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When is the right time to reposition a companies or brand? Which marketing strategies should be use by companies to be successful in the repositioning process?
The right time to reposition a company or brand is when the market changes. For example, the market for mainframe computers has been dying a slow death over many decades. IBM has successfully repositioned itself as a "global computer service company."
You need a lot of patience to reposition a company or brand. It's harder to change a brand in the mind than it is to put a new brand in the mind. So you need to give the repositioning process enough time to make the changes you want to make.
Also, you need a link to the past. IBM was successful because it traded on its mainframe reputation to build a new position as a computer service company. You can't walk away from what you already are.
Is Marketing still warfare?
It's still warfare in a conceptual sense, in that the competition is the enemy and the customer is the ground to be captured. Marketing is like a game of chess, a game also based on the warfare analogy where the purpose of the game is to conquer the king (which in ancient times was always the goal of a war.)
In addition to the principles of offensive, defensive, flanking and guerrilla warfare (which we spelled out in our book, Marketing Warfare) there is also a very good analogy between the tools of war and the tools of marketing.
In warfare today, the primary weapon is air power. You can't win a war unless you first control the skies. Furthermore, you don't attack with your infantry until the enemy is first "softened up" with air power.
In marketing, PR or public relations, is air power and advertising is the infantry. You shouldn't run advertising (an infantry attack) until you first soften up the mind of the prospect with PR. (Air power.)
How to successfully differentiate a brand in the XXI century?
Marketing people should think "category," rather than "brand." Consumers don't want to buy a brand, they want to buy a category.
For example, a consumer might want to buy "the best expensive watch." So the consumer shops for a Rolex. The Rolex brand guarantees that the consumer is actually getting "the best expensive watch."
But what built the Rolex brand as "the best expensive watch?" In virtually every category, the first brand into the mind is perceived as the "original," the "authentic," and the "best." Kleenex in pocket tissues. Swatch in fashion watches. Heineken in expensive beer. Wal-Mart in cheap merchandise. Etc.
Instead of trying to differentiate their brands, marketing people should try to figure out what new categories their brands could stand for.
Marketing is really a battle of categories rather than a battle of brands.
What are the strongest traditional and modern ways of differentiating a brand?
All branding programs are attempts to "position" brands inside the minds of prospects. The traditional way of doing this is by using massive advertising programs.
That no longer works. The increased volume of advertising and the increased costs of advertising make advertising an inefficient way of influencing consumers.
Furthermore, advertising has lost much of its credibility. Few consumers today believe what advertising is trying to tell them.
That's why a shift is taking place from advertising to PR. Consumers have more faith in the editorial sections of newspapers and magazines because they believe that the editors of these print publications are more likely to be unbiased. And the same is true of radio and television programs.
When a marketing person wants to use PR to build a brand, the first question to ask is "What is new about my product or service?" The media want to talk about what's new, not what's better.
In general, the "news" about a new product or service is the fact that it's the first brand in a new category. That's why the category issue is so important in marketing today.
What are the main mistakes marketers make trying to differentiate a brand?
Most marketers don't bring their ideas "down to earth." Their concepts are too ethereal. They say things the average person can't relate to. Toyota in the U.S., for example, positions the brand as "Moving forward."
What does moving forward mean to the average person? That Toyotas have no reverse gears? No, it's just another meaningless advertising slogan.
At least 90 percent, or more, of advertising slogans are totally useless because they do not communicate anything that helps consumers differentiate between brands.
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