Their success stems from the wisdom of positioning. The time-honored positioning theory can give new inspiration to the business world. Turning around again in 50 years, we focus on this extraordinary strategic event.

Commercial Warfare·Introduction

In 2000, the global Internet bubble burst and the Nasdaq stock market fell by 78% of the market value. China’s three major portals were forced to “blood out”, and more Internet companies faced life and death. Looking back, the most popular Internet companies at the time, Yahoo, AOL, eBay, Netscape, etc., are now no longer in sight. However, in 2001, there were only 7 million US dollars left in the book. Alibaba, which can only support 7 months according to the “burning money” rate at the time, survived, and since 2017, it has ranked among the top 10 global market capitalizations. .

For the strategic course of this counterattack, Ma Yun once said: “I have heard about Mr. Trout’s positioning point of view, which reminds me of Alibaba’s strategic positioning. There are very For a long time, Alibaba’s model is not optimistic. This is a surprise and joyful thing. It is precisely because there is no optimism, everyone did not all come in, otherwise the opportunity is definitely not my Ma Yun. If you have seen In Lauter’s “Commercial Warfare” book, everyone will know that the flank war is to be carried out in a non-competitive zone. A cup of coffee can be sold for two or three hundred years, and Starbucks has tens of thousands of stores around the world. The key is to have a unique position.”

In 2018, Ma Huateng talked about Tencent’s role at a business conference. “We are not going to enter all walks of life and replace it; we have to become a ‘digital assistant’ in all walks of life, relying on the technology and capabilities we have accumulated over the years. Helping all walks of life achieve digital transformation and upgrading. Our goal is to be an assistant.”

Since entering the mobile Internet era, Tencent has always had a clear positioning because of its social advantages. We are the connector, the infrastructure, we only do the supporting role, the protagonist is the traditional enterprise of all walks of life, we give them Provide technical capabilities in cloud, big data, artificial intelligence, and more. As one of the two giant companies in China’s Internet business, the clear positioning has given Tencent the vitality to continuously evolve and expand its boundaries.

Whether Alibaba, Tencent, or Huawei, which is “only for one city wall to charge for 30 years,” and “not to consume strategic competitiveness at non-strategic opportunities,” are all good at “positioning”. .

Traceability · Focus

In 1969, Jack Trout first published an article in the “Industrial Marketing” magazine “Positioning: Is a game people in the era of competition” (‘Positioning’ is a game people play in today’s me -too market place) The concept of positioning was first proposed.

Trout believes that the essence of business management is to create a position that makes it a reason for customers to choose themselves rather than others. This insight was a revolutionary impact on the business community at the time. Advertising Age magazine, which has a glorious historical position in the US marketing industry, invited Jack Trout and his partner A. Rees to open a column. The title was straightforwardly named: “The advent of the positioning era.”

In 1981, Trout’s column series “The Advent of the Positioning Age” was collected into a book, and the book “Positioning” was officially published. It quickly became popular in the business world and became a reference book for mainstream business schools in the world. In the following 40 years, Trout and his partners successively published 16 positioning monographs such as “Positioning”, “Commercial Warfare”, “22 Business Rules” and “Repositioning”, forming a complete positioning theory system.

In Trout’s view, the essence of positioning is to make a company “first” in a certain field, or to create an area that can become “first.” Because only a few companies can survive for a long time. Enterprises must determine the core of the strategy (ie, positioning) through strategic trade-offs, and allocate resources around positioning and establish an operating system to achieve differentiation and become the first.

In the past 50 years, countless companies have benefited from positioning theory and have embarked on the road to success, including IBM, Southwest Airlines, John John, Qixi Soda, Dong’e Ejiao, Jiaduobao, melon seeds used cars, Langjiu Group, and fragrance Milk tea and so on. “Location” is the core of corporate strategy and is being learned and applied by more and more entrepreneurs.

In 2019, after half a century of commercial practice, positioning theory ushered in a new moment. On September 24, 2019, the 50th Anniversary of Positioning Theory will be held at the Peninsula Shanghai.

At that time, the founders/Chairs of many leading companies will gather in Shanghai to discuss the strategic direction and business philosophy of “positioning”. They will review their own development and reveal exciting and profound strategic choices and business stories.

