5 tips for brand marketing positioning!

There are many ways to position yourself, but the core is only one: occupying an advantageous position in cognition. The five positioning methods mentioned in this article come from the practices of two major positioning companies and other experts. Method is the technique, positioning is the way. The method is the finger, and the location is the moon that the finger points to. The method is the traces left by the ruts, and the positioning is the ruts themselves. This article mentions five methods of positioning, but it does not mean that there are only five methods of positioning.

Only by understanding the core through methods can we not be limited to specific tactics. Many enthusiasts equate positioning with focus, a slogan or a product. They are all limited to specific tactics and fail to see the forest for the trees.

There is a wrong way to realize the truth: My mind was originally bright, but became blind because of my teacher. The more theory you learn, the more confused you become. This is because you are obsessed with specific tactics and fail to look at brand positioning from a systematic, long-term, and holistic perspective.

Preemptive positioning

The first three positioning methods all come from "2-Hour Brand Literacy".

Jiang Nanchun said that preemptive positioning is a banned category: for roast duck, eat Quanjude; for jelly, eat Xizhilang; for car rental, go to Shenzhou; for decoration, go to Tubatu; for olive oil, I only love Olivilan.

This statement is quite vivid. When there is no representative in a category, there is an opportunity to seize the position first. When olive oil had no representative brand in China, a simple phrase like "I only love Olivilan for olive oil" was enough to represent the category.

It is worth noting that the prerequisite for preemptive positioning is that there is no representative brand in the category. Under the premise that WeChat has already occupied the representative position of the instant messaging software category, no matter how hard "Laiwang", "YiXin", "MiLiao" and "Zhuzi" try, they will not be able to succeed, even if they are as rich and technologically advanced as Alibaba.

Cognition has a Matthew effect. The more people use WeChat, the more people will be attracted to use WeChat. Perception itself is a fact. Once users equate instant messaging software with WeChat, other brands will have little chance.

Baidu has built a moat based on search, and Alibaba's Yahoo Search and Tencent's Soso cannot break into it; Alibaba has built a moat based on e-commerce, and Baidu and Tencent's search cannot break into it either.

Many people think that big brands have all the advantages in terms of money and technology, and they no longer have a chance to gain a leading position. In fact, this is a wrong view.

First of all, many new product categories are constantly emerging, and big brands often don’t realize it. Even if they do, they often miss opportunities due to slow decision-making and slow response. Coca-Cola has tried many new brands but failed, Kodak missed out on digital cameras, Nokia missed out on smartphones, Yanziwu missed out on fresh bird's nests, Hisense missed out on inverter air conditioners, etc. are all proofs of this.

Secondly, when faced with the opportunity to gain first-mover advantage, big brands like to use brand extension. When faced with opportunities in wine and beer, Moutai used its original brand to endorse the categories; when faced with opportunities in green tea and black tea, Robust also used its original brand to endorse the categories. This is not the right way to get ahead of the competition.

In short, the constant updating of categories and wrong decisions made by big brands create many opportunities for preemptive positioning. It may be inevitable that big brands always miss out on new opportunities. The book "The Innovator's Dilemma" talks about this issue.

Finally, it should be emphasized that preemptive positioning refers to preemption in cognition, rather than preemption in physical aspects such as channels, technology, and trademarks. This means that brands need to focus resources within the time window to achieve registration in awareness.

The book “Capture the Mind” mentions many cases where companies lost their leadership position due to missing the time window. For example, Supreme and eHi are the pioneers of the car rental category, but the leader is Shenzhou Special Car; Lian Coffee is the pioneer of the industry, but the leader is Luckin Coffee; Renren Car is the pioneer of the industry, but the leader is Guazi Used Car.

Relationship positioning

Relevance positioning is a binary law in cognition. Because cognition has this characteristic, associative positioning can work. We all know "Qiao Feng in the North and Murong in the South". Although in fact Murong Fu is much worse than Qiao Feng, this association positioning has made Murong Fu famous.

