Positioning v/s Projection
Do you ever wonder how Coca-Cola and Pepsi, despite having similar products(flavoured carbonated water), have a distinctly different image in the eyes of the world?
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Nike & Adidas make shoes(running, athletic, sneakers etc).
They have a target audience that overlaps almost a hundred per cent.
Although, Nike and Adidas are perceived very differently as brands.
DHL & FedEx, it doesn’t get better than this. Two carriers, rationally same service, competitive pricing and cutthroat competition. Despite everything, both stand tall differently in the eyes of the world.
Samsung & Apple, BMW & Audi, McDonalds & Burger king all are competing in the same space, with very similar products but they are perceived very differently, enabling them to stand out and sell.
The intent of purchase of consumers might be to buy the best product suitable for their needs, but the emotional intent and drive is very different while buying from the respective brands.
The battle between brands is not confined to quality of product, consumer service or any tangible characteristics anymore.
It has evolved to the experience and perception of the brand in the minds of consumers.
If we look at it rationally, it doesn’t really make sense at all, does it?
I sincerely believe positioning is one of the greatest strategies in the world of communication and branding. It answers all the mysteries we discussed above, which cannot be answered by logic and rationale.
What is Positioning
Positioning is an art of portraying your business, brand, product or yourself.
How does Positioning Work?
Positioning is the “who” of you.
Positioning is finding out “who” you are as a business/brand/content creator etc and portraying that through your culture, business, brand, product and communication.
Al Ries, author of various marketing & branding books, along with the famous book Positioning defines the working as :
“Positioning is not what you do to the product; it’s what you do to the mind of the prospect. It’s how you differentiate your brand in the mind. Positioning compensates for our over-communicated society by using an oversimplified message to cut through the clutter and get into the mind. Positioning focuses on the perceptions of the prospect not on the reality of the brand.“
Positioning is not an overnight gimmick, it takes consistency and creativity in communication and efforts over a long period of time.
Projection
Projection is behaving in accordance to expectations of the audience by brands, business or content creators.
Projection tries to accomplish the same task as positioning does, but is starkly opposite to it in terms of effectiveness.
Projection is a hitch to brands, as it fails to unearth the reality and projects a mock-up.
Politicians(not every, hopefully) and their practices are the best examples of projection.
The foundational practices of Marketing are everywhere in the world, wherever there is an audience, there is marketing.
Politics is an extraordinary example of how marketing thought is practised, at every stage ranging from elections to the practice of politics.
Politicians often say what you want to hear, even if they don’t believe in it or even don’t know what it means. A classic example of projection.
Why Projection Doesn’t Work
Simply put, projection is a lie and sooner or later, the weight of lies comes bearing the debt, waiting to be repaid.
The projection appears to work for a short while before it fails, whereas positioning works in the long run.
When brands/businesses/content creators base their culture, communication, product and marketing entirely based on what consumers want to hear or buy into, they are unable to stay true to the course, because it’s not who they are, hence projection always fails.
Final Notes
An entrepreneur understands value, and not just in the tangible.
There is no data-driven approach towards positioning, data only leads to projections.
The only existing evidence of the success of positioning, are the brands who dared to be creative, communicated their values consistently and crafted their unique position in the market.
See you in the next one.