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The Battle for ‘Brain Share’
Positioning, both inside and outside the walls of your company, is central to marketplace success
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CONNTACT.COM
10/14/2002
By: BNH
Anne-Marie Brungard
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Simply, positioning is how your target market defines you in relation to your competitors.
Positioning “is the process of separating your business from the pack,” said Nicki McHugh, the New Haven advertising firm McLaughlin, DelVecchio & Casey's director of public relations. “It is the art of defining your uniqueness.”
Explains California positioning guru Doc Searls, “Positioning is a matter of getting honest and real with yourselves and your customers.” Searls emphasizes that an internal process must come first. “You can't job it out,” he says. Where does your company come from? Where do you come from? Are you living and working in affirmation or denial of what makes you most original?”
Those are the fundamental questions your positioning campaign should start by answering. Those are the questions you should start answering - if you haven't answered them already.
The term "positioning" took on new value and meaning for businesses in the early 1970s when Al Ries and Jack Trout ran a series of articles on "The Positioning Era" for Advertising Age. The concept was simple: The best marketing strategy is to own a piece of the prospect's mind.
"Like the memory bank of a computer, the mind has a slot or position for each bit of information it has chosen to retain," Ries and Trout wrote. Those slots are arranged like rungs on ladders. Established positions, especially leading ones, are ideal to own - and hard to dislodge.
Everyone is familiar with Avis and its classic “We're No. 2 - We Try Harder" campaign, which used its subordinate position to Hertz to advantage. In another classic positioning case, soft-drink maker 7-Up created a whole new ladder by calling itself "the UnCola," which ultimately repositioned the entire soft drink ladder.
In the post-Enron and -WorldCom environment, some companies are re-positioning outwardly and internally in order to convey their “trustworthiness.”
“The company's unique message can portray trust, heritage or innovation,” affirms Stuart M. Berni, president of Berni Design. A good position is one that: 1) makes the company or product unique; and 2) is considered a benefit by your target market.
Both of these conditions are necessary for good positioning. It is important because you are competing with all the noise out there - competing for your existing and potential customers' attention. If you can stand out with a distinctive benefit, you have a chance at getting - and holding - their attention.
It is important to understand your product and/or company from the customer's point of view relative to the competition.
“The process has a specific methodology,” says McHugh. The approach applied may be different in order to meet the growing and changing needs of the company. “A new company just starting has very different needs from one that is going through transitions, or one whose transition did not go well.” The same can be said for a company that is moving or changing its focus.
According to McHugh, the initial analysis phase will include research, defining objectives and setting benchmarks.
“Here we define the messages from all points of view,” she says. “There might not be just one.” The company may be very clear on the end result from a business process perspective, but may not be as clear on marketing. “The strategy employs a form of exploration,” McHugh adds. “Quite often where we end up is not where we thought we might be.”
An outside consultant's role would be to work in collaboration with the company, guiding or facilitating the process.” Moving from analysis to strategy, McHugh describes the nuts and bolts of how to communicate the message? Here the tactics are defined for specific elements and would typically include outlining timeframes and identifying human and financial resources. Setting timeframes for the entire process may depend heavily on the scale of the company, product or issue being addressed. The evaluation and review phase is a critical element.
Measuring progress against the stated goals and objectives can help to redefine and improve the process. “At this point the process starts again,” adds McHugh, “because hopefully we have moved the needle and the audience has a better understanding of [the] new messages.”
Who would even dream of competing with the reigning kings of heartburn heaven - the hamburger giants? Subway would - and did.
“We are trying to compete with any company or restaurant chain that sells [prepared] food,” said Les Winograd. As Milford-based Subway World Headquarters' public relations coordinator, Winograd describes the company's two key selling points.
First is the “relative healthfulness” aspect. Who can forget Jared of Subway advertising fame? On his own initiative, the formerly porcine pitchman embarked on a diet of low-fat Subway sandwiches - and shed 245 pounds. “We have positioned ourselves as a healthier alternative to the traditional fatty fast foods,” says Winograd. This included taking regular menu items and emphasizing their healthy attributes. Enter the “7 under 6” menu (seven sandwich offerings with six or fewer grams of fat).
Closely tied to that is the “freshness” angle Subway's advertising emphasizes. This combines the fresh (bread baked on premises) and custom-made-for-you features of Subway dining. Since there are still consumers who associate nutritious with lacking in taste, another ad spokesperson has been introduced to highlight the savor of Subway offerings, which include a select gourmet menu. In the new campaign Jim, the tell-it-like-it-is character, touts the company's “made in front of your eyes” freshness approach.
Subway has invested heavily in positioning externally to the general public. A similar effort is made to position each of its franchisees. The market research teams and development agents who provide ongoing training for franchise owners are also encouraged to participate in planning committees. Regional meetings and conventions are the passageway for delivery of information regarding the company's efforts.
Information dissemination is backed by a full array of in-house publications to reinforce the message and plenty of support in the form of an on-site logistics and inspection process. “Sharing information about the target markets, new commercials and improvements builds enthusiasm among the [franchisees],” Winograd says. “They take that home with them and present it to their employees and the public at the store level.”
Having simply no opinion about a product, a company or -- in some cases - a municipality can be just as damaging as having a negative opinion.
The city of Meriden endured just this form of malaise. On a shoestring budget, the Silver City has financed three major advertising campaigns over a five-year period, attempting to position Meriden as the business center of the state. The team of Riley & Co. provided advertising and marketing consulting services over the course of the campaigns. “After all the research, it was natural to position them as a small city with lots of potential for big business incentives,” explains David Riley, president of the firm.
So a qualitative research approach was employed that involved outreach to industry professionals such as commercial real estate brokers and business owners, both in and beyond Meriden. Other municipalities with similar benefits and challenges were also examined by the planners, not just in Connecticut, but nationally, too. “This market differentiation process was used to develop the message,” explains Ellen Ornato, president of Solutions Public Relations & Marketing, which provides strategic planning and public relations support to the project.
“Being geographically central wasn't as important as location from a business standpoint and being ideally located at the intersections of Interstates 691 and 91,” says Ornato. In addition, the relative dearth of traffic was noted. Ornato points out that “Traffic is concentrated in Hartford and New Haven, not so in Meriden.”
The broader message was then refined into key messages for business, residents, city and the broader community.
“For business development we looked very closely at the workforce and the fact that [Meriden] has an Information Technology Zone and is an Enterprise Zone with their own sets of tax and/or state benefits,” says Ornato.
This message was then communicated to the city's economic development department, which has focused on making it as easy as possible for businesses to start up or move to the city.
“The multi-faceted campaign also includes developing a Web site unique for economic development,” adds Ornato, “It will be able to disseminate information and generate leads for the city and the business community.”
Meriden Magazine, a quality-of-life publication, is also used as a tool to fortify the message and underscores the city's tourism potential and cultural benefits, too. City employees have been included in this process. “We used a different approach and encouraged staff to share information and give feedback early in the process,” says Riley. The information garnered was used to develop the main messages, but also became a tool for education.
“Many of the city employees did not live in the city so there was a real opportunity to educate people about what the city had to offer and discuss both its pros and cons,” Riley says. This has evolved into Meriden's Ambassador Program.
“It has opened a window for information-sharing about the revitalization efforts, the changing business community and the role of government,” Riley says. “The new ambassadors are then armed with valuable information and can appropriately make referrals to the right departments and in turn it promotes better business.”
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