Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

by Al Ries

The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what’s already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist.

The overcommunicated society

In general, the mind accepts only that which matches prior knowledge or experience.

“Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind’s made up.”

being told something which he or she knows nothing about. (Which is why “news” is an effective advertising approach.) But the average person cannot tolerate being told he or she is wrong.

but it does seriously affect the message. Instead of a transmission system, the medium acts like a filter.

In communication, as in architecture, less is more. You have to sharpen your message to cut into the mind. You have to jettison the ambiguities, simplify the message, and then simplify it some more if you want to make a long-lasting impression.

Only when you appreciate the nature of the problem can you understand the solution.

You look for the solution to your problem not inside the product, not even inside your own mind. You look for the solution to your problem inside the prospect’s mind.

“In politics,” said John Lindsay, “the perception is the reality.” So, too, in advertising, in business, and in life.

What is truth? What is objective reality? Every human being seems to believe intuitively that he or she alone holds the key to universal truth. When we talk about truth, what truth are we talking about? The view from the inside or the view from the outside?

Besides, who’s to say that the view from the inside looking out is any more accurate than the view from the outside looking in?