“Ries and Trout taught me everything I know about branding, marketing, and product management. When I had the idea of creating a very large thematic community on the Web, I first thought of Positioning....”—David Bohnett, Chairman and Founder of GeoCities

A handsome edition of the original 1981 text, this 20th Anniversary Edition makes available to business and marketing professionals—including tens of thousands of Ries and Trout groupies, worldwide—the work that forever changed the way marketing strategy is done. This new edition features commentary from the authors that offers fresh insight into why “positioning” a product in a prospective customer’s mind is still the most important strategy in business, and includes numerous examples of campaigns that followed, or didn’t follow, Ries and Trout’s thinking.

You will not find the gory details in this book that you'll need to execute a marketing plan, though, but the general theme is examined, as well as various positioning examples (everything from Kleenex to Heinz Ketchup - or was that pickles?).

I was particularly disappointed about a lack of methodology to reach a positioning statement, other than some fairly broad "rules", lightly applied throughout the book. There were six questions at the end that were helpful, but did not constitute a rigorous method - well, any method really - to create a "position". If anything, I would have wished for the method that could be used to create positioning for a product, or to test a company's current positioning, rather than have as many examples of positioning failures.

Some of the author's examples seemed contradictory, and especially when the authors claimed that brand extension amounts to a virtual see-saw - one product steals the brand identity from another (Heinz Ketchup vs. Heinz Pickles - who is Heinz!?). From hindsight, it can be seen that some brand extensions have been extremely successful, while others aren't. It should shock no one that people don't want to use baking soda as anti-perspirant, for instance, and therefore completely explaining why we use Arm & Hammer to cook and deodorize the refrigerator, but do not think of it as a personal hygiene brand. I can't think of anything that I would remove from the refrigerator and rub under my arms.

In any case, this remains a quick, good read with short chapters. The examples illustrate the concepts, but you'll need to follow this up with other positioning and marketing examples in order to position your product within your industry.

15 of 15 found the following review helpful:


Much More Than Marketing  Mar 05, 2004 By David Quinn
Positioning is the idea that shook Madison Avenue to its core in the 1970s. Ries and Trout published what the high priests of Madison Avenue deemed as heresy. These two upstarts dared to take the voodoo out of marketing - and marketing has not been the same since.

Over the years I have given away countless dozens of Positioning. I have found two types of recipients: (1) Those who view it as a book on marketing, and (2) those who truly "get it."

Positioning is not actually about marketing, though that is its platform. It is about how the human mind works. The principals taught in this book apply across all of our lives - from how we are viewed by our friends to why we affiliate with a particular political party or other social cause. Learning how Positioning works is learning about life.

23 of 25 found the following review helpful:


A Marketing Classic - A must read.  Jan 03, 2000
Positioning is a concept that has been coined by Ries and Trout in the late 1970s. Today (2000), Positioning has become one of the most commonly used marketing terms.

Like all other books by Trout and Ries, "Positioning" is straight-forward, common-sensical and easy to read. The book is full of real market example of positioning attempts that succeeded and failed.

This book belongs on the bookshelves of marketers just as much as the laws of trigonometry belong on the shelves of mathematicians

19 of 21 found the following review helpful:


Packed With Knowledge!  Jul 06, 2001 By Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract"
Yes, this is the renowned marketing classic, revered for bringing to light the now ubiquitous strategy of positioning. If you're in business, you probably have at least a fuzzy notion of what the term means. If you're in marketing, you probably hear the word used at least five times a day. (Seriously, try counting.) But in terms of defining positioning and explaining how to use it as a foundation for your strategy, nobody has done a better job than Al Ries and Jack Trout in this original. Of course, the book does have a slightly historical flavor to it now, since the most contemporary business examples cited arrive from the 1970s and 1980s. While a lot has changed since then, a lot hasn't. You'll be surprised how similar this book sounds to the marketing missives of 2001, despite the fact that it was written before the arrival of the Internet, globalization and other buzzwords du jour. We [...] recommend that any executive charged with product development or general business strategy join those in marketing, advertising and sales by taking a few hours to read this book, and get back to the basics.

18 of 20 found the following review helpful:


The most important marketing book you can read  Oct 09, 1998
I discovered this book in 1994 and it changed my business life. It opened my eyes to a facet of marketing that is too often overlooked, and it's the most important facet. Positioning is more than branding, it's the key to success. Luckily, most companies don't do proper positioning, which is why there's always room for new companies to start up, get it right, and be very successful.

If you don't read this book, you're chances at success are like everyone elses: 1 in 10. Read and learn positioning, and the odds are with you. Simple as that.

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