netfandu: mahi gill

netfandu: mahi gill

Destroy the Competition With Positioning Strategy

An exasperated CEO stood up in the board meeting and exclaimed, “Is that all you marketing &#*$s know how to do, compete on price?!”

Before you get too excited, that CEO was cursing at me. And no, that wasn’t all I knew how to do. But he did have a point, and it’s even more relevant now than it was back then. In today’s marketplace where everybody’s competing for the same shrinking budget and differentiation is hard to come by, marketers often think of price as their only lever.

That’s just incompetent marketing, plain and simple.

There are lots of ways to differentiate a product. You can even create the perception of differentiation, if you’re creative enough. It’s called product positioning and it’s something of an art.

Here are Five fundamental product positioning principles that will help you destroy the competition:

1. Find a product attribute that captures the customer’s imagination. It’s so easy to get trapped in the same old box of features and benefits. If you can’t differentiate that way, look at the problem with fresh eyes and fresh data. Find a new attribute that can get customers excited and focus your positioning around it.
2. Market share gains are expensive. There’s simply no way around this. Market share comes at a heavy cost and your product planning and positioning must reflect that or your P&L will suffer and you’ll end up back at the drawing board. The cost is a function of how entrenched the leaders are and the perceived “switching cost” for customers.
3. Reinvent the “customer experience.” Nothing matters more, and it’s not just for Internet and B2B. Just as with product attributes, you can shake up the competitive landscape by rethinking the customer experience in new terms. What’s important to customers changes as a function of time and market conditions. Take advantage of it.
4. Only target up, not down the totem pole. Publicly and to customers, always position your product relative to the market leader. It elevates your product in terms of customer perception. That said, train your sales force (and other internal groups) on features - benefits versus all competitors. That’s a whole different story.
5. Infrastructure (or ecosystem) as a competitive barrier. This is an important and often ignored aspect of product planning and positioning. Many products and services, especially in technology, require related companies and industries to support them in some way. If you get enough support for your product, it can be an extraordinarily effective competitive barrier that you can use in positioning.

Here’s a great example that utilized four of the five principals. When Toyota entered the luxury automotive sector with the Lexus brand, it 1) made “ergonomics” and “quality” the new “performance” and “luxury,” 2) initially undercut the competition to gain entry and early market share, 3) created a low-stress and more respectful showroom experience, and 4) targeted Mercedes and BMW - up the totem pole.

Apple also uses positioning strategy extraordinarily well. Can you think of other examples?

Barcelona over Manchester United: a victory for Catalonia

Short of gaining independence, the Catalan flag will probably never again wave en masse as it did throughout Spain and in many nations worldwide Wednesday night.

The source of such patriotic exuberance?

FC Barcelona beat Britain's Manchester United 2-0 to win the European Champions League, the world's most prestigious league soccer tournament.

In Plaza Catalunya, the heart of Barcelona, more than 100,000 people danced, hugged, and kissed through the night, climbing lampposts, lighting flares, and waving flags.

But unlike in other European cities, this party is not simple soccer mania. For many here, every "Barça" victory is an affirmation of Catalonia's autonomy and supremacy.

"Barça catalyzes Catalan nationalist identity," says Ferran Requejo, a political scientist in the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. "Many thought this would end with the return to democracy [in Spain], but many sectors still think our autonomy is insufficient. Barça has taken the role of Catalunya's national team. When it wins, Catalans win, but not Spain."

Barcelona's motto is "més que un club" (more than a club). Founded in 1899 by a Swiss businessman, it was built around Catalan identity. Its sports statutes include defending Catalan culture, including its language and broader concepts such as liberty and democracy. Every player's jersey carries, not the Spanish flag, but a shield bearing the colors of the Catalan flag.

"Barça is the most important institution, the most representative, and the one with which Catalans relate to most," says Xavier Sala-i-Martín, a Columbia University economics professor and advisor to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

"It represents democracy and liberty in Catalunya," adds Mr. Sala-i-Martín, a Catalan who is board member of the club and one of the top contenders in next year's elections for club chairman. "We have a universal vocation, but we don't hide our Catalan identity and we don't want people impeding us from showing it."

Catalonia is a region of seven million people sandwiched both culturally and geographically between France and Spain. For centuries it sought sovereignty, but its aspirations were constantly defeated.

Dictator General Francisco Franco, who ruled for almost 40 years, violently suppressed regions that sought more freedom from the central government, especially in Catalonia and the Basque region. Indeed, the Basque terrorist group ETA was born of this repression.

Josep Sunyol, the club's chairman when the civil war started, was executed by Franco's forces without a trial in 1936. Since those times, the soccer stadium became a sanctuary where Catalan was spoken and cultural symbols were displayed.

After Franco's death, Spain's provinces regained a degree of self-rule and few today will suggest that Catalonia will move toward secession. Catalonia already has its own language, police, government, parliament, and health care system.

But the history of repression still fuels pride in the soccer team. And victories, such as Wednesday's, are another notch in Catalonia's struggle to differentiate itself from the rest of Spain.

In fact, Barça is a national political touchstone as much as a soccer team. Spaniards are split between those who want it to lose – for political reasons – and those who want it to win. Rarely is there a middle ground or indifference.

Broadly speaking, Barça supporters lean ideologically toward a federal system with large regional decision-making, while those who loath it are believed to support a centralized, powerful central government.

In a telling example, when Barça played a team from the Basque region for the King's Cup in the presence of King Juan Carlos, fans from both teams hissed when the Spain's national anthem was played.

Sala-i-Martín also points out that the team's guiding philosophy is uniquely Catalan. Aside from a very aggressive style of play that the team has adhered to for decades, Barça flaunts the fact that almost its entire team is either Catalan or has been brought up here, including the coach.

Most European teams function like a business and bid for players based on skill sets. Barça demands allegiance to Catalonia's cause.