Lurking in copywriting forums, one of the recommended reading books for aspiring copywriters that I found was Al Ries and Jack Trout’s Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.
I must say, it was such an engaging and enlightening read, I finished the book in two days!
A first for me, especially when I’m reading for self-improvement and not for entertainment. ;)
So what have I learned? Here are my notes:
#1: “To be successful today, you must touch base with reality. And the only reality that counts is what’s already in the prospect’s mind.”
Like it or not, the person you’re targeting already has firm beliefs and opinions brought on by his interactions and experiences. When you create copy or commercials, you’re going up against these preconceptions and misconceptions that are already in their minds.
They’re more likely to suspect what you’re going to tell them. It’s difficult to change minds because once a person has fixed something in her mind, “it’s almost impossible to change it.”
Unless you can use what they already believe to your advantage.
This is the key to connecting with the perceptions that already exist in your prospects’ minds and in positioning your product or service within that context.
#2: “There’s a traffic jam on the turnpikes of the mind.”
I imagine Ries and Trout giving the solution to this problem with tongue in cheek.
Here’s the rub: before you can communicate your position, your target is consuming information every minute of every hour every day from all sorts of media—the Internet, email, cellphones, television, newspapers, books, magazines. A long list certainly.
In 2009 alone, your messages where competing with 11.799 hours’ of other information flowing into her household daily, not counting the ones she received at work. That’s about 100,500 words a day, so says the expert who did the study.
Somewhere in that barrage, your message—however life-saving it is—may not have a chance to latch on to your prospect’s subconscious. Remember, you and I have to be exposed to a message at least three times to get it.
Ries and Trout’s solution?
Oversimplify the message.
Less is more and all that jazz if you want to make an impression.
#3: “Concentrate on the receiving end…the perceptions of the prospect. Not the reality of the product.”
To connect with your prospect, spend time puttering around in her mind.
Meet with your prospect there. Find out what will make her receptive to your message. Use what you find to craft your message.
But what about the product or service you’re selling? Don’t the features and benefits count?
This is where I stumbled a bit because I’m thinking from the viewpoint of the consumer, not the copywriter or advertiser.
Ries and Trout echoes John Lindsay: “In politics, the perception is the reality. So, too, in advertising, in business and in life.”
In other words, truth is relative so the truth about the product will be colored by the truth that the receiver knows. To overcome that prejudice, you’ll have to make a dent in your prospect’s mind with your version of the “truth” of your product or service.
Personally, this technique will only work for me if I really believe in the benefits of the product or service I’m pushing, if it will improve my own quality of life. I cannot advocate something that is less than the hype surrounding it.
#4: “The easy way to get into a person’s mind is to be first…The hard way to get into a person’s mind is second. Second is nowhere.”
That there is the golden apple of positioning: to be first in your prospect’s mind because being second is tantamount to being forgotten.
“History shows that the first brand into the brain, on the average, gets twice the long-term market share of the No. 2 brand and twice again as much as the No. 3 brand. And the relationships are not easily changed.”Our mind only has room for the remarkable, and what’s usually remarkable is the first of everything. The first man who walked on the moon, the first man who flew solo over the Atlantic, etc.
Getting there first in the mind of the prospect is much like “imprinting”—the event that happens the moment a newborn offspring encounters its natural mother.
Whatever happens afterward, the offspring will always remember its mother…except when the encounter gets hijacked by another substitute mother. In which case, the offspring will see that substitute as her natural mother.
When applied to positioning…
#5: “Get there first and then be careful not to give them a reason to switch.”
In our mind, we automatically rank and peg into a spot all the information that we choose to keep. When it comes to brands, there are “little ladders” in our brain where products and services sit on rungs.
Ries and Trout claims that if a brand gets into your prospect’s mind first and grabs the top place, it’ll be nigh impossible to dislodge it from its spot. Why? Because the mind rejects information that doesn’t match. If you’re claiming that this brand of tissue is better than the brand of tissue which occupies the top spot in someone’s mind ladder, that won’t “compute” and it’ll be rejected.
But the mind can be persuaded to accept differently if another brand is positioned relative to the top brand’s place in the mind. Ries and Trout discuss examples of new competing brands eating away at the market share of the leading brand, sometimes in a huge way.
The question is: How about if your product or service is a latecomer and the top brand is already pegged in its market leadership?
That’s what I like about this book. Ries and Trout goes on to discuss the strategies that one should take if you’re a “follower”, the brand that’s trailing behind the market leader, or if you’ve been a has-been in the market.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind also discusses several traps that companies and executives fall into when naming their offerings and their companies or when positioning their products and services. Strategy is key, and in positioning, it seems that the key is “location, location, location.” ;)
For a newbie, I’m grateful for this book on positioning. These lessons may seem basic for those who can rightly say “Been there, done that!” but for me, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind gave me the basic Big Picture that I should be looking for and the approach I have to take when communicating to a target market that’s reeling in sensory overload all their waking lives.
If you’ve read Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, share with us your thoughts about the book. Have thoughts on positioning products and services? Share them in the comments section below!
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