I’ve drawn a lot of flak after my comments about the end of positioning (comments, incidentally, that I stand by). And then I read an excellent article by Larry Light in Adage that reminded me it was Larry who had first got me thinking about the demise of positioning.
In the Adage article, he talks about his six rules for revitalising brands. Not once does he mention positioning. In fact, he is essentially echoing the FusionBrand definition of a brand available elsewhere on this blog.
Anyway, deep in my hard drive, I found the inspiration for my article on the death of positioning. So here it is:
“Bringing our brand up to date means that we have to abandon marketing practices & principles that are out of date. So we reject the outmoded view of the positionistas, declaring an end to the out-of-date, simplistic concept of brand positioning; that marketing lock-box that locks brands into uni-dimensional, uni-segment, monotone marketing. Instead we are adopting an up-to-date, multi-segment, multi-dimensional marketing approach.”
Larry Light when he was CMO of McDonald’s 2002 – 2005. He was also voted Ad Age’s Marketer of the Year title in 2004
brandconsultantasia.com 