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Book
Reviews
November
2004
Positioning - The Battle for Your Mind
Al Ries and Jack Trout
Recently, my
colleagues at Mirasys were discussing…OK, arguing over…what to name
our new product and how to talk to our target customers. In looking
for some support for my particular case, I picked up a copy of the
marketing classic, Positioning - The Battle for Your Mind by Al
Ries and Jack Trout.
It turned out
to be a refresher course in key concepts that, as product managers,
we need to work with everyday. The challenge we face in our over
stimulated society is how to convince people that our product is
worthy of their time and mental energy. Positioning shows that in
order to do this, we have to carve out a space in the minds of our
prospects.
And we know
that's not easy. Today the mind of our prospects are more fractured
that ever - dozen of applications active on the desktop, countless
web sites to view from a Google search, ceaseless cell phone calls,
instant messages, and, of course, emails to answer. How can we possible
carve out a place with all that noise?
That is where
Positioning becomes central to your product and marketing strategy.
The only way to get into the mind of your prospect is to leverage
what is already there. In order to do this effectively, you must
know your prospect intimately.
How well
do you know your prospects?
Positioning reminded me of something that could be very important
to product managers, the term-prospect-is the customer you don't
have yet. And the person or people most important for you to increase
sales of your product! It seems that product managers in Silicon
Valley have a bad habit-and I know I'm guilty-of using the word
"customer" to mean Customers and Prospects, where often the positioning
of your product required is very different for the different audiences.
To help us with
our positioning at Mirasys, we created profiles of the different
people who buy and use our product. Once they became "real people,"
they took on a life of their own and it became easier to develop
positioning statements that might get stuck in their minds.
What's in
a name?
In Positioning, I found the chapter "The Power of the Name"
to be the most helpful. Picking a product name is central to reinforcing
your positioning strategy. As Ries and Trout stated, "the name is
the hook that hangs the [product] in the prospect's mind. In the
positioning era, the single most important decision you can make
is what to name the product." So many technology products are named
as a result of their engineering prowess with little regard to what
that name might mean to a prospect. Positioning emphasizes the point
that an effective product and company names must be two or three
syllables.
So all this
got me thinking:
What is the
long term value of positioning?
Positioning is so strong that even Microsoft with all its market
and technology might can't move Intuit from the top spot in personal
finance, tax preparation, and small business accounting. Quicken,
Turbo Tax, and Quickbooks, all excellent examples of positioning
names, have been market leaders almost as soon as there were released.
Look at Google
as another example: with their singular focus on the "search position,"
they have radically changed the way we all work. But notice that
they don't make money directly from us with their search position.
Google sells that position to someone else trying to find a way
into our minds!
What is the
role of technology in positioning?
Technology must support the position and continue to defend the
position. A great example is how Salesforce.com is replacing the
positioning of Siebel as the product of choice for salespeople.
Salesforce.com starts its positioning with its name, then continues
it by moving into the mind of salespeople (who tend to be less savvy
when it comes to technology) as an easy to use web service as opposed
to Siebel a complex software application.
How will
you position your new product against Google, Outlook, or…?
The great thing about innovative technology, it continues to open
new places in the mind of your prospect. Positioning is a great
place to start your next strategic marketing initiative if you're
wrestling with your colleagues over some of these issues. While
some of the examples may seem dated or a little distant, Positioning
remains an important tool for today's product manager.
Next Up on
the Reading List
- Inside
Intuit
Suzanne Taylor and Kathy Schroeder
- The Art
of the Start
Guy Kawasaki
- The Innovator's
Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen
What's on your
shelf? Please feel free to share your reading list, camgeer@yahoo.com.
About the
Author
Cam Geer is an SVPMA member and Director of Product Management at
Mirasys (www.mirasys.net). A product strategist with over 13 years
experience, Cam has worked continually on the forefront of emerging
technologies for companies that evolve into significant segments
of the software industry including-digital video, e-learning, entertainment,
and personal finance.
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