Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, 20th Anniversary Edition (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Author) "How did a hard-sell concept like positioning become so popular in a business noted for its creativity?..." (more)
Key Phrases: everybody trap, overcommunicated society, positioning thinking, New York, Milk Duds, Long Island Trust (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Ries and Trout taught me everything I know about branding, marketing, and product management. When I had the idea of creating a very large thematic community on the Web, I first thought of Positioning....--David Bohnett, Chairman and Founder of GeoCities

A handsome edition of the original 1981 text, this 20th Anniversary Edition makes available to business and marketing professionals--including tens of thousands of Ries and Trout groupies, worldwide--the work that forever changed the way marketing strategy is done. This new edition features commentary from the authors that offers fresh insight into why positioning a product in a prospective customer's mind is still the most important strategy in business, and includes numerous examples of campaigns that followed, or didn't follow, Ries and Trout's thinking.

From the Back Cover

"...Ries and Trout taught me everything I know about branding, marketing, and product management. When I had the idea of creating a very large thematic community on the Web, I first thought of Positioning...."
­­David Bohnett, Chairman and Founder of GeoCities

"One of the most important communication books I've ever read. I recommend it highly!"
­­Spencer Johnson, MD, co-author of The One Minute Manager

It shook up the world of marketing with all the force of a 20-megaton bomb, and now, two decades later, Positioning is still as fresh and, perhaps, even more relevant, for advertisers in the New Economy. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the classic book that changed an industry, McGraw-Hill has reunited mavens of marketing Al Ries and Jack Trout to make available to another generation of advertisers the book that forever changed the way advertising is done.

The 20th Anniversary Edition features commentary from the authors that offers fresh insight into why "positioning" a product in a prospective customer's mind is still the most important strategy in business. Ries and Trout look back over two decades of campaigns, offering penetrating analyses of some of the most phenomenal successes and unbelievable failures in advertising history.

The first book to deal with the problems of communicating to a skeptical, over-communicated public, Positioning describes a revolutionary approach to creating a "position" in a prospective customer's mind that reflects a company's own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of its competitors. Writing in their trademark witty, fast-paced style, Ries and Trout explain how to position an industry leader so that it gets into people's minds and stays there, how to position a follower so that it can occupy a space not claimed by the leader, and how to avoid letting a second product ride on the coattails of an established one.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 3 edition (December 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071359168
• ISBN-13: 978-0071359160
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #33,034 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read, but little practical examples, August 20, 2002

By	"dgrounds" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (Paperback)

A classic in marketing how-tos, the authors explain the importance of offering something for sale that appeals to the buyer, not to the seller, creator, or manufacturer. The product is positioned relative to the consumer, and her needs and viewpoints of value. The basic theory is that you get into the mind of your consumer, and position your product accordingly. And on that point, almost anyone would have to agree.

You will not find the gory details in this book that you'll need to execute a marketing plan, though, but the general theme is examined, as well as various positioning examples (everything from Kleenex to Heinz Ketchup - or was that pickles?).

I was particularly disappointed about a lack of methodology to reach a positioning statement, other than some fairly broad "rules", lightly applied throughout the book. There were six questions at the end that were helpful, but did not constitute a rigorous method - well, any method really - to create a "position". If anything, I would have wished for the method that could be used to create positioning for a product, or to test a company's current positioning, rather than have as many examples of positioning failures.

Some of the author's examples seemed contradictory, and especially when the authors claimed that brand extension amounts to a virtual see-saw - one product steals the brand identity from another (Heinz Ketchup vs. Heinz Pickles - who is Heinz!?). From hindsight, it can be seen that some brand extensions have been extremely successful, while others aren't. It should shock no one that people don't want to use baking soda as anti-perspirant, for instance, and therefore completely explaining why we use Arm & Hammer to cook and deodorize the refrigerator, but do not think of it as a personal hygiene brand. I can't think of anything that I would remove from the refrigerator and rub under my arms.

In any case, this remains a quick, good read with short chapters. The examples illustrate the concepts, but you'll need to follow this up with other positioning and marketing examples in order to position your product within your industry.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most important marketing book you can read, October 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (Mass Market Paperback)

I discovered this book in 1994 and it changed my business life. It opened my eyes to a facet of marketing that is too often overlooked, and it's the most important facet. Positioning is more than branding, it's the key to success. Luckily, most companies don't do proper positioning, which is why there's always room for new companies to start up, get it right, and be very successful.

If you don't read this book, you're chances at success are like everyone elses: 1 in 10. Read and learn positioning, and the odds are with you. Simple as that.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packed With Knowledge!, July 6, 2001

By	Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Yes, this is the renowned marketing classic, revered for bringing to light the now ubiquitous strategy of positioning. If you're in business, you probably have at least a fuzzy notion of what the term means. If you're in marketing, you probably hear the word used at least five times a day. (Seriously, try counting.) But in terms of defining positioning and explaining how to use it as a foundation for your strategy, nobody has done a better job than Al Ries and Jack Trout in this original. Of course, the book does have a slightly historical flavor to it now, since the most contemporary business examples cited arrive from the 1970s and 1980s. While a lot has changed since then, a lot hasn't. You'll be surprised how similar this book sounds to the marketing missives of 2001, despite the fact that it was written before the arrival of the Internet, globalization and other buzzwords du jour. We [...] recommend that any executive charged with product development or general business strategy join those in marketing, advertising and sales by taking a few hours to read this book, and get back to the basics.