Regarding associative positioning, the most well-known case is "one of the two major sauce-flavor liquors", which directly links Qinghualang and Moutai, making it the second choice of sauce-flavor liquor.

Lao Baigan always likes to say that the winner of the gold medal at the 1915 Panama International Exposition was not the Maotai liquor, but Lao Baigan. Directly associate yourself with Moutai.

The premise of relational positioning is that everyone knows who the leader is. If there is no leader in a category, there is an opportunity for preemptive positioning rather than relational positioning.

For example: One of the two major tangerine peel brands in China. This kind of associative positioning is difficult to establish because consumers do not know who the number one brand is.

Hongjitang donkey-hide gelatin, donkey-hide gelatin for your own consumption. This kind of associative positioning can be established because we all know that the number one brand of donkey-hide gelatin is Dong'e Ejiao, and it is often used as gifts.

One of the three major Maotai-flavor liquors in China. This associative positioning does not hold because there is a binary law of cognition, not a triadic law. If the three major sauce-flavored liquors can be established, can the four major, five major, and six major sauce-flavored liquors also be established? Obviously not.

If associative positioning is the binary law of cognition, does that mean third brands have no chance? Not really.

For example, the positioning of Tanjiu: dare to mark the real year, and only experts can drink Tanjiu. It is an attempt to define other Maotai-flavor liquors as brands that dare not mark their true years. This is the binary rule.

For example, 7-Up is positioned as a non-caffeinated cola. It is an attempt to define Pepsi and Coca-Cola as addictive beverages. This is the opportunity for the third brand: to classify the first and second brands into one category and occupy the category exclusively for themselves.

For example, the positioning of herbal tea is: a beverage that prevents getting a sore throat. That is, cola and soda are classified as drinks that cannot prevent getting angry, and they occupy a category all their own, forming a binary opposition with mainstream drinks.

"Strategic Visual Hammer" mentions that with the cat and dog visual hammers of Tmall and JD.com, Suning's lion and Gome's tiger are wrong choices, because cognition will classify cats, dogs, lions and tigers as animals, and Suning's lion and Gome's tiger are not recognizable.

Suning should classify the cats and dogs on Tmall and JD into one category, just like Tanjiu and 7Up do, and give them a separate category for themselves. This is relational positioning. For example, it is a good idea for Global Shopping to use sharks as visual hammers. Sharks are marine animals, while cats, dogs, tigers and lions are all land animals.

Repositioning

Repositioning is an upgraded version of associated positioning. If associated positioning means coexisting with the leading brand, then repositioning means replacing it.

When Liu Bang saw Qin Shihuang's procession was majestic and solemn, he sighed and said: A real man should be like this. This is associative positioning. When Xiang Yu saw this, he said: He can be replaced. This is repositioning.

Jiang Nanchun said that related positioning is to hang out with rich people, and re-positioning is to poke holes in the tires. It is actually very vivid.

Many people fail to understand the key point of repositioning: they think repositioning occurs in channels, factories, and products. In fact, repositioning occurs in cognition, which is to adjust the position of the leading brand in cognition.

Relational positioning is a flanking battle, and repositioning is an offensive battle. Just as a flanking battle will eventually turn into an offensive battle, relational positioning will eventually turn into repositioning.

When Nongfu Spring was first launched on the market, it simply stated that it was drinking water that naturally contained minerals, and was placed on a par with purified water and mineral water (with artificially added minerals). At this time, Nongfu Spring was launching a flanking battle with related positioning.

After testing the market, Nongfu Spring launched a repositioning offensive, attacking the idea that purified water does not contain minerals and is harmful to health, and that mineral water contains artificially added minerals that may cause cancer.

The category of used car direct sales network is positioned as an associated category in Renrenche: another used car trading brand different from Youxin. Guazi Used Cars has repositioned itself as a trading brand without middlemen making a profit from the price difference. Facts have also proved that repositioning is more effective.

