First in…

Hi,

When I was getting into marketing I spent hours in the Library at UNSW going through back issues of old US magazines such as Sales & Marketing Management and Industrial Marketing. In a 1969 isssue of the latter I found an article called 'Positioning' by Jack Trout and Al Ries that blew my mind (in a 1969 kind of way). They were the first people in my experience who turned the telescope around and looked at marketing from the correct viewpoint - from the consumer's point of view. They said positioning (a term they introduced) took place inside the head of the consumer. Not on the blueprint of the marketing manager. They said the consumer's mind was like a series of filing cabinets, the drawers of which were product categories, and the files stored in little league ladders, from first to seventh or so. They said the first brand into the mind becomes the first or number 1 brand for awareness, recall, and usually preference and market share. Startling in 1984 when I read it and bought their first book, Positioning. I recommend that book and their next one, Marketing Warfare.

(BTW, if you can't be first in in your category, create your own category.)

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Email responses:

However, it's very often that the ones that make the most money, are the ones that are not first to market. The first-to-market spend alot to create the category. Smart guys willfollow with a unique variation on the theme and clean up in the massmarket. Early adopter market is not as big as we all think. It might get more press, but probably less profit.

Jeff