Positioning By Al Ries & Jack Trout - BOOK REVIEW

Rating: 3.75/5

This was an interesting read but not very memorable without notes. The only note I made was:

Out of mind, out of business. I guess this is enough because all I have to ask myself every day is, what has my business done today to stay at the top of customers’ and fans’ minds.

Overall, the idea and concept of “positioning” suggested that a product has to be positioned in the market so that, to a customer’s mind, you are somewhere along a hierarchy: e.g. the budgetbrand, the premium brand, the cool brand that you want people to see you ‘supporting’, the sexybrand, the glamorous brand etc.

Position yourself as being the FIRST & BEST at something. No one remembers the 2nd place product.

There is a great slideshow on SlideShare.net by Sameer Mathur elaborating the concept of positioning.

What I love about the positioning concept is that it too emphasizes that we have moved beyond buying products especially in the developed world. It describes the 1950s as the “product era” – an era when you focused entirely on product features and benefits and the current time as the era for strategizing and focusing on “position”.

The book had a range of interesting case studies too that I enjoyed listening to.

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