Sublime

Whether the result of a deliberate program or not, most successful companies (or brands) are the ones that “own a word” in the mind of the prospect.

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

But the best positioning ideas are so simple and obvious that most people overlook them.

General Motors was doing fine until the financial folks took over and put the focus on the numbers instead of the brands.

Marketing is often a search for the obvious. Since you can’t change a mind once it’s made up, your marketing efforts have to be devoted to using ideas and concepts already installed in the brain. You have to use your marketing programs to “rub it in.”

The more products, the more markets, the more alliances a company makes, the less money it makes. “Full-speed ahead in all directions” seems to be the call from the corporate bridge. When will companies learn that line extension ultimately leads to oblivion?

1. Expected volume. Potential winners should not bear the house name. Small-volume products should. 2. Competition. In a vacuum, the brand should not bear the house name. In a crowded field, it should. 3. Advertising support. Big-budget brands should not bear the house name. Small-budget brands should. 4. Significance. Breakthrough products should not

Your product, your company culture, your marketing—everything has to be aligned with transforming the way potential customers think. If you change the way they think, they will change their buying behavior. More important, if you are the company that changes the way people think, people will see your company as the category king, and you will win t