Myths of Marketing by Grant Leboff

Author:Grant Leboff [Grant Leboff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kogan Page
Published: 2019-11-30T19:52:31+00:00

MYTH 15

MARKET POSITIONING IS ALL ABOUT THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE ON OFFER

In 1968, Coca-Cola and Pepsi dominated the soft drinks market in the United States. Almost two-thirds of all sales of carbonated soft drinks were colas [1]. In other words, when someone wanted a soft drink, cola was the first choice. Within this context, trying to persuade American consumers that they shouldn’t drink cola but should change to 7 Up instead should have been futile.

But the creative team in the Chicago office of the agency J. Walter Thompson pulled a masterstroke in market positioning. In 1968, adverts were released referring to 7 Up as the ‘uncola’ [2]. In other words, rather than try to steal market share from Coca-Cola and Pepsi, 7 Up was positioned as ‘the’ alternative choice. So, on those occasions when someone didn’t fancy a cola they automatically thought of 7 Up. The campaign leveraged what was already in the customer’s mind, that ‘cola is the natural choice for a soft drink’, and made 7 Up the obvious alternative. In the first year of the campaign sales of 7 Up doubled [3].

In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple as Interim CEO, having left in 1985 [4]. Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and needed an investment from Microsoft to stay afloat. Microsoft came to Apple’s rescue with a $150 million investment. [5]. At that time, Steve Jobs hired TBWA/Chiat/Day to undertake an advertising campaign. It was this agency that came up with the slogan ‘Think Different’.

Craig Tanimoto, who wrote the phrase [6], was reacting to ‘Think IBM’, a campaign that was running for IBM’s Thinkpad [7], although ‘Think’ had first been used as an expression by IBM as early as 1915 [8]. IBM was then the second-biggest maker of personal computers [9]. As one of the oldest computer companies in the world [10], it was very much an ‘establishment’ brand. The ‘Think Different’ idiom leveraged existing perceptions in the marketplace, and positioned Apple as distinct and unlike other companies within its sector. Despite launching no new products at the time, Apple still received a boost from the campaign and within 12 months its stock price had tripled. It paved the way for its successful launch of multicoloured iMacs a year later [6].

These examples highlight two major rules of market positioning. First, market positioning is not always about the product. Referring to 7 Up as the ‘uncola’ is not really about the drink – after all, it could have been a carbonated orange or apple beverage. Rather, this positioning worked solely in relation to customer perceptions of the market. It gave 7 Up a place in the mind of the customer.

Second, customer perceptions are all that matter. For example, the first cars were referred to as ‘horseless carriages’ [11]. Describing something as an automobile would not have appealed to the understanding of the time, when many everyday folk would simply not have appreciated what it was.

Human beings don’t believe what we see; we see what we believe [12].

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