Transcription
Do you really think that if you make your product the best, customers will automatically come to you? If so, why can McDonald's burgers beat those handmade burger shops? Do you think that if you spend a lot of money improving your product, customers will flock to you? As a result, competitors just run an advertisement and customers leave. When I finished reading this book, I realized that the real battlefield in business is not in your factory, nor in your store, but in the consumer's brain. Today I want to share Positioning, this bible of entrepreneurship. The author is the marketing master who invented the term Positioning, and he taught giants like Coca-Cola and IBM how to plant flags in consumers' minds. But what I want to tell you more is how we small companies can use positioning strategy to find our own survival space in a red ocean market, allowing small companies to turn things around from losing money to making big money. I believe it will subvert your understanding of competition. Hello everyone, I am Senior Brother Frank. My channel specializes in sharing practical entrepreneurial experience, book reviews, useful tools, and the business psychology that schools don't teach you. Now let's continue watching together. Let me ask you a question first. What is the highest mountain in Taiwan? Yushan. The second highest? Xue Shan. Then the third highest? Most people can't answer, right? Positioning tells us that modern people receive more advertising messages every day than our grandparents saw in their entire lives. In order not to crash our brains, we have learned to ignore unimportant information. In the minds of consumers, every product category has a mental ladder, and consumers usually only remember the top three. When I first started my business, I always told customers that I did better than certain big companies. Customers' reactions were always, "But that one is more famous, it feels more stable." At that time, I was very unwilling. Now I understand, it's not that customers don't know good products, but their brains are already full. If you just keep shouting "I'm better, I'm cheaper," you are actually wasting money because in the consumer's established impression, you can't squeeze in. This is why we need to learn positioning, not to change the product, but to adjust your position in the consumer's mind. Let me give you an example. I have a student who originally wanted to make a shoe dryer box. Her original intention was to target motorcycle commuters. If it rained during their commute, their shoes would definitely be very wet when they returned to school or the office. However, because it is a portable shoe dryer, the power supply is very limited, which limits its drying capacity. I told her, I suggest not targeting motorcycle commuters, but targeting female office workers who value quality of life. After wearing shoes for half a day at work, those people will definitely feel dampness inside their shoes. With a portable shoe dryer, within half an hour to an hour, the moisture in the shoes can dissipate, and it even has deodorizing and fragrancing effects. This way, before wearing shoes in the afternoon, you can get a pair of clean and even fragranced shoes. This is adjusting the position in the consumer's mind. Imagine that every product category in the consumer's brain has a ladder. When it comes to cola, the first level is Coca-Cola, the second level is Pepsi. Convenience stores? 7-11 is first, FamilyMart is second. If you open a new convenience store today, how difficult is it to climb this ladder? Many bosses, including myself in the past, made the mistake of trying to push others off the ladder. For example, we attack the first place, saying that 7-11's bento is not tasty, mine is better. But psychology tells us that the more you attack the first place, the more consumers think the first place is more important. This is why many startups fail miserably. They try to force their way onto an already occupied ladder. The book says that if you are not number one, you have two choices. The first choice is to admit you are second and use that position. We will use the example of a car rental company from the book to illustrate this later. Or use the second strategy: find a new ladder and be number one there. This is too important for us small and medium-sized enterprises with limited resources. We don't have money to brainwash consumers. Admitting reality is not admitting defeat, but finding a gap for survival. Speaking of which, I want to ask everyone, in your industry, who occupies the first rung of the ladder? What rung do you think you are on? Leave a comment and tell me. Let's see how fierce the competition everyone is facing is. The next highlight is that I will share two practical strategies that allow small companies to turn things around. The first is to find an empty space, and the second is to reposition competitors. If you can understand and execute these, your marketing efficiency will increase by at least three times. The first strategy: find an empty space. Don't squeeze onto the same ladder as the boss. Let's build our own new ladder. The most classic example is the Volkswagen Beetle. What was the mainstream in the American car