Source: Jack Trout, brandingstrategyinsider.com

Historically, the top three brands in a product category occupy market share in a ratio of 4:2:1. That is, the number one brand has twice the market share of number two, which has twice the market share of number three.

The success of a brand is not due to the high level of marketing acumen of the company itself, but rather, it is due to the fact that the company was first in the product category. Take Xerox, they launched the first plain-paper copier and were able to sustain its leadership position. However, time after time the company failed in other product categories in which it was not first.

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Source: Jack Trout, brandingstrategyinsider.com

In positioning your brand sometimes you discover there are no unique positions to carve out. In such cases I suggest repositioning a competitor by convincing consumers to view the competitor in a different way. Tylenol successfully repositioned aspirin by running advertisements explaining the negative side effects of aspirin.

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Source: Jack Trout, brandingstrategyinsider.com

The easiest way of getting into someone’s mind is to be first. It is very easy to remember who is first, and much more difficult to remember who is second. Even if the second entrant offers a better product, the first mover has a large advantage that can make up for other shortcomings.

However, all is not lost for products that are not the first. By being the first to claim a unique position in the mind the consumer, a firm effectively can cut through the noise level of other products. For example, Miller Lite was not the first light beer, but it was the first to be positioned as a light beer, complete with a name to support that position. Similarly, Lowenbrau was the most popular German beer sold in America, but Beck’s Beer successfully carved a unique position using the advertising,

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Source: Jack Trout, brandingstrategyinsider.com

Second-place companies often are late because they have chosen to spend valuable time improving their product before launching it. As my former partner Al Ries and I wrote in Positioning: The Battle for your Mind, it is better to be first and establish leadership.

If a product is not going to be first, it then must find an unoccupied position in which it can be first. At a time when larger cars were popular, Volkswagen introduced the Beetle with the slogan “Think small.” Volkswagen was not the first small car, but they were the first to claim that position in the mind of the consumer.

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from Media Hunter

When I began the Media Hunter blog my world-view was much narrower. I intended to write about media, marketing and advertising news and issues in my local region as it related to my clients and our agency. Initially that meant most posts covered radio, television and press stories, with maybe a little bit of online news for good measure.

The dialogue has changed dramatically over the year or so that Media Hunter has existed. So much so that I now have been forced to ask myself, what is media in 2008?

A decade ago, or maybe even less, media in regional centres was easy to identify. The local TV stations, local radio stations, local press and perhaps some outdoor were all the available and relevant media for marketers to utilise. It was all pretty straight-forward.

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