On reflection it would seem that I transmit way more information than I receive these days.
As a race we are publishing more information (for public consumption) every 48 hours than we published from the beginning of civilization, through until the end of 2003.
That would suggest I'm not the only one!
There are way too many products, brands, companies, there's too much noise.
There are too many screens through which marketing noise can distract us today.
As Jack Rice (author of the book Positioning) puts it;
"You and I are living in the first (in history) over communicated society ".
My Brain Is Full.
When my car mechanic starts explaining whats wrong with my exhaust system, my brain turns off.
I don't have room for new information that's not already familiar to me.
To take in new information, I must dump content already in my memory bank.
It's my mind's defense mechanism against the sheer volume of information I am expected to absorb these days,
...screen, evaluate and process.
It's just too much.
My mind only accepts new information when I can match it with prior knowledge, or, prior experience.
Once my mind is made up, it's impossible for anyone to change it.
Likewise my wife's mind is made up, she too has no room for information that's not directly pertinent to her. What she does have room for, I don't.
We share a similar world view but both have different interests,
...we're soul mates.
So whenever someone starts speaking to both of us, depending on what the information is, one of us usually switches off.
If it's about the kids' health, immunizations, and diets etc.,
...I turn off.
My wife's an expert on all that.
Why waste space with my limited brain capacity with information I cannot process nearly as well as my wife. She's the same when it comes to money and maintenance issues.
You see, without being conscious of it, over the 12 years we've been together. We've actually partnered in our mental capacity to field, process and store information between us.
We're a Team.
Just another mechanism we humans have developed to combat information overload.
Have you ever stopped and (actually) thought about how to get a message into the mind of your consumers?
To do this, we must first understand what's already in the mind of "a" consumer who's just like us, overloaded.
We need to start by assuming only a fraction of what's being transmitted into the market place, is being heard (let alone retained) by consumers.
When marketing, to score big today, we must be selective in what and how we transmit information.
We must narrow our target market into a tight segment, then tell a story that will resonate in the "like-minds" of this consumer segment.
Less Is More!
We must sharpen and simplify our marketing message, use comparisons, not superlatives.
A famous example:
"Avis, we're number two..." So we try harder!
The Avis advertising agency recognized the position of Hertz as number one, as already cemented into the mind of US consumers.
They didn't try to take them head on.
Avis's message to consumers was simple.
We openly admit that we are not the number one rental-car-company in America,
...but because we're not number one we'll trying harder than Hertz.
Brilliant!
Consumers were comfortable to place Avis as number 2 on the premiership ladder in the rental car category, (in their minds) ahead of all the other rent-a-car brands. (even though at the time Avis "was-not" even a clear cut second)
They were after this campaign though, because that's where consumers positioned Avis in their mind by the time this advertising strategy had played out.
By telling consumers Avis was number "2", it cleared the congestion in their mind.
The tag-line "we try harder" also meant that Avis, (occupying second place as rent-a-car companies go) all of a sudden became the under-dog everyone likes to get behind.
Potentially better deals, and potentially better service, because they're second best, so will try harder.
This single (clear positioning) campaign skyrocketed Avis from a small to medium sized company turning over 5 million dollars annually, to a point where they were actually gunning for Hertz as the number one rent-a-car business in the US. (in just a few years)
Astonishingly, when gunning to become number one Avis rested the campaign that got them there, to run a new campaign tag-line:
AVIS
"We're gunning for number "1"..."
This campaign lost Avis their momentum.
Growth first stalled and then the company started to shrink.
Consumers had no place for another best rent-a-car company in their minds.
They had already positioned AVIS as number "2", not gunning for number "1".
Moving up the premiership ladder in the mind of consumers is more difficult than most marketers assume.
If a product or brand is above yours in the brand hierarchy within a consumers mind, if they have a strong foothold, don't try and compete.
Instead, leverage their product or brand (with the established position already in the consumers mind), to position your product or brand against theirs to secure “a position”.
If you try competing for their position, you’ll end up left-right-out.
Remember the consumer's mind has no room for new product categories, new firsts, or new best of's.
To get your product or brand into their cluttered mind you must position it against what's already there.
(your competitions product or brand)
Be Interested. Not Interesting!
Simon U Ford
Engage Smarter.
P.S. Positioning is not about your product, service or brand, it's about what’s in the mind of consumers.
Exercise:
Find some tag-lines with a nice positioning statement like;
1. “We make the bicycle that won the Tour-de-France...”
2. “Not for woman...”
3. “The safest way to travel by taxi...”
4. “Fewer wrinkles, firmer skin...”
5. “Unlocking the potential of nature to improve the quality of life...”
Then use wild-card operators to search Googles billion dollar data-base,
... find idea’s on how to position your product, service or brand.
Tips:
1. Use * in a search query, Google treats * as a placeholder for more than one word in a phrase.
2. Use ~ in a search, Google takes the word immediately following the ~ symbol and will find results for not only that word it’s synonym's also.
Example:
A Google search entering the query,
... “the ~safest way to *”,
(“the safest way to travel by taxi...”)
...will lists the following results;
a) The safest way to tan...
b) The safest way to thawn frozen foods...
c) The safest way to travel...
You get the idea.
The ability to play around in Googles database for ideas,
...priceless!
P.S.S. I introduce my [PLAYERS] to many more search tactics like this one, including methods for finding open windows into the mind of consumers.
(positioning gaps in the market place)
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