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Author: Bag grace and Batu, chairman of the brand consultancy heart conquer

Positioning is a common topic for many people who do marketing, but everyone’s understanding of the word varies widely.

Statistical data shows that the error rate of Chinese companies’ understanding of positioning is over 90%. This is a particularly shocking number.

Let’s take a look at what everyone misunderstands about positioning?

➀ Positioning is the price segment.

➁ Positioning is market segmentation.

➂ Positioning is the product function.

➃ Positioning is the slogan.

➄ Positioning is the goal of struggle.

Why do people have such a common misunderstanding about positioning? There are several reasons.

1 is related to translation.

The word positioning has no problem in English understanding, but when it is translated into positioning, everyone always thinks of what position they should be in, so they remember the price, so many people think Positioning is a price segment, which is related to this.

2 Misunderstanding comes from the mind.

The concept of positioning is a mental fact in the mind of the customer. Because everyone doesn’t understand the word mind, they don’t understand positioning.

In fact, the mind is the stereotype of human thinking for thousands of years. So both Rees and Trout mentioned in their early books that it is difficult to change the mind. It is because when the human brain is designed, DNA determines that it is difficult to change significantly.

How to define positioning?

I think the standardized definition of positioning is: a brand in a category that conquers the unique value of the customer’s left brain, which is also the position that value occupies in the customer’s mind.

There are a few keywords that everyone should pay attention to.

➀ One brand is in one category. Positioning is definitely to think in a category. If you jump out of this category, it will become a category innovation.

➁ Unique value. It is the unique value of conquering the left brain of customers.

➂ occupied position. That is, where is its position in the customer’s mind.

So you can clearly see that positioning has two dimensions. The horizontal position is called the position, and the vertical position is called the value. They together form 4 quadrants, and the positioning is strong or weak.It will be distinguished.

Brand The unique value of the brand is the strong position in the front of the customer’s mind; the brand’s value is unique, but the position in the mind is the weak position; if the value provided by the brand is mediocre, but in the customer’s mind More advanced, this is the problem positioning (very rare, but there is also); the last is the weak value and position, which is called invalid positioning.

We understand through a few cases.

For example, in smartphones, Apple has basically established the positioning of the first brand of smartphones, and Huawei has been involved late, so it established a technology-leading positioning concept, and Xiaomi is an extremely cost-effective positioning. They All three have clear positioning.

But think about the brand positioning of Meizu, Hammer and Lenovo’s mobile phones? Maybe you won’t be able to answer it at half past one.

Maybe the bosses and employees of these companies can speak up, but everyone should pay attention to what they say is not counted, and it must be said by consumers.

So, put them in these four quadrants, Apple and Huawei are definitely strong positioning, Xiaomi is in the middle of problem positioning and strong positioning, and the other three brands are basically in the category of invalid positioning.

This is how the strength of the brand at the positioning level is identified. From this perspective, three sentences can be summed up: value determines right or wrong, position determines good or bad, and both determine strength.

When we have a certain understanding of positioning, we can understand the relationship between category and positioning. I think the category is cutting, and the positioning is eating.

Because if you want to solve the category problem, you must study the demand, look for market opportunities in the demand, and cut a category that belongs to you through the product.

And the positioning is when this category is finished, how should I eat this cake in my stomach. So I think the source of positioning is opportunity, the core of positioning is value, and the achievement of positioning is cognition.

So the popular definition of positioning is: find a category opportunity and provide a uniqueValue, the process of establishing an advantage.

The opportunity for this category is the most critical.

Four business opportunities for positioning

1. First opportunity: be first

If you create a new category, the first opportunity is to be the first. There is a very important reason to grab the first place because “first is better than better”.

For example, Coca-Cola is the first brand of Coke; Gree is the first brand of air conditioners, Apple is the first brand of smartphones, and Tesla is the first brand of electric cars.

What should I do to get the first opportunity?

There are two ways, either first in time or first in scale.

For example, Red Bull is the world’s first energy drink brand, which is the first in time; and Snow Beer is the first in terms of scale.

Generally speaking, time first is more advantageous than scale first.

For example, many people think that Budweiser is the first in the world, so for Snow Beer, it not only needs to be the first in scale, but also needs to spread out loudly and plan a good brand story. Let everyone accept that Snow Beer is the best beer in the world.

In turn, Apple is no longer the No. 1 in sales in the smartphone field. It should be No. 1 in Samsung, No. 2 in Huawei, and No. 3 in Apple, but this does not affect the position of consumers’ minds.

Because Apple leads the category of smartphones, and has been the sales leader for a long time, its awareness has been established in the minds of customers, even if it sometimes falls behind, as long as it is still in the minds of customers In the first position, it is easy to chase it back.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi, as are Mercedes and BMW.

It should be noted here that although everyone wants to be the first, “first” also has the difference between effective and invalid. Foreign first may be effective, but the provincial first is basically invalid.

For example, Toyota’s Corolla, when it was launched in China in 2007, it>