Why is it that some applicants with sterling credentials and impressive personality—even if they can write job application letters in good English—don’t get any calls at all for a job interview? Why is it that some politicians with impeccable character and an unblemished public-service record get bashed right and left for every conceivable shenanigan they may not even aware or heard about?
The problem in the first case might be that despite the job applicant’s positive attributes, his or her qualifications don’t meet the job requirements or even if they do, the application letter itself doesn’t communicate to the prospective employer a sense of competence and trustworthiness. And in the second case, the problem might be even more complex—the politician’s opponents might have been insidiously besmirching his or her reputation but the latter just ignored it as too inconsequential to bother refuting.
The operative word in both cases is
positioning, and this—whether it works for good and bad for you—is the powerful marketing concept presented by the now-classic book
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.
The revolutionary idea was originally developed by Ries and Trout—both seasoned advertising agency executives—for marketing, branding, and product advertising. From the time that the book was published over 42 years ago, that idea has found wide, vigorous, and successful application in various fields: in marketing, politics, corporate communications, education, even in organized religion.
Here, in a nutshell, is how Ries and Trout formally defined positioning in their book that took the business and advertising world by storm in 1981:
“Positioning starts with a product. A piece of merchandise, a service, a company, an institution, or even a person. Perhaps yourself.
“But positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect. A newer definition [for it]: ‘How you differentiate yourself in the mind of your prospect.’
“So it’s incorrect to call the concept ‘product positioning’ as if you were doing something to the product itself.
“Not that positioning doesn’t involve change. It does. But changes made in the name, the price, and the packages are really not changes in the product at all. They’re basically cosmetic changes done for the purpose of securing a worthwhile position in the prospect’s mind.”
In the battle for people’s minds, Ries and Trout argue, perception is reality. You may not be the best, but if you position yourself well and pursue that positioning well, you stand a good chance of beating the competition and winning the recognition that you desire.
Thus they strongly recommend: “The best approach to take in our overcommunicated society is the oversimplified message. In communication, as in architecture, less is more. You have to sharpen your message to cut into the mind. You have to jettison the ambiguities, simplify the message, and then simplify it some more if you want to make a long lasting impression.”
“The…paradox is that nothing is more important than communication. With communication going for you, anything is possible. Without it, nothing is possible. No matter how talented and ambitious you may be. What’s called luck is usually an outgrowth of successful communication. Saying the right things to the right person at the right time.
“Positioning is an organized system for finding windows in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances."
It therefore behooves all of us to always position ourselves purposively for whatever enterprise we find worth pursuing—and not to allow other people or just any entity to make that position for us by default. And to succeed in today’s world, it’s never too early or too late to read
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind and to start applying its prescriptions now—right now.
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This is an expanded version of the author’s 390-word essay that appeared in this column in the August 8, 2009 issue of The Manila Times.
Read this essay and listen to its voice recording in
The Manila Times:
Winning the battle for people’s minds Next:
The world in 854 words November 16, 2023
Visit Jose Carillo’s English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com. You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter and e-mail me at j8carillo@yahoo.com.
