The Origin of Brands Blog

Brand Journalism vs. Positioning

“The end of positioning as we know it,” declared McDonald’s CMO, Larry Light at last month’s AdWatch conference in New York City. McDonald's, he stated, was abandoning the universal message concept. Instead he advised marketers to use a “brand journalism approach,” rather than employing one message to reach everyone.

According to Larry Light, here is the definition of Brand Journalism:

“Brand Journalism is a chronicle of the varied things that happen in our brand world, throughout our day, throughout the years. Our brand means different things to different people. It does not have one brand position. It is positioned differently in the minds of kids, teens, young adults, parents and seniors. It is positioned differently at breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, weekday, weekend, with kids or on a business trip.

“Brand Journalism allows us to be a witness to the multi-faceted aspects of a brand story. No one communication alone tells the whole brand story.

“Each communication provides a different insight into our brand. It all adds up to a McDonald’s journalistic brand chronicle.”

On the other hand here is the definition of Positioning, according to Al Ries:

“Positioning is not what you do to the product; it’s what you do to the mind of the prospect. It’s how you differentiate your brand in the mind. Positioning compensates for our overcommunicated society by using an oversimplified message to cut through the clutter and get into the mind. Positioning focuses on the perceptions of the prospect not on the reality of the brand.”

McDonald’s is a powerful brand. It pioneered the hamburger and fast-food categories. As the leader and the first brand in the mind, it became an American icon. Recently, however, the brand has lost its way. Why? Because they were no longer focusing on the core of what McDonald’s stands for. Because they were chasing breakfast, chicken, pizza, salads, adults (remember the Arch Deluxe?), coffee (McCafe, anyone?), hotels (Golden Arch hotel in Switzerland) and a whole host of other projects.

You don’t need an expensive research study to tell you what the McDonald’s brand stands for in the mind. McDonald’s equals kids, Ronald McDonald, happy meals, playgrounds, hamburgers, cheeseburgers and French fries. It all adds up to a paradise for kiddies 2 years to 8 years of age. Yes, other people also eat at McDonald’s, including the unpaid chauffeur of a headstrong three-year-old. But the core of McDonald’s market is families with kids.

The notion that McDonald’s should abandon the positioning philosophy and instead adopt a brand journalism approach is lunacy. Brand journalism is just another name for an approach that has been tried and has failed many times before. It is the everybody trap. Brand journalism attempts to make a brand appeal to everybody by using many different brand messages.

Brands that try to appeal to everyone end up appealing to no one.

What is a Chevrolet? It’s a cheap, expensive, large, small, automobile or truck. In essence, Chevrolet has lost its meaning. People recognize the brand but it has no position in the consumer’s mind. “An American Revolution,” Chevrolet’s recent slogan has not resonated with consumers.

“I’m lovin’ it” is McDonald’s theme and the core of Larry Light’s brand journalism strategy. I’m lovin’ it? What does that mean? In fact most customers have not been lovin’ McDonald’s for quite some time.. Sure, sales are up this year, but they have been stagnant for years.

Larry is suggesting that brands should not stand for anything. But if you look at some of the most powerful brands in the world, they stand for singular ideas in the mind:

- Starbucks: European-style coffee house
- BMW: driving
- Volvo: safety
- Subway: healthy sandwiches
- Cialis: the weekend drug
- Cold Stone Creamery: customized ice cream
- Ikea: Knock-down furniture
- Silk: soy milk
- Red Bull: Energy drink
- Under Armour: athletic underwear

Some brands stand for a category in the mind. Like Red Bull and the energy drink category. The best way to get into the mind is to be first in a new category. Under Armour got into the mind by pioneering the athletic underwear category. They invented it, they are the leaders and they own the position in the mind.
So what should McDonald’s do? They should not try and make the brand appeal to everybody. No one brand appeals to everyone. As consumers grow older, their brand preferences change. Think about the brands people might choose over their lifetime:

When you are young you might like McDonald’s hamburgers. As a teenager you might hangout at Wendy’s. After college you will probably take your date to Outback Steakhouse. After a promotion at work you might go to Ruth’s Chris. Then you get married, have kids and get dragged right back to McDonald’s.

The same is true in almost any mature product category. Your first car might be an inexpensive Saturn. Then you get a promotion and buy a BMW. After you get married and have kids you buy a Volvo. When you get divorced, the wife gets the kids, the house and the Volvo and you buy a Ferrari. You don’t want to buy an expensive Saturn sports car.

Brands help define who we are. We select our brands based on their position in our minds and whether they match how we feel about ourselves. When a brand no longer stands for something, it loses its power.

A brand journalism approach will not succeed in building a strong brand. McDonald’s needs to focus on hamburgers and kids. They need to remember that brand perception is a brand’s reality. Management has done a good job in cleaning up the stores and simplifying the menu. Now marketing has to sell the brand position.

