How do corporate giants achieve their strength?
What makes some companies and products so much more successful than others?
How companies can move into new industries with apparent ease?
How companies and products can appeal to every national culture?
What attracts people to buy famous but expensive brands?
Why the number one companies and brands of seventy years ago are still in the top spot today?
How companies develop brand equity that adds billions of dollars to their saleable assets?
How ordinary products and services get out of the commodity trap and appear different from the rest?
What it takes to increase customer acquisition and loyalty?
How the value is added in “value added” marketing?
How you can read minds through research?
How the “supermarketeers” manage consumer perceptions?

The answers to all these questions have one thing in common – they involve strategic positioning techniques. Competitive strategy is very much concerned with being different, and strategic positioning is the way in which this is achieved. It is a subject often mentioned in business conversations, but widely misunderstood and misinterpreted. And despite its critical importance to the strategic marketing process, it receives no more than a cursory mention in the majority of management books. Those who have written about positioning in-depth are few and far between.

The truth about positioning is that it is ubiquitous, and can determine whether an enterprise fails or flourishes, because the end result of positioning is image. Everything an organisation does (and sometimes omits to do) influences people’s view of it, sometimes leaving them feeling indifferent, but more usually influencing their feelings in a positive or negative way. Public perceptions – in other words the image they have or an organisation – can influence how successful or unsuccessful it will be. A poor image can damage stock price, give rise to adverse reports and ratings by analysts, make fund-raising difficult, increase pressure from shareholders, lose customers, damage morale, and reduce profitability. A good image can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage and precisely the reverse of these negative effects.

Positioning at its simplest involves establishing a favourable opinion or image in people’s minds. Organisations often do not realise that whether or not they have consciously attempted to gain a position, or establish an image, they already have one. Those that research on their image are often disappointed in what they find. Few understand that they can influence people’s perceptions through positioning techniques and actions and by doing so, control and shape their image and destiny. Despite the close association with the commercial world, image management applies just as much to individuals, non-profit-making enterprises, government departments and agencies and even nations. They all need to manage their image because adverse perceptions can lead to failure and good perceptions can bring success to all.

This book is about strategic positioning and how to harness its power. Positioning is strategic and should not be treated as a tactical marketing tool. It is a strategic weapon because it can make the difference between the ordinary and the elite, and because it requires the realignment of organisational resources and activities to do so. Like any strategy, it is long term in nature but the outcome of successful strategic positioning is a powerful image. Indeed, because positioning can produce such spectacular results as those mentioned above, I have called this book Strategic Positioning .

The text takes you through the strategic positioning process, and the various techniques associated with it. Based on the most up-to-date methods used by world-class companies, the skills of strategic positioning are presented in practical step-by-step method and illustrated by examples and cases from many industries, markets and situations.

Chapter 1 outlines the basic ideas behind strategic positioning, especially the importance of managing people’s perceptions, and shows how they link to image, personality, values, visions and missions and success.

Chapter 2 explains strategic positioning in more detail. Anything and anyone can be positioned powerfully. Here I describe the four basic stages of the positioning process and then discuss some of the results that strategic positioning can achieve.

Chapter 3 looks at the various choices or strategies available in strategic positioning, and how they can be combined for maximum success. This is the “powerhouse” or the engineer-room if you like. Choosing the right strategy will determine the outcome.

Chapter 4 covers in depth the reasons why repositioning takes place, and how it is achieved.

Chapter 5 looks at brands and brand building, and the strategic positioning techniques you can use whether for a company, product or person. You will also discover in this chapter how a brand can occupy one or more positions. Finally, I explain how you can gain maximum impact from strategic positioning in terms of brand loyalty and the customer experience.

Chapter 6 looks at targets. It is no use giving the right messages to the wrong people. Strategic positioning demands focus and identifying exactly your target audience. I discuss market segmentation techniques in detail, with particular emphasis on the newer psychographic approaches.

Chapter 7 deals with executional issues. I cover particularly the subject of how to write a good positioning statement and how to choose the appropriate media to communicate the right messages, such as advertising, promotion and public relations. Special emphasis is given to the importance of integrating emotion into positioning so as to add power.

Chapter 8 looks at how to measure positioning success and the research techniques, such as focus groups, that have been found to be of most use. These include perceptual mapping, which visually gives you a view of where you are versus the competition in people’s minds, which is an essential tool for creating powerful positions.

Chapter 9 discusses some topical issues of interest, including strategic positioning for nations, the problems and opportunities arising from country of origin, global and local strategic positioning decisions, the very real problems of influencing people’s minds about technology and technology products, and the role of positioning in the advances made by relationship marketing.

Chapter 10 summarises the strategic positioning process by offering a step-by-step question guide for anyone who has responsibilities for building a strong or stronger image.

Who This Book Is For
Many books deal with concepts, and explain them well, but fail to show people how they can successfully implement the ideas. This book is written from a practical point of view. Consequently, it will appeal to all those people who want to know how to get others to see themselves or their organisations differently, and built up a powerful image. As strategic positioning is also a widely applicable package of ideas and techniques, it will therefore be of interest to a wide range of people, including:

Chief Executive Officers and General Managers
Marketing Directors and Managers
Brand, Category and Product Development Managers
Advertising, Promotion and Public Relations Specialists
Corporate Affairs and Corporate Communications Managers
Corporate Planners and Business Development Specialists
Marketing and Communications Consultants
Those who work in Government Ministries and Departments who
have to deal with media and communications
Students of Business and Communications
And of course, anyone who wants to build their own image,
including politicians, business people, entrepreneurs and entertainers

You will find this book of assistance in helping you to:

Achieve your vision and mission
Build and manage a strong brand and/or corporate image
Make your company appear different and better than the competition
Choose and implement the right strategies to create and maintain
a unique, powerful image
Reposition and turn around your business
Focus your total marketing effort form maximum impact
Influence and manage the perceptions of key target audiences
Attract and retain more customers
Employ up-to-date research techniques to analyse and improve
your competitive stance
Save and get more for your money from advertising and promotion

So, whoever you are, whatever your business is, or whatever the size of your organisation, if you want to change people’s views, attitudes and perceptions, this book will help you do it. Above all, it will help you achieve results.