is done visually, so make your product visually attractive. I don’t know if this had a name when Positioning was written, but I recommend researching sensation transference.
Last Word
Even though you might find yourself thinking, “Yeah, I know this already,” Positioning is a great reference book to have on your bookshelf. I will recommend it to young marketers I work with in the future, and I recommend it to you.
