 A Marketing Classic - A must read. |
| Review Date: January 4, 2000 |
| Reviewer: , |
| Positioning is a concept that has been coined by Ries and Trout in the late 1970s. Today (2000), Positioning has become one of the most commonly used marketing terms. Like all other books by Trout and Ries, "Positioning" is straight-forward, common-sensical and easy to read. The book is full of real market example of positioning attempts that succeeded and failed. This book belongs on the bookshelves of marketers just as much as the laws of trigonometry belong on the shelves of mathematicians |
The most important marketing book you can read
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| Review Date: October 9, 1998 |
| Reviewer: , |
| I discovered this book in 1994 and it changed my business life. It opened my eyes to a facet of marketing that is too often overlooked, and it's the most important facet. Positioning is more than branding, it's the key to success. Luckily, most companies don't do proper positioning, which is why there's always room for new companies to start up, get it right, and be very successful. If you don't read this book, you're chances at success are like everyone elses: 1 in 10. Read and learn positioning, and the odds are with you. Simple as that. |
Packed With Knowledge!
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| Review Date: July 6, 2001 |
| Reviewer: Rolf Dobelli, Switzerland |
Yes, this is the renowned marketing classic, revered for bringing to light the now ubiquitous strategy of positioning. If you're in business, you probably have at least a fuzzy notion of what the term means. If you're in marketing, you probably hear the word used at least five times a day. (Seriously, try counting.) But in terms of defining positioning and explaining how to use it as a foundation for your strategy, nobody has done a better job than Al Ries and Jack Trout in this original. Of course, the book does have a slightly historical flavor to it now, since the most contemporary business examples cited arrive from the 1970s and 1980s. While a lot has changed since then, a lot hasn't. You'll be surprised how similar this book sounds to the marketing missives of 2001, despite the fact that it was written before the arrival of the Internet, globalization and other buzzwords du jour. We [...] recommend that any executive charged with product development or general business strategy join those in marketing, advertising and sales by taking a few hours to read this book, and get back to the basics.
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Much More Than Marketing
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| Review Date: March 5, 2004 |
| Reviewer: David Quinn, Orange County, CA United States |
| Positioning is the idea that shook Madison Avenue to its core in the 1970s. Ries and Trout published what the high priests of Madison Avenue deemed as heresy. These two upstarts dared to take the voodoo out of marketing - and marketing has not been the same since. Over the years I have given away countless dozens of Positioning. I have found two types of recipients: (1) Those who view it as a book on marketing, and (2) those who truly "get it." Positioning is not actually about marketing, though that is its platform. It is about how the human mind works. The principals taught in this book apply across all of our lives - from how we are viewed by our friends to why we affiliate with a particular political party or other social cause. Learning how Positioning works is learning about life. |
It's short and it's very readable
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| Review Date: December 8, 2000 |
| Reviewer: Alemayehu Telahun, Schenectady, NY United States |
| I read this book out of curiosity. It turned out to be an excellent read. Positioning is the battle that advertisers wage for a place in our mind. The ultimate goal it to create associations such as (Soda, Coke) (Coffee, Starbucks) (Fried Chicken, KFC) (Online bookstore, Amazon) etc. Companies that succeeded in creating this association thrive. This book is brilliantly successful in explaining positioning and how the mind works (how we react to advertising.) Furthermore, it is packed with variety of examples of successful unsuccessful advertisement campaigns. The only weakness I found was that the book was not very convincing when it tried to explain how you can apply positioning (e.g. positioning your business, positioning your career.) If you want to know why companies spend on advertising, how, when and why advertising works this is an excellent book. It's short and it's very readable. |
A "Business Classic"
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| Review Date: May 18, 2001 |
| Reviewer: Robert Morris, Dallas, Texas |
| Although it has been many years since this book was first published (1993), it remains relevant to the contemporary business world and is probably more valuable now than ever before. It is truly a "classic" in company with Levitt's The Marketing Imagination and few others. The basic concept is that whatever you and your associates may think of what you sell, how it is perceived by those who are asked to buy is really what determines whether or not it will be purchased. Literally, the marketplace's perceptions (including those of competitors) are the decisive realities. To position a given product or service effectively, therefore, is to have it perceived to be superior to (or at least more desirable than) other purchase options. In an age when almost every product and service has become a commodity, "customer service" and "brand equity" have necessarily been re-defined but the principles affirmed by Ries and Trout remain unchanged. The challenge to marketers now is to differentiate with a more complicated multiple of components which include perceived value (rather than cost), perceived quality, perceived reliability (hence product or service credibility as well as credibility of seller), and perceived ease and convenience of doing business with the seller. There is one other component which should also be included: the pleasure of the purchase experience which Schmitt's explains brilliantly in Experiential Marketing as do Pine and Gilmore in The Experience Economy and Wolf in The Entertainment Economy. When Ries and Trout wrote this book almost a decade ago, the positioning strategies they recommended were in response to a competitive marketplace quite different from the one they and we now survey. Nonetheless, the urgency of effective positioning remains...indeed is even greater today. This is one of the very few books on marketing which should be re-read at least every 3-6 months. (Ditto Levitt's book.) One final point: There is a direct correlation between customer expectations and their perceptions. As the former become higher (sometimes unrealistic), the latter change accordingly. Whatever you offer for sale, make certain that you fully understand customer expectations first before deciding how to manage customer perceptions. Those perceptions are within a frame-of-reference which constantly changes. Positioning is not a location; rather, a strategic imperative.
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Get Into Your Prospect�s Mind
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| Review Date: August 28, 2002 |
| Reviewer: Carmen Matthews, San Diego, California |
| I didn't want this book to end, because the authors have managed to combine humor, with an "in-your-face" reality about getting into the prospect's mind. They suggest we set both the "four P's" (product, price, place, and promotion) paradigm and the idea of being creative aside, until we have researched and know what segment we can serve on a superior level - the we must know where the competition is, and where the hole is in their attributes. This truly had me thinking about many things. Being a fairly new business, I had to overcome the idea that my business name really does not say what prospects will recognize as what I'm doing --- it was hard to see that the name, which I had chosen represented more about where I have evolved, and less about what I was in business to serve. And once I accepted this, I was free to start asking people what they think of the new name that I have come up with. I also objectively listened, while I allowed myself time to come up with what really is 5 syllables or less; something that communicates to my prospects the benefits that I provide. I kept asking myself what is in the minds of my prospects. And I saw more than I saw before. Which has netted me, a profit in my business bottom line, today. Another point that surprised me was that Ford is not doing as well as I assumed it is doing. And my assumption was based upon the fact that of all automotive makers that exist, I have only read about the history of Ford. I haven't read about General Motors. Which I am sure that once I do read about GM, I will say, "Wow!" A downside that this book has, as in many that I have read is that when it speaks of service, it's not talking about selling writing, speeches or consulting. So the reader must ask herself how the wonderful lessons could apply. Yet, I truly recommend that everyone, 18 and over buy this book, because this book provides tools in convincing the right people to choose what you are offering, on terms that are mutually beneficial. |
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