‘Positioning’ re-visited: The potion has not lost its magic

“Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
-- 20th Anniversary Edition”
By Al Ries and Jack Trout
McGraw-Hill, 2001



There are books that acquire the status of a “classic”. And once a book is conferred such an honor, it occupies a special place in your bookshelf. There are actually two sides to a timeless classic:

One, it preserves yesterday’s occurrence so major or an idea so earthshaking then, and serves as an interesting study on how people lived or thought then. We look back and say, wistfully even, “O, that’s how it was.” It’s history for the scholar and the curious.

Two, it keeps a watershed event or a groundbreaking idea all happening in the past that somehow, as representative of a period, can be retrieved later – today or tomorrow -- to shed light on current happenings. It is history explaining contemporary or future events or ideas.

The book, “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind – Twentieth Anniversary Edition,” published 20 years ago, is a classic belonging to the second category. The book was an event that revolutionized advertising and marketing strategic thought. It was also an idea whose “time had come” two decades ago, to paraphrase Victor Hugo.

It’s the same idea -- “positioning” -- that “is even more important today,” say the publishers. Is it a case of “retrieving” a relic from the dusty shelf, refurbish it, and thus pass it off as fresh as it was 20 years ago?

Or is it a case of a “formula” that continues to work wonders, a potion that hasn’t lost its magic, a time-tested (not time-worn) strategy that gets results, or an idea that always comes as “fresh from the oven.”

Re-reading is normally a chore – if not a bore. You feel you are short-changing yourself. I was prepared for the worst when I took hold of this book – after I was attracted by its 20th anniversary edition cover. It turns out that the book offers more than just a re-run of what I have read, yes, about 12 years ago.




It has come fresh for two reasons: One, the authors give a running commentary on what they wrote much earlier – thus illuminating the past with the present and vice versa. Two, the commentaries are easy to spot since they are placed on wide margins, with (many times) matching illustrations, to boot.

On media explosion, for example. The old version spoke only of television, print, and radio. At the margin is the familiar logo of “America Online” with the note: “Add the internet to the media list. The Internet, in our opinion, will become the greatest of all media with the most impact on our lives.” This is the book updating itself!

In the old version, the authors said that line extension for General Motors (makers of Cadillac) was ill- advised. In this newly-minted book, the same authors – much wiser – admitted: “We were wrong about the Cadillac Seville. It’s still with us.” This is the book correcting itself.

While Ries and Trout were wrong about the Cadillac, they took an “I-told-you-so” posture on the Volkswagen. They said then that it was a “terrible strategy” for Volkswagen to extend its product lines beyond the Beetle – despite the cute headline: “Different Volks for different folks.” “In 1993,” the new book says, “their (Volkswagen’s) share was less than three percent. Recently, of course, they brought back the Beetle and sales soared.”

There are many things that change. There are a few things that are unchanging. The authors did not revise their definition of “positioning”: “Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect.” And the entire book, with 22 chapters, guide you once again to becoming successful with “positioning.”

When you do decide to revisit the “Positioning” idea, especially when you are interested to position a company, not a product, page 159 narrates how Monsanto came up with a positioning idea that gave it pre-eminence as an industry leader in chemicals.

Revisiting a book – like a place – sometimes gives you a new eye for details that you missed the first time. I overlooked some interesting points when I read the old book – in the section titled “Make Sure Your Name Is Right.” Who is Leonard Slye? Who was Marion Morrison? Who was Issur Danielovitch? They are, in that order, Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Kirk Douglas! The message was clear then and clear now. Change your product or corporate name if they are forgettable – or are tongue twisters.

Reading the book the second time around, if only for the marginal notes, illuminates both the present and the past. “Positioning” as a marketing and creative approach remains effective today – alongside David Ogilvy’s “unique selling proposition” and “The Big Idea.”

If you haven’t read the book you have the advantage of knowing what works and what hasn’t work in a two-decade stretch. If you’ve read the 20-years-ago edition, this latest one is “Positioning Revisited.” It’s viewing this durable concept with a new lens.