Jack Trout

Perhaps it’s human nature not to admit there are things you can’t do. Certainly most marketers believe that anything is achievable if you are energetic enough, or creative enough, or determined enough. Especially if you are willing to spend enough money.

Positioning is an organized system for finding a window in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.

A mind that has not been burnished by someone else’s brand.

first make sure you can’t find something to be first in

’s better to be a big fish in a small pond (and then increase the size of the pond) than to be a small fish in a big pond.

old traditional ways of doing things die hard. “There’s no reason why advertising can’t do the job,” say the defenders of the status quo, “as long as the product is good, the plan is sound, and the commercials are creative.”
But they overlook one big, loud reason. The marketplace itself. The noise level today is far too high.

just as the me-too products killed the product era, the me-too companies killed the image era. As every company tried to establish a reputation for itself, the noise level became so high that relatively few companies succeeded.

the product is not, rather than what it is.

you must relate your brand to the brands already in the prospect’s mind.

the past advertising was prepared in isolation. That is, you studied the product and its features, and then you prepared advertising which communicated to your customers and prospects the benefits of those features. It didn’t make much difference whether the competition offered those features or not.

In the traditional approach, you ignored competition and made every claim seem like a preemptive claim.