They are: Deng Delong, global president of Trout Partners, Raul Peralba, partner of Trout Spain, Eugene Kadushin, partner of Trout Russia, Wang Junlin, chairman of Langjiu Group, and Yang Haoyong, founder and CEO of Chehaoduo Group Hong Zhongxin, Chairman of Jinba Men’s Wear, Jiang Nanchun, Chairman of Focus Media, Jiang Jianqi, Chairman of Xiangfeng Piao Company, Chen Xiaohua, Chairman of the Group, and Chairman of the Fast Dog Tax Club, Xue Peng, Founder and CEO of Flash Technology, and Chairman of Xuan Wine Group Chairman of the Board of Directors of Jian, Mingyue Lian Gong, Li Chunlin, President of Jiaduobao Group, Li Xingdong, Chairman of Kefayuan Zhifa, and Shu Congxuan, Chairman of Laoxiang Chicken.

There will also be a gathering of hundreds of entrepreneurs and CEOs to listen and explore the positioning strategy.

Global Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of Positioning Theory -A half-century strategic journey

Entrepreneur talks about positioning

Flash, it’s a market giant, and if you don’t have your own positioning, without this twilight traction, it can’t survive. Flash founder Xue Peng: “Our position is ‘one-on-one delivery, refusal to spell a single’. In fact, I used to want to quickly describe the difference between us and our competitors in a sentence, Troutti There are four words ‘Rejection’, these four words separate all of this competitor from us. We have chosen a non-contentious zone. We only need to do ourselves without having to be with friends. PK for operational details.”

Chen dog taxi chairman & CEO Chen Xiaohua said: “Positioning is actually to answer the most essential question of your company. You must have a very clear understanding of the customer, telling the customer who you are, you have him What is the use, what is different from others, and these three things are not advertisements, you may have to go from your advertising copy to your product, to your PR (public relations), to every part of you, even to you. The decoration of the office must reflect your positioning.”

Hongba Xin, chairman of Jinba Men’s Wear, said: “The biggest value of the special theory of the specialties is that it helps synapse the men’s clothing into a jacket. The potential of positioning theory has not really been tapped. It is a real gold mine. It is a real Middle East oil that is far from being excavated.”

Wang Junlin, chairman of Langjiu, said: “Positioning is the commitment of enterprises to consumers. This promise is what you say, you must do it, consumers will trust you, will save money. Positioning is also enterprise The law, all the business operations of the enterprise around this positioning to do. ‘One of the two Chinese sauces and white spirits’ is not only the positioning of Langjiu, but also the spur to our time, we are not all the resources, do two Daweixiang? To stand the historical test, it can withstand the consumer inspection, and can withstand the inspection of all walks of life.”

Jiang Nanchun, chairman of Focus Media, said: “Positioning theory is the most important business theory in the last century and this century, and even more in the future. Trout helped the audience find the advertisement that consumers will take the initiative to look at. Positioning, which makes the segment separated from all other advertising media such as TV, online video, newspapers and magazines. I think it is for everyone, how to jump out of the price war, (go out) the homogenized blood sea competition, find their own business war The Blue Ocean is vital.”

Jiang Jianqi, Chairman of Xiangfeng Piao Food Co., Ltd. said: “Trout’s strategic positioning is to develop a corporate strategy centered on the user’s mind. The strategy is to solve the problem of ‘doing the right thing’, and the operation of the enterprise is to solve ‘ PutThings are doing the right thing. So how do you clarify what is right for a company? This is very important and can be said to be crucial.

Wang Haoyong, the founder of Cheduo Group, explained his understanding of the “first rule” in positioning: “Commercial warfare is very similar to war. When two companies compete, there must be a final game. That is the only one. Only the first place can get a huge potential. The potential will make it easy for you to gain an advantage in the competition. In a trillion-level runway, who can occupy this main battlefield and quickly pull Opening the gap and stabilizing the war in such a state that it is difficult for an opponent to catch up is actually very important.”

They provide a good guide for startups: either be the first or create a field that can be number one. No matter how many giants in the industry, as long as you find your own place, you can create unique value for users.

What is the wisdom of their positioning? What new inspiration can the long-standing positioning theory be able to broadcast to the business world? After 50 years of turning again, we focused on this extraordinary strategic event. The 50th Anniversary of Positioning Theory will be revealed to you.