Business Solutions

External strategy is about your approach to communications and it is built from the outside in, from the customer backwards, and positioning theory provides the body of knowledge for crafting this type of strategy and its focus is purely strategic as opposed to the creative the orientation of internal strategy.

Positioning is used as a communication tool to reach target customers in a crowded marketplace and as advertising executives have begun to develop positioning slogans for their clients, positioning has become a key aspect of marketing communications, and while positioning begins with a product, it’s not what you do to the product, positioning is what you do to the mind of the customer.

Since the concept a positioning is really about positioning a product in the mind of the customer, strategy is therefore planned in the mind, not the marketplace, and marketing then becomes a battle of perception not products. This approach is needed because consumers are bombarded with a continuous stream of high-volume advertising and the consumer’s mind reacts to this high-volume of advertising by accepting only what is consistent with prior knowledge or experience.

In a very general sense, there are only a few generic external positioning strategies including getting into the mind first or finding the niche, positioning yourself to the leader, or repositioning the competition.

The easiest way of getting into the mind is to be first and for proof of this concept answer questions including who was first to fly solo across the north Atlantic? Charles Lindbergh, right? Who was a second? Who was the first person to walk on the moon? The answer is Neil Armstrong, of course. Who was second? What’s the highest mountain in the world? Mount Everest in the Himalayas, right? What’s the second highest? What’s the largest selling ever published? Of course the answer is The Bible, right? And the second largest selling book? Who knows?

It is very easy to remember who is first, and much more difficult to remember who is second, 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 as it’s not being first physically to the marketplace, and 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.

If a product is not going to be first, it didn’t 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,” now Volkswagen was not the first small car, but they were the first to claim that position in the mind of the consumer.

Consumers rank brands in their minds and if a brand is not number one then to be successful it somehow must relate itself to the number one brand, and a campaign that pretends that the market leader does not exist is likely to fail, as Avis tried unsuccessfully for years to win customers, pretending that the number one Hertz did not exist. Finally, it began using the line, “Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder.” For 13 years in a row Avis lost money and after the campaign, Avis quickly became profitable, and whether Avis actually tried harder was not relevant to their success, rather, consumers finally were able to relate Avis to Hertz, which was number one in their minds.

Remember, you must own your niche and own it out right and no one else can occupy your space, and if you can’t own it, especially from a marketing expenditure outlay, then decrease the size of niche until you can, and if somebody else occupies your chosen space you must try to reposition them.

All successful external strategies must start with the mind of the consumer and then work backward and this is true because the answer is not contained within the product or service itself, and no amount of creative thinking or analysis will result in the insights needed to successfully position your company, product, or service. The answer rests instead in the mind of your customer and you must begin with what’s already there and then work backwards, or outside in to create your external strategy.

Ask yourself, “What position do I own now?”And remember external strategy is thinking in reverse, so instead of starting with yourself, you start with the mind of the prospect and instead of asking what you are, you asked what position you already own in the mind of the prospect, and changing minds in our over communicated society is an extremely difficult task, as it’s much easier to work with what’s already there.

Next, ask yourself, “What position do I want to own?” Then ask yourself, “How can I be the first to claim a unique position in the mind of my customer?” And here is where you try to figure out the best position to own from a long-term perspective, and “Own” is the key word, as too many programs set out to communicate a position that is impossible to preempt because someone else already owns it.