Positioning: Creating a Focus for Your Company and Your Market  

By Dennis J. Castiglione

More and more, small printing companies are becoming part of larger organizations through mergers and acquisitions. How can you maintain the identity and customer share you have built over the years while forging a new position as part of a larger corporation?

It could be happening all around us or we might be dealing directly with the decision to buy, sell or merge at this very moment. But regardless of whether we set sail as an independent vessel or part of a larger corporate fleet, we need to know where we're going and how we intend to get there.

In this industry, especially today with it's extraordinarily changing technological landscape and the impact it's having on our customers and our markets, we need to have a clear vision of what we want our companies to be and what current and future needs we'll fulfill.

Simply put, we need purpose and direction to make a clear-headed decision for our companies. We need to have an intended position for our companies for today and tomorrow.

How important is positioning?

Well, we can sell "it", whatever "it" might be. And as long as there's a market for what we're selling, we might survive a while.

We might even discover or invest in a better way to produce "it" more profitably. Then if we sell enough over a reasonable period of time, we might be able to retire or pass our companies along to our offspring so they can sell "it", too.

Of course, there's a possibility that somebody else out there might be selling "it". Or producing "it" more productively and profitably. There might also be more of "it" to sell than there are buyers buying "it", then we'll have to see if we can out-service, out-quality or out-price that nasty competitors so we can sell more of our "it" before they do.

It's no wonder, however exciting this industry can sometimes be, selling "it" can get downright tiresome. Maybe that's why so many business owners are opting to sell their companies today and leave the race.

How important is positioning? For those of us who intend to stay in the race or expand our share through acquisition or merger, positioning might be THE most critical aspect of business as we enter the next century.

We have to define who we are, what we intend to sell, who's likely to buy and why. Then we have to convince those buyers we're the best choice. What makes it all so tricky is, the answers to those questions have changed, and continue to change. "It" is changing.

In his 1996 book, The New Positioning The Latest on the World's #1 Business Strategy, Jack Trout (with Steve Rivkin) wrote:

"Business is a battle of ideas that play out in the mind of the prospect. (My position versus your position).

If you don't have a simple, differentiating idea to drive your company or brand, you'd better have a great price."

What Trout and Al Ries (Trout's frequent co-author of classic business marketing books) preached about positioning in the 1970s and 80s is truer than ever as we end this century.

(Which is probably why they both continue to thrive in business, themselves, and have shared their wisdom with the masses for three decades.)

Assuming most of us would rather not battle with price to win the customer every time, perhaps we can make a stronger case now for waging the war in the customer's mind with positioning and differentiation.

How does one go about positioning the company?

Restricted time and space here drives us to begin with the premise that we've determined the position we want to occupy in the marketplace. We'll also assume for this discussion, that we are properly equipped with necessary support and service staff to deliver the product to a targeted buying public. Essentially, we will presuppose our house is in order, internally, and we can concentrate on influencing the external environment.

Our Name  

The name of our company can make an impact and send a direct message to the market. Buyers will draw conclusions about the kind of company that we are and the kind of work we do simply because of our name. So as we move to position ourselves in the market it might be wise to consider if our name fit.

In The New Positioning, Trout proposes six basic principles of the mind, saying: 

1. Minds are limited. Even a little information is too much.
2. Minds hate confusion. The only solution to over-communication is over-simplification.
3. Minds are insecure. They're emotional, not rational.
4. Minds don't change.
5. A made-up mind is a closed mind.
6. Minds lose focus. Don't expect one to understand why your department store also sells insurance.

"The key to positioning," Trout says, "is owning one word in your customer's mind."

If we accept that concept, our company name should lock in that "one word".

There IS something in a name - and naming a company is all a part of positioning. If your company has changed its services - or diversified into other areas of communication, you might determine that a name change is appropriate to better reflect your new business.

Our Logo

Likewise, the logo of a company plays a part in positioning. Throughout the 70s and 80s as printers, as an example, added multi-color capabilities, many invariably incorporated process colors into their logos.

Even in the 90s, many printers retain some representation of the printing process in their logos, as well. Ink rollers, cross-hairs and a variety of other notable printing icons can be found in printer's logos. And that's fine if we're still principally a printing company.

Again, if our business has changed, we might be wise to consider a change to the logo to better represent our desired position.

Our Marketing

The company name and logo are, of course, elements of the corporate identity and, therefore, elements of the marketing program for our corporation.

A full consideration of the marketing program should include both the message as well as the media we use to carry our message forward.

Again, if we choose to embrace Trout's "Principles of the Mind" we need to keep our message simple for our audience. If we can champion one  word or phrase, which best defines our company for the audience, we have a greater likelihood of fortifying our position in the customer's mind.

Oftentimes the promotional theme for our marketing program reflects on a particular skill, service, corporate trait or characteristic, which helps differentiate us from the competition for the marketplace.

Our Sales Program

The most obvious element of influencing the external environment as we position our company is our sales program. The personalities, skill sets and backgrounds of the people who represent us must parallel the business we are now in. If we are doing more than simply putting ink on paper today for a two-dimensional buying audience, then traditional print sales representatives using typical tactical print sales techniques will suffice.

But if our business has changed and we desire to position ourselves differently in the market, our sales representation needs to reflect that distinction. The tools we provide them must reinforce those positioning goals and our message must be delivered consistently by all whom present us to the market.

Other considerations?

Of course, there are many other elements to enhancing the positioning of our evolving companies. Recognize that the operative word here is evolving. We need to continually measure how we fit the market's needs, keep our vision clear, our message simple and all those within the company and those we sell to focused on who we are, where we are, and where we're going. That holds true whether we're sailing alone or joining the fleet.

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Dennis J. Castiglione is the President of Procom Marketing based in Cleveland, Ohio

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