The youth wine category pioneered by Jiang Xiaobai is a kind of staple wine that is different from the one used in social occasions. Now he still has an associated positioning: he drinks Moutai at business banquets and Jiang Xiaobai among his friends. At the right time, Jiang Xiaobai might launch an offensive: ration wine is the real emotion, and banquet wine is hypocritical.

The purpose of repositioning is to replace, and the core is to attack the strategic weaknesses of the leader.

Strategic weaknesses are inherent and insurmountable weaknesses of leaders. The strategic weakness of Mercedes-Benz is the weak driving feel inherent in its noble features; the strategic weakness of Siemens kitchen appliances is that they are designed according to European and American eating habits and do not understand Chinese kitchens; the strategic weakness of imported milk powder is that it is not fresh enough in foreign cans and does not understand the physique of Chinese children; the strategic weakness of Betis olive oil is that it is canned abroad and is not fresh enough.

In theory, every strong brand has its own inherent weaknesses. The core of strategy is to develop tactics based on the weaknesses of your competitors and put yourself in an advantageous position.

Attacking non-strategic weaknesses is ineffective. For example, after WeChat, many similar social software appeared: MaCong, Qvod, Bullet, etc. Their understanding of social software is: adding voice translation function, adding some new gameplay, and making the interface design more fancy.

These improved tactics can be copied by WeChat in minutes. Because you did not attack WeChat's strategic weaknesses. On the other hand, apps like Momo, DingTalk, and Blue were able to break through the WeChat blockade because they took advantage of WeChat’s strategic weaknesses.

Focus Positioning

Focus positioning is a very easy method to understand.

Compared with Fotile Electric Appliances, ROBAM Electric Appliances focuses on the range hood category, the main functions of which include: strong suction power, quietness, self-cleaning, etc. ROBAM Electric Appliances continues to focus on the strong suction characteristics and creates range hoods with strong suction.

Don’t just focus on range hoods, but continue to focus on range hoods with high suction power. Only by shrinking the battle line to a narrow enough level can we use corporate resources more efficiently and enter the minds of people more quickly.

Gree’s focus positioning is mentioned in “Category Strategy”. Compared with Chunlan, Haier and Midea, Gree focuses on air conditioners and continues to accumulate mental and corporate resources in the air conditioner category. Chunlan's rapidly expanding business scope includes air conditioners, automobiles, banks, real estate, finance, etc. Too many fields have overdrawn Chunlan's brand concentration and seriously diluted the company's management capabilities.

Brand positioning is essentially mind management, which is not only directed at the external user mind, but also at the internal corporate mind. Enterprises are made up of people, who also hate chaos and love simplicity. If too many instructions are given to the enterprise mind in a short period of time, it will choose to block them like the user mind.

Focus is the way to save minds inside and outside the enterprise. However, because focus positioning is easy to understand, it is often used incorrectly.

The most common mistake is to confuse communication focus with operation focus. Traffic products (communication focus) and profit products (operation focus) are often not the same thing. KFC’s traffic product is hamburgers, and Gome’s traffic product is electrical appliances. They both focus on this in their communications, but their profitable product is real estate.

Xiaomi’s brand communication focuses on mobile phones, but its profitable products are the ecological chain and related investments behind it. Trout expert Deng Delong talked about Xiaomi’s brand strategy mistakes, referring to the communication level. Some people cited Xiaomi's ecological chain as an example, believing that Deng Delong did not understand Xiaomi's business model and actually confused traffic products with profitable products.

Some people also criticize that positioning has defined the company and restricted its development. In fact, it also equates communication focus with operational focus.

A second common mistake in focus positioning is to equate focus with strategy.

If focus is strategy, then Nokia, Kodak, Dangdang and Ele.me are all brands that implement the focus strategy. Even Gree, which focuses on air conditioners, lags behind Midea in the competition in home appliances.

