Positioning is Dead

"Positioning" is dead, and McDonald's has just put up the tombstone. But what is really interesting for branding is what is taking its place.

The signs of "positioning's" demise are everywhere. The number of branding failures, many based on "positioning," exceeds 90%, according to the consultancies Ernst & Young and McKinsey & Co. McDonald's, the premier mass market branding giant, announced that it has abandoned positioning. Says Larry Light, McDonald's chief global marketing officer: "Identifying one brand position, communicating it in a repetitive manner is old-fashioned, out of date, out of touch." Even more bluntly, Light highlights "the end of brand positioning as we know it," calling it "marketing suicide." Even a top executive at advertising giant Leo Burnett is willing to stand before his CEO peers and admit, "the old ways of marketing are not working any more." 

By recognizing that it is better served by adapting itself to customer requirements instead of preaching a "position," McDonald's is definitely on the right track with "brand journalism." but the term is awkward for several reasons. A better term for this customer-driven strategy that reflects today's branding realities is "brand wikfication." Read more (Branding Asia/Thanks to M&C Planner)

Related
Susan Sontag on positioning (AClearEye.com)

Comments

[David Vinjamuri]

Perhaps the title ought to be "Positioning is Ignored" not "Positioning is Dead." While it is absolutely true that 'old methods' are not working the way they used to, this is a question of the tools of positioning, not positioning itself. Marketers never could dictate the positioning of brands - consumers position brands. And make no mistake, they still position them -whether or not marketers are paying attention. This is why you see Volvo floundering whenever they try to show how beautiful their cars are (consumers position them as 'safe'), Maytag still winning consumer for reliability even thought Whirlpool now leads them in Consumer Reports reviews and McDonalds floundering as they forget that they stand for kids and family (more on this in the ThirdWay Advertising Blog today).

90% of brands fail for the same reason that 96% of all entrepreneurial companies fail and most line extensions fail as well. This doesn't mean that business owners, general managers and marketers shouldn't present a clear and compelling value proposition for the brand. To do that, they need to think about positioning. The best brands clearly have.