Company Positioning – Random Musings

Historically there has been a lot made about “positioning” in marketing and about the importance of a very succinct and easy to understand positioning for a company to be successful but, ironically, the most successful Web 2.0 companies don’t have it. In fact they have vague positions in the market. They have “optionality” on where they want to grow and seem to be thriving. Here is what I mean in a couple of obvious examples:

So is Google a….

Search provider?
A software company?
A technology company?
A CPC company?
An advertising company?
A media company?
A web services company?
A developer platform?
A web operating system company?
An artificial intelligence big algorithm in the sky?

Is it and can it be all of the above? They seem to be doing a pretty good job of it and the only positioning line I can think of about Google is “Do no evil.” They don’t have a position and they are the zero sum winners as far as I can tell.

Amazon is it…

The e-commerce company?
A shopping portal?
The one click shopping and no shipping charges provider?
The e-commerce platform provider?
The Wal-Mart of cyberspace?
A cloud computing company?
The “I know what you need to buy” recommendations company?
A communications company that connects buyers and sellers together?

All I ever remember as Amazon’s positioning was the original “World’s Biggest Book Store.”

My point: In the new world order, positioning may not be as important as it once was and may actually hurt a brand in that while expensive to build a brand’s position, it is even harder and MORE expensive to reposition a brand. Just think about it.

0 thoughts on “Company Positioning – Random Musings”

I agree with you Ted.
in the classic market when you have to sell a product by its exterior aspect or usefulness you have to fit that space in the market that matches perfectly.
During the web 1.0 era we saw a lot of firms that used positioning as their main tool to find their spot in the market, but I believe it was simply because they were not used to work on the net.
The web 2.0 is a different beast. The positioning is no more the best way to obtain the most. To be successful a web 2.0 company must focus on experience – the experience offered to the user – and its “products”, the software, permit to scale and diversify their proposal in such a way that it’s not possible in the classic market.
Experience is the big word that lead to success, imho. When you mix it with – to use a well known slogan – the ability to “think different” you obtain more chance to succeed. It permits to innovate or to reshape the existent or… and so on.

cheers

I believe in the current economy optionality is king – you need it to ensure you stay relevant because everything is so fast moving. Optionaality is somewhat oppositive to being easily understood and focused in a positioning sense.

No wonder you’re a successful businessman. A lot of companies do not want to change the way they do business and adjust to the realities of the global fast-paced changing economy.

marco on July 27, 2008 at 8:30 PM said:

I agree with you Ted.
in the classic market when you have to sell a product by its exterior aspect or usefulness you have to fit that space in the market that matches perfectly.
During the web 1.0 era we saw a lot of firms that used positioning as their main tool to find their spot in the market, but I believe it was simply because they were not used to work on the net.
The web 2.0 is a different beast. The positioning is no more the best way to obtain the most. To be successful a web 2.0 company must focus on experience – the experience offered to the user – and its “products”, the software, permit to scale and diversify their proposal in such a way that it’s not possible in the classic market.
Experience is the big word that lead to success, imho. When you mix it with – to use a well known slogan – the ability to “think different” you obtain more chance to succeed. It permits to innovate or to reshape the existent or… and so on.

cheers
Mark aka Usually Frustrated Caps Fan on July 26, 2008 at 9:47 PM said:

I believe in the current economy optionality is king – you need it to ensure you stay relevant because everything is so fast moving. Optionaality is somewhat oppositive to being easily understood and focused in a positioning sense.
SovSport on July 25, 2008 at 6:46 PM said:

No wonder you’re a successful businessman. A lot of companies do not want to change the way they do business and adjust to the realities of the global fast-paced changing economy.