In their 1981 book, Positioning: The Battle for your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout describe how positioning is used as a communication tool to…

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…

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…

Second-place companies often are late because they have chosen to spend valuable time improving their product before launching it. According to Ries and Trout, it…

Sometimes there are no unique positions to carve out. In such cases, Ries and Trout suggest repositioning a competitor by convincing consumers to view the…

A brand’s name is perhaps the most important factor affecting perceptions of it. In the past, before there was a wide range of brands available,…

People tend use abbreviations when they have fewer syllables than the original term. GE is often used instead of General Electric. IBM instead of International…

A company introducing a new product often is tempted to use the brand name of an existing product, avoiding the need to build the brand…

Line extensions are tempting for companies as a way to leverage an existing popular brand. However, if the brand name has become near generic so…

Despite the disadvantages of line extensions, there are some cases in which it is not economically feasible to create a new brand and in which…