Networking, Branding and Positioning - by Ron Bates

In their landmark book Positioning: The battle for your mind. Authors Al Ries and Jack Trout discuss the concept of positioning: how others perceive you, your company, and/or your products.

Positioning is a fundamental concept in marketing that many are either ignorant of or fail to understand its significance. Some people use the term "Branding" interchangeably with "Positioning". There are a number of "case studies" in the book Positioning: The battle for your mind. of failed as well as successful attempts at positioning (or branding). For example: why Xerox failed in the personal computer market segment as a result of being branded/positioned as a copy machine company, and not a PC company; why nobody asks for a "facial tissue" - they ask for a "Kleenex" etc.

Position is a fundamental concept in marketing that many ignore altogether when attempting to market themselves and their business offerings. Positioning is ever more critical as an entrepreneur competing against others with a more established presence in the marketplace. Any solid marketing program starts with and flows out of how you want to be positioned in the minds of your target customer. As such, all attempts to tactically implementing facets of a marketing plan either reinforce or detract from your positioning - whether you like it or not.

Networking is one facet of implementing a marketing plan. To that end, are you keeping in mind how you want to be positioned -when- you network? Are you thinking about -how- to network to reinforce or establish your positioning/branding?

Positioning applies whether you are a job seeker, sole proprietor, entrepreneur, or part of a Global 1000 enterprise.

Happy Networking,

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

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