POSITIONING- THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND (AUTHOR AL RIES AND JACK TROUT)

Presented by:
Shristi (seat- 73) Gagan (seat- 57) Kshitij (seat- 59) Binu (seat- 13) Neeraj (seat- 50) Aritra (seat- 51) Raghav (seat-19 ) Nandhini (seat- 03)

CHAPTER 1
POSITIONING
Not about a product. Mind of the prospect. Not create something new and different Manipulate what is already there in the mind.

INTRODUCTION OF THE BOOK

Life has transformed from stone age to Information age. We have different means of expressing our views. But why even today we are facing communication problems. We hope this book will help you in finding your answer..

CHAPTER 2
ASSAULT ON MIND
Media Explosion. Product Explosion. Advertising explosion.

CHAPTER 3
GETTING INTO MIND
When to enter. Product era, Image era.

CHAPTER 4-5
THOSE LITTLE LADDERS IN YOUR HEAD First, if your company is not the first, then it has to be the first to occupy the No. 2 position. Second, the classic positioning strategy is to find your own way onto a ladder owned by someone else. Third, successful positioning requires consistency.

You cant get there from here

CHAPTER 6
Positioning of a Leader If your company owns a position, there is no point in running the advertisement. Keeping the leadership position is reinforcing the original concept of company. You should not be carried away with your past success. You should introduce new brand in the market but no change the original positioning.

CHAPTER 7-8
Positioning of a Follower
Look for the holes that have not been touched by anyone yet. Differentiate your position from the leader

Repositioning the competition

A name that tells what benefits your product gives. A good name can be the best insurance for your long-term success.

Chapter 9

The power of the name

the great influencing power. a name that tells the prospect what benefits your product gives. name should be generic, it should not hide the origin of the product and unless you are famous, you must keep your full long and digestive name.

Chapter 10: The no-name trap

A company must be extremely well known before it can use initials of its name.

Chapter 11: The free ride trap

If you are the first one to enter into the mind, you need not a unique (any name is going to work.). But if you are not first, then need to have a unique and appropriate name.

Divide the market into small segment and develop a new product for each segment with newer brand and name rather than playing with a single product with single name for many years. With fewer brands Procter & Gamble does twice as much business and five times as much profit as Colgate-Palmolive.
Dont attach your name with something well-known. You need to give a newer name.

Chapter 12: The Line-Extension trap

Line extension is taking the name of established product and using it on a new one. the line-extension works against the generic brand position and destroys it is superiority and uniqueness that prospects mind had earlier.

Chapter 13: When the Line-Extension can work

line-extension has some advantages but only in short-run. In Long term, there are many disadvantages: Line extension names are easily forgettable. Person should be able to recall the names with same brand. When there are no brands or weak brands, you can use lineextension strategy. But as competition arrives, you are in trouble.

Chapter 14
Positioning a company
Company can use the strategy of Third-leg. Example : Xerox has the opportunity to put another technological word Lasography to create broader mental position which includes next generation products relating to communication output in office.

Chapter 15 Positioning a country- Belgium

The answer to the problem of nationwide airline like Sabena Belgium World Airlines is to position the country, not the airline. It could find the problem of positioning into its advertisement. It then intelligently positioned Belgium as a tourist place- a Beautiful Belgium and Three star cities.

Chapter 16: Positioning an Island- Jamaica

Jamaica needed both FDI and tourism development Jamaica advertised itself as a tourist destination place Jamaica developed a new position for the island of Jamaica is applaud able.

Chapter 17: Positioning a product- Milk Duds

Milk Duds used to receive small budget for advertisement so it could not dream of heavy mass advertisement to survive and compete with other leading products. there was a glaring weakness in the candy bar competition that company could identify- a candy bar just doesnt last very long. company came up with a candy bar which will last a long time than any other candy bar in America and positioned as a long lasting bar in America successfully

Chapter 18: Positioning a service: Mailgram

The most difficult job of a marketer starts when it comes to advertise a service that prospect cant see but feel. Mailgram is the mail service of Western Union. They found that customer used to give importance to two aspects of the service i.e. Low cost and speed of delivery. But company was confused which aspect to choose to position its service. company decided to change the positioning of its service from low-cost mailgram to high speed mail.

Chapter 19: Positioning a Long Island Bank

Long Island Trust was a leading bank on the island. Company took help of formal positioning research to map prospects mind. The questions were related to the following attributes of banking service: 1) many branches,2) full range of services,3) quality of service,4) large capital ,5) helps Long Island residents, and 6) helps Long Island economy. company happily capitalized on the last 2 attributes and positioned itself as a bank which cares for the island and helps island people and economy, being the regional bank.

Chapter 20: Positioning a New Jersey bank

Long island bank is a small bank. It had also competition with big leading banks like Citibank, and many other big New York City banks. Company developed a positioning strategy as fast moving bank with saving time of customers as a new proposition. The fast moving bank strategy was a big success for United Jersey.

Chapter 21: Positioning a ski resort- Stowe

Stowe had a good reputation in ski resort market. As a strategy of 7 wonders of the world, it used the strategy of one of the top 10 ski resorts in the world. Thus, it was giving the customer a feeling of it is using the services of one of the worlds top 10 companies and adding credibility to its already established reputation.

Chapter 22:- Positioning the Catholic Church

The essence of any religion is communication from divinity to clergy to congregation. Church was promoting the role of Church in keeping Christ alive in the minds of new generation.

Chapter 23: Positioning yourself and career

If the positioning strategies can be applied to a product, why cant they be applied to promote you? The book gives some strategies to position you. Make mistakes. Make sure your name is right. Dont use initials in your name. Use full name. Have a unique name. Find a horse on which you can ride. Horse can be your company, boss, a friend, an idea, faith or yourself.

Chapter 24: Positioning your business

What position do you own? What position do you want to own? Whom must you outgun? (Select a position that no one else has a firm grip on.) Do you have enough money? Can you stick to a single position? Do you match your position?

Chapter 25: Playing the positioning game

You must have great degree of mental flexibility. You must know how words affect people. You must be careful of change. You need a vision. You need courage. You need objectivity. You need simplicity You need subtlety. You must be willing to sacrifice. You need a global outlook. You need patience. You need not be an expert of marketing to think about positioning techniques for your business.

BENEFITS FROM THE BOOK

It enlightens us with the concept of various positioning and marketing strategies. It shows us different ways of being a successful marketer of different brands , products and services of the company. It guides us how to make our company a profitable and successful one.

QUESTIONS
What do you mean by positioning? How can you position your companys products and services? What are the various marketing and positioning strategies depicted in the book? What are your learning from the book?