The easiest way of getting into the mind is to be first, and for proofs of this concept just ask yourself who was the first person to fly solo across the North Atlantic and the answer is Charles Lindbergh. Now ask yourself who was second, and in most cases it’s not so easy to answer, as it was Bert Hinkler, and most likely you have probably never heard of Hinkler, yet you have probably heard of the third person to cross the North Atlantic…. it was Amelia Earhart. But why do you know her, because she was the first “woman” to do it. Think what is the highest mountain in the world and the obvious answer that everyone knows is Mount Everest in the Himalayas, but now ask yourself what is the second-highest, which obviously most people do not know. Now ask yourself what is the largest selling book ever published, the Bible, of course, and the second largest selling book is, who knows.

Many people believe that the basic issue in marketing is convincing prospects that you have a better product or service, and this is not true as the basic issue in marketing is creating a category you can be first in. It is the “law of leadership” that states “it is better to be first, than it is to be better” and it is much easier to get into the mind first than to try to convince someone you have a better product than the one that did the very first, so it is important to always remember, marketing is a battle of “perceptions, not products.”

It is very easy to remember who is first, and much more difficult to remember who is second (no one cares who is second in most cases), and even if the second entrant offers a better product, the first mover has a large advantage that can make up for other shortcomings, however, all is not lost for products that are not the first since it is not about being first physically to the marketplace. By being the first to claim a unique position in the mind of the consumer, a firm effectively can cut through the noise level of other products or services.

If you can’t be first category, set up a new category where you can be the first one and sometimes you can turn an also-ran into a winner by inventing a new category, as Dell computer when it got into the crowded personal computer field by being first to sell custom configured computers by phone.

It is very important to remember that when you launch a new product or service, the first question to ask yourself is not, “How is this new product better than the competition?” but “First what?” In other words, what category is this new product or service first in? Charles Schwab didn’t open a better brokerage firm, as he opened the first discount brokerage.

If a product is not going to be first, it’s important it must find an unoccupied position in which it can be first, for example, at a time when larger cars were popular, Volkswagen introduced the Beetle with the slogan “Think small”, and Volkswagen was not the first small car, but they were the first to claim that position in the mind of the consumer.

In a physical contest, the odds always favor the fastest horse, the strongest team, the best player, but it is not so in a mental contest, as in a mental battle the odds favor the first person, the first product, the first politician to get into the mind of the prospect, and in advertising and marketing, as best as a product is placed in any particular category, it’s even better to be first in the mind.

There was nothing poetic about Michelob beers advertising campaign in the early 80s, as “First class is Michelob” positioned the brand as a premium price American-made beer, and in a few years, Michelob became one of the largest selling beers in the United States, and at premium prices too. Was Michelob the first premium priced domestic beer, no, of course not, but Michelob was the “first to build that position” in the beer drinkers mind.

Schlitz beer was first to use the term “light” in its advertising slogan “Real gusto and great, light beer”, and no one believed, however, the Schlitz was any lighter than Budweiser or Pabst, its two closest competitors. But over at the Miller Brewing Company, they apparently asked themselves what would happen if they initially positioned a beer as a light beer, so Miller introduced “Lite” beer and the rest is history, a runaway success spawned a host of me-too brands including, ironically, Schlitz Light.

Other “positions” that firms successfully claimed include age (Geritol), high price (Mobil 1 synthetic engine lubricant), gender (Virginia Slims), time of day (Nyquil night-time cold remedy), place of distribution (L’eggs in supermarket), and quantity (Schaefer – “the one to have when you’re having more than one.”).

The three largest selling Japanese imported cars in America are Honda, Toyota and Nissan, and most marketing people think the battle between these three brands is based on quality, styling, horsepower, and price, but this is not true, as it’s what people think about these companies that determines which brand will win.

Japanese automobile manufacturers sell the same cars in the US as they do Japan, and in marketing or a battle of products, you would think the same order of sales would hold true for both countries. But in Japan, Honda is nowhere near the competition, as Toyota sells four times as many cars in Japan as Honda does. So what is the difference you might ask, if you told friends in New York you bought a Honda, they might ask you, “What kind of car did you get a Civic, an Accord, or a Prelude?” If you told friends in Tokyo you bought a Honda, they might ask you, “What kind of motorcycle did you buy?” In Japan, Honda got into customer’s minds as a manufacturer of motorcycles, and apparently most people don’t want to buy a car from a motorcycle company, so questions have to be continually asked like why is Campbell’s Soup No. 1 in the United States and nowhere in the United Kingdom, and why is Heinz’s Soup No. 1 in the U.K. and a failure in the U.S.?

It is critical to understand and remember that the easiest way of getting into someone’s mind is to be first, since it is very easy for people to remember who is first, and much more difficult to remember who is second, even if the second entrant offers a better product or service, and in order to overcome not being first, many times you can create new categories and enjoy the market power of being the first in the mind.

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