Jack Born On Marketing, Online Business, and PHP Code

I was recently talking with a client of mine that pays me a monthly retainer for marketing consultations and service. I was trying to sum up the advice given in the wonderful marketing book “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind”.

I was having a difficult time getting the point across so I used an example: Dyson vacuum cleaners.

Imagine this scenario: a longtime friend comes to you and wants some seed money for the product launch that’s going to put his new company on the map. He’s been working day and night on the product for over a decade and he’s so excited about it he tells you it’s a “sure thing”.

The product is a (drumroll please)…

Vacuum.

Huh? You’re going to make millions selling a vacuum? Aren’t there already, oh I don’t know… a thousand different kinds of vacuums you can buy?

In this imaginary scenario, you probably figure out a way to kindly tell your friend “no thanks” so you can avoid throwing your money down the drain.

But apparently the folks behind the Dyson vacuum cleaner think there’s room for one more vacuum cleaner.

Their pitch is clear and simple: “The first vacuum cleaner that never loses suction”

I have no idea if their vacuum “never loses suction” or even if their product would be the first to do so. But, the important lesson here is that they were the first ones to claim this position.

Notice what they didn’t claim about their product:

• Cheapest
• Lightest
• Most powerful
• Easiest to use
• Most versatile
• Smallest
• Biggest (in some market niches that’s a benefit)
• Most popular (the McDonald’s proposition)

There are other categories they didn’t lay claim to, but you get the picture.

The folks at Dyson new they had to be different. They had to have a reason for existing. That reason had to be acceptable to their market. And they had to be first.

Why first?

Read “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” and you’ll get plenty of examples why the first to occupy a “ladder”, as they call it, in the mind of the prospect has all the advantage. It’s no good saying “Our product does the same thing but better”.

Amazon was first. Books a Million and Barnes and Noble will always be playing catchup.

Say copiers, you think Xerox.

And just recently, to my surprise, WalMart joined forces with NetFlix. The “category killer” feared by many decided it was in their best interest to work with NetFlix rather than against them.

I am sure there’s a lot more to the deal than the fact that NetFlix was first, but let’s face it: if you’re not first, you’re going to have to spend a TON of money to try to beat the leader… and it might not work even after the money’s gone.

Blockbuster is currently trying to fight head to head against NetFlix. Blockbuster has very deep pockets… which is good because they’re going to need it.

So, if you’re launching a new product or service and you want the most bang for your marketing dollar, you would do well to spend some time finding an acceptable category for you to be first in.

‘Cause if you ain’t first, you’re in trouble.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 10th, 2005 at 11:55 am and is filed under Marketing, Entrepreneurs . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.