market in the 1960s? Cars had to be big, long, wide, and imposing. If Volkswagen also shouted "My car is also big," it would definitely have failed miserably. But Volkswagen made the greatest positioning in history: Think Small. Think about the benefits of being small. It didn't compete with American cars for the big car ladder, but built a brand new small car ladder. On this new ladder, Volkswagen was number one. It told consumers that small cars are fuel-efficient, easy to park, and have cheaper insurance. As a result, this ugly little car sold very well in the United States. What about Taiwan? In the bubble tea market, everyone is competing for pearl milk tea and fruit tea, with fierce competition. How did Milkshop enter? "For you, we raise a herd of cows." It doesn't compete on how good the tea is. They built a new ladder for fresh milk bubble tea. When consumers want to drink fresh milk beverages with real ingredients, Milkshop is the first choice. So, how do we find that empty space? For example, if competitors make large sizes, you make small sizes. If competitors make affordable prices, you make high prices. Look at where your competitors are strong, that's your dead end. But the opposite of their strengths is your way to live. If you can't find an empty space, the second trick is even more ruthless: reposition competitors. It's not about smearing, but about changing consumers' perception of competitors, turning advantages into disadvantages. A classic case is Tylenol against Aspirin. Aspirin was the king of painkillers. Tylenol said, "I relieve pain better," but no one believed it. What did Tylenol do? It said, "For the millions of people who are prone to stomach discomfort, please use Tylenol." This statement is brilliant. It didn't say Aspirin is ineffective, but implied that Aspirin can damage the stomach. This is a fact. Tylenol repositioned Aspirin as a stomach-damaging pain reliever, making itself a safe choice that doesn't hurt the stomach. This move directly captured Aspirin's market share. If your competitor is a large chain, their advantage is standardization and speed. You can reposition them as assembly line factories, lacking human touch. Emphasize your "artisanal craftsmanship" and "warmth." If your competitor is an old brand, their advantage is a long history. You can reposition them as outdated and out of touch with the times, emphasizing your "innovation" and "technological feel." Remember, the key to repositioning is to leverage. You don't need to be stronger than your competitor, you just need to point out the shadow behind their strength and stand in the light. The last mental cultivation: admit you are number two. Avis Rent a Car gave the best example. Hertz is the leader in the car rental industry. Avis lost money for 13 consecutive years until they admitted their position. They launched the legendary advertisement: "Avis is only No. 2. So why go with us? We try harder." Avis is number two, but because of that, we try harder. This sentence is truly divine. First, honesty. Consumers like honest people. Second, it cleverly positioned the number one as potentially arrogant because they are the boss, while Avis, being number two, offers better service and will try harder to satisfy customers' needs. After this positioning was released, Avis immediately turned from losing money to making money. Why? It attracted all the customers who "disliked the boss," and customers who had been treated poorly at Hertz immediately switched to Avis. So how can we apply this? Suppose you run an air conditioner cleaning company. You can try to tell customers directly: "We are small, we don't have money for advertising, so we spend the saved money on training our technicians and buying the best cleaning agents. And I, the boss, personally supervise." Admitting you are small transforms into "more focused" and "more attentive." The boss's personal involvement immediately creates professionalism and trust. Don't be afraid to admit weaknesses. Under the magic of positioning, weaknesses are often the strongest weapons. Based on the above points, the sincere advice for entrepreneurs is that the essence of positioning is sacrifice. People are easily greedy and always want to make money from everyone, wanting to emphasize all their advantages. But positioning tells us that if you want to do everything, you will do nothing well. If you want to please everyone, no one will remember you. You must sacrifice part of the market, part of your product line, and even some seemingly good opportunities to gain a clear position in the consumer's mind. Ask yourself: If you could only use one word to describe your company, what would it be? If you can't say it, or need a whole paragraph to explain, it means your positioning is not yet complete. Finally, I'll leave you with a saying: It's better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small shrimp in a big ocean. Go back and examine your business. Are you climbing someone else's ladder, or have you built your own? If you like my videos, please remember to like and subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You are welcome to share my channel to help yourself review and at the same time help others. See you next time.