Marketing

you tell a story: you connect with people’s emotions so they’re drawn to your narrative, but you also appeal to their rational side so they can convince themselves it’s the smart move to buy what you’re selling. You balance what they want to hear with what they need to know.

Often a brand’s positioning transcends its performance considerations. Companies can fashion compelling images that appeal to consumers’ social and psychological needs. The primary explanation for Marlboro’s extraordinary worldwide market share (about 30 percent) is that its “macho cowboy” image has struck a responsive chord with much of the cigare

In assessing potential threats from competitors, three high-level variables are useful: Share of market— The competitor’s share of the target market. Share of mind— The percentage of customers who named the competitor in responding to the statement “Name the first company that comes to mind in this industry.” Share of heart— The percentage of custo

A good positioning has one foot in the present and one in the future. It needs to be somewhat aspirational so the brand has room to grow and improve. Positioning on the basis of the current state of the market is not forward looking enough, but at the same time, the positioning cannot be so removed from reality that it is essentially unobtainable.

Fundamentally, marketing must refocus away from selling product and toward creating relationship. Relationship buffers the shock of change. To be sure, the specific product or service provided remains the fundamental basis for economic exchange, but it must not be treated as the main event. There is simply too much change in this domain for anyone

Brand Narratives and Storytelling Rather than outlining specific attributes or benefits, some marketing experts describe positioning a brand as telling a narrative or story. Companies like the richness and imagination they can derive from thinking of the story behind a product or service. To help sharpen its marketing and positioning, Jim Beam, wit

The work you put into improving your funnel is effort well spent. But attempts to build a perpetual motion machine of profit almost always end with bitterness, because they require you to push too hard and too fast to do anything that lasts. The goal is to prime the pump with ads that are aimed at neophiliacs, people looking to find you. Then build

Positioning is the act of designing a company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target market.