Business Solutions

Many companies such as Avis and Seven-Up found viable positions to marketing leaders, but most companies don’t want to be an also-ran, successful or not, and they want to be a leader like Hertz or Coke, so how do you get to be a leader, actually, it’s quite simple to do, for example, remember Charles Lindbergh and Neil Armstrong? You just get there ‘first with the most’ and history shows that the first brand into the brain, on average, gets twice the long-term market share of the No. 2 brand and twice again as much as the No. 3 brand.

If you are still not convinced, to further prove the importance of being first, consider the fact that when a marketing leader isn’t first in a new category, the new product is usually an also-ran in the minds of the target consumer market, for example, take Coca-Cola, a gigantic company compared with Dr. Pepper, and yet when Coke introduced a competing product, Mr. Pibb, even the immense resources of the cola giant that is Coca-Cola, couldn’t put much of a dent in Dr. Pepper’s sales, and Kodak was supposedly going to cream Polaroid when they got into the instant camera business, but their results were disappointing to say the least, as Kodak managed to take only a small share, at the great expense of a substantial loss in its conventional camera business.

You must understand that as long as a company owns the position, there is no point in running advertisements that repeat the obvious, as in “We’re No.1” for instance, as it is  much better to enhance the product category in the consumer prospect’s mind, for example, IBM’s advertising usually ignores competition and sells the value of computers in general. So then another good question becomes why isn’t it a good idea to rent advertising that says, “We’re No. 1”? The reason is psychological, as either the prospect knows you are No. 1 and wonders why you are so insecure that you have to say so, or the prospect doesn’t know you are No. 1, if not, why not, and you don’t want to create an opening for any doubt to creep into the minds of your target consumer market.

“The real thing”, this classic Coca-Cola advertising campaign is a strategy that can work for any leader, as the essential ingredient is again ‘getting into the mind first,’ and then keeping that position by reinforcing the original concept, in other words, Coke is the standard by which all others are judged, and in contrast, everything else is an imitation of the “real thing.” Now this is not the same thing as saying, “We’re No. 1,” but the “real thing,” like a first love, will always occupy a special place in the consumer prospect’s mind.

You must also be aware that you cannot define your leadership position in your own terms, it must instead be defined in the prospect’s terms, and saying we are, “The best-selling high-definition television under $1,000 in North America,” just won’t work, as you have to build a leadership position using the prospect’s terms, which is what’s already in their mind.

One classic marketing mistake made by market leaders is to assume that the power of the product is derived from the power of the organization, but it’s just the reverse, as the power of the organization is derived from the power of the product, the position that the leader’s product owns in the consumer prospect’s mind. Coke has power, but outside the cola field, the Coca-Cola Company has to earn its power the hard way, either by getting into the mind first, by establishing a strong alternative position, or by repositioning the leader, as we see with Coca-Cola’s Mr. Pibb, that ran a poor second place race to Dr. Pepper, and all the power of the Coca-Cola Company couldn’t do much about it.

Just like Coke, Xerox has much power, as Xerox means copier, and Xerox owns the copier position because it got into the mind the first thing, and exploited that copier position by a massive marketing program, but in computers, word processors and other office products, Xerox starts at ground zero, and usually without much success.

So you have to first ask yourself, “What position do I own now?”, and realize external strategy is really thinking in reverse, so instead of starting with yourself, you start with the mind of the consumer prospect, and instead of asking what you are, you ask 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?”, and then ask, “How can I be the first to claim a unique position in the mind of my customer?”, as here is where you try to figure out the best position to “own” from a long-term perspective.

Finally, it is critical to remember, “Own” is the key word, and too many failed programs set out to communicate a position that is impossible to preempt right from the very start because someone else already “owns” it.