Positioning deals with the importance of understanding how you are perceived, of focusing your efforts, of starting new categories.

Jack Trout and Al Ries labeled and defined the term “Positioning” 30 years ago, and it remains one of the most widely used business strategies in the world. Steve Rivkin worked with Trout & Ries Inc. for 14 years and then co-authored with Jack Trout The New Positioning, the sequel to the international best-seller that introduced the concept.

Positioning projects are designed to help you differentiate your company, product or service in the minds of customers and prospects.

A new position.

• A project for a new company or new brand typically uses research to determine what attributes in that particular category are important to customers, and to measure how individual brands rank in these attributes. By doing so, we determine the positions of the competitors. Their strengths and weaknesses are exposed. The new brand can thus identify a meaningful position which is unoccupied.

Repositioning.

• Markets can change underneath a company. Repositioning is a must when consumer attitudes have shifted, when technology has overtaken existing products, and when products have strayed away from the consumer’s long-standing perception of them. Repositioning projects seek out a new idea, a new point of difference, to carry the company forward.

Types of projects.

They range from one-day strategy sessions with senior managers to multi-month assignments.

Each project addresses such issues as the category, the competitive framework, the existing brand name, and concepts already owned in the prospect’s mind. Longer assignments include customized research and development of prototype communications to illustrate and “bring to life” recommended new strategies.