One name can’t stand for two distinctly different products. When one goes up, the other goes down. Xerox means copier, not computer.

The essence of a good positioning strategy is that it transcends every aspect of a company. You know you have a winner when you run it up the corporate flagpole and everybody salutes.

In the communication jungle out there, the only hope to score big is to be selective, to concentrate on narrow targets, to practice segmentation. In a word, “positioning.”

To be successful today, you must touch base with reality. And the only reality that counts is what’s already in the prospect’s mind. To be creative, to create something that doesn’t already exist in the mind, is becoming more and more difficult. If not impossible. The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but t

And what does the outsider supply? An ingredient called ignorance. In other words, objectivity. By not knowing what goes on inside a company, the outsider is better able to see what is happening on the outside. In the mind of the prospect.

Most leaders should cover competitive moves by introducing another brand. This is the classic “multibrand” strategy of Procter & Gamble. It may be a misnomer to call it a multibrand strategy. Rather it’s a single-position strategy. Each brand is uniquely positioned to occupy a certain location in the mind of the prospect. When times change, whe

Leaders should use their short-term flexibility to assure themselves of a stable long-term future.

The pure covering move is often difficult to sell internally. Management often sees the new product or service as a competitor rather than as an opportunity. Sometimes a name change will help bridge the gap from one era to the next. By broadening the name, you can allow the company to make the mental transition.

But first make sure you can’t find something to be first in. It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond (and then increase the size of the pond) than to be a small fish in a big pond.