Focus is not a strategy. Strategy is to occupy an advantageous position based on the competitive environment. Focus is one of the effective tactics to achieve strategic goals.

For example, in the Korean War, in order to delay the enemy during the strategic retreat, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army did not use focusing tactics. Instead, they dispersed into small teams of three or five people to disperse the enemy's firepower on the entire battlefield, making the opponent dare not advance rashly.

Although concentrating superior forces is also an effective tactic of the People's Liberation Army, protracted warfare is the strategy. A protracted war certainly does not mean focusing our military forces on a head-on confrontation with the invaders on the front battlefield, but rather making use of our country's deep depth and vast territory to disperse the enemy's forces, trading space for time, and waiting for the opportunity to change on the international battlefield.

In the 2020 conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the tactic of drones was to disperse. Make the enemy's air defense firepower overwhelmed: there are too many drones, and the air defense firepower cannot cover the entire area. At this time, if the drones implement a focusing tactic, they can all be shot down.

Dimension change positioning

There are at least two ways to change dimension positioning: increasing dimension and decreasing dimension.

Internet creators have always had a motto: every industry is worth redoing. For the Internet industry, this is a dimensionality reduction, and for those industries that are being redone, this is a dimensionality increase.

Compared with KFC, Wallace's positioning is a dimensionality reduction. KFC has higher site requirements. The store may need to be more than 300 square meters and be located in a busy location near an intersection. Wallace can be simpler, and a store can probably be opened in 50 square meters.

We also saw some smaller fried chicken restaurants that didn't have hamburgers, fries or cola, only fried chicken. This is a tactical combination of focus positioning and dimensionality reduction positioning.

The huge size of the Chinese market provides countless opportunities for dimensionality reduction and positioning. Not only are all industries worth redoing, but all industries in first-tier cities can also be redone in third-, fourth-, and fifth-tier markets.

Jiang Xiaobai’s strategy can be summarized as changing its positioning dimension.

The traditional scenario for alcohol consumption is banquets, which are social products in which lower-class people entertain higher-class people. Even if Moutai doesn't taste good, the host and the guests both know the price of Moutai and therefore understand each other's intentions.

The liquor consumption scene pioneered by Jiang Xiaobai is a social product for people of the same class. We are all in the same class. Even if you are now a department director, we were once classmates, so there is no need to use Moutai at the class reunion. Or if we are colleagues, neighbors, or relatives, there is no issue of class differences.

Jiang Xiaobai initially defined itself as a youth wine, but is now trying to become a high-end staple wine. Compared with social wines like Moutai, staple wine is a kind of dimensionality reduction positioning.

For the same banquet, the brands offered at banquets held between different classes include Moutai, Wuliangye and Jiannanchun, whereas there are no representative brands at banquets held between the same class. This is an opportunity that exists in the market but not in the mind. Jiang Xiaobai uses the branding method of social wine to create staple wine, which is a dimensionality reduction attack on other brands in the staple wine category.

Times, trends, technology, consumer psychology, and policies are all changing, which is the prerequisite for changing dimensional positioning.

The maturity of the third-tier market transportation network and the popularization of smart phones are the prerequisites for the emergence of Pinduoduo; the maturity of touch screen technology is the prerequisite for the emergence of smart phones; the maturity of 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other technologies will have an impact on all industries in the entire society, and a new batch of brands will emerge.

For non-head brands in the category, it is enough to do a good job of dimensionality reduction positioning. You just need to follow the market created by the head brands. For leading brands, they need to reposition themselves according to changes in the external environment and upgrade their positioning. Otherwise, once the entire category is disrupted, the leading brands will suffer the greatest losses.

For example, the disruption of the television industry by Xiaomi and Huawei is the impact of external technology on the television category. Luckin Coffee’s mobile Internet coffee is an impact on traditional coffee shops.

Author: Zhiyu Brand Positioning

Source: Zhiyu Brand Positioning