McDonald’s is heaven for kids and their parents who “deserve a break today.”

The Positioning Era Cometh

In 1972, the first in a series of articles was published in Advertising Age on the concept of Positioning developed by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

You can read all of the articles on our website which were first distributed in a orange booklet before becoming the basis for the classic Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind book that was published in 1981.

READ THE ORIGNAL POSITIONING ARTICLES NOW

I think you will find the principles of positioning are just as valid today as they were in 1972.

Positioning is alive and well.

Some have said Positioning is dead. No way, I say. Positioning is alive and well. Successful brands are still the ones using the most powerful concept ever to be introduced into advertising, marketing and branding.

One of the best-selling advertising books at Amazon.com continues to Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind written by my father, Al Ries and Jack Trout, a book first published 22 years ago. Positioning has become famous. No company would launch a new brand today without first writing a positioning statement.

But many people have forgotten what positioning is all about. When you study these statements you can see where many marketing people have gotten off the track. In general, they are written from the company’s point of view. “We want to position our brand as the premier product in the category.” What’s wrong with a positioning statement like this? Everything. It leaves the prospect out of the equation. If you want to position a product from the prospect’s point of view, you have a limited number of choices. Here are six possibilities.

1. The Open Hole.
Price is the easiest hole in the mind to understand and it’s one of the easiest holes to fill. Haagen-Dazs’ decision to introduce a more expensive line of ice cream set up the "premium" ice cream position for the brand and made Haagen-Dazs one of the enduring marketing successes of the past several decades. What Haagen-Dazs did in ice cream, Heineken did in beer, Rembrandt in toothpaste, Evian in water, Orville Redenbacher in popcorn, Rolex in watches, Mercedes-Benz in automobiles. High price is only one of the open holes in the mind. Low price is another. What Haagen-Dazs did at the high end, brands like Wal-Mart and Southwest Airlines are doing at the low end.

2. The New Category.
Sometimes there are no open holes in the prospect’s mind and you have to create one. We call this positioning strategy, “create a new category you can be first in.” Gatorade, for example, was the first sports drink. PowerBar was the first energy bar. Red Bull was the first energy drink. UnderArmour was the first in performance workout clothing. Zima was the first ... well, what was Zima the first of? The label said “ClearMalt,” but nobody knew what that meant. The television announcement ads were no help either. “What’s in it?” asked a bartender. “It’s a secret. It’s something different,” replied a mysterious pitchman in his white suit and black hat.

3. The Number-two Brand.
Consumers like choice. Sometimes you can build a powerful brand just by giving consumers an alternative to the leading brand. But what strategy can best deliver the No. 2 position? “Maybe if we can produce a better product than the leader,” goes the thinking, “we won’t necessarily overtake them, but we will wind up in the number two position.” This is the worst possible approach. Why is this so? Because the leader in your field already has the perception of producing the better product. Then how do you become a strong number two brand? You become the opposite of the leader. Coke was for older people, so Pepsi became the cola for younger people. Listerine was the bad-tasting mouthwash that killed germs and odor in your mouth. So Scope became the good-tasting mouthwash and a strong number-two brand. Home Depot is the leading home-improvement store, but its crowded aisles and jammed shelves appeal more to men than women. So Lowe’s became the home-improvement store for women with clean layouts and wide aisles.

4. The Specialist.
Every coffee shop in America sells coffee, but they also sell hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, apple pie, donuts and dozens of other foods and beverages. So Starbucks specialized in coffee and became a very successful brand. So did McDonald’s which specialized in hamburgers. And Dunkin’ Donuts which specialized in donuts. And Subway which specialized in submarine sandwiches. Enterprise Rent-A-Car specialized in the “insurance replacement” business and became the largest car rental company in America.

5. The Channel Brand.
Sometimes you can position a brand to fill a channel hole. L’eggs, the first supermarket panty-hose brand, became the largest-selling panty-hose brand in the country. Today there are opportunities to create Internet channel brands. Amazon.com, eBay, Monster.com and Salesforce.com are just some of many successful “Internet-only” brands. Paul Mitchell became a $600 million hair and skin-care brand by focusing on the professional hair salon channel. Ping did the same in golf clubs by focusing on the pro-shop channel.

6. The Gender Brand.
Sometimes you can build a big brand by focusing on half the market.
Marlboro because a big brand by positioning itself as the first cigarette for men.
Virginia Slims became a big brand by positioning itself as the first cigarette for women.
Curves became a big brand by positionging itself as the gym for women.
Secret became a big brand by positioning itself as the first deodorant for women.

There’s a lot more to say about the subject of positioning. I suggest you get yourself a copy of the 20th anniversary edition of Positioning. You can’t go wrong if you simply take your mind off your product, your brand and your company and focus instead on the mind of the consumer. Since it is in the mind of the consumer that the real marketing battle is won or lost.