However, the USP can be problematic for b2b marketers. And as Kotler found, brands and marketers are finding new ways to be unique. Although the world has moved on from some of its applications in advertising, the need for brands to stand out in a crowded market by promoting a specific benefit that rivals can’t or don’t offer has arguably never been greater. The USP still plays an important role in brand marketing today. And what does Ries consider the best positioning campaign of all time? BMW exerting an unbreakable hold on the driving performance position with its famous slogan ‘the ultimate driving machine’. They said companies should therefore focus on occupying a specific position – and if necessary, dislodging another brand so they could take its place.įor many marketers, the ‘positioning statement’ effectively became a replacement for the USP during this period. This dynamic duo took a more scientific approach to brand strategy and marketing, arguing that consumers could only hold a small number of brand associations in their minds at once. The USP was still a go-to concept for marketing execs, but now it had a formidable challenger in the shape of positioning, an idea developed by the influential Al Ries and Jack Trout. An increasingly media-saturated culture meant brands were seeking greater efficiency with every campaign, and TV had become the dominant channel for reaching potential customers. In the 70s, strategy replaced creativity as the most powerful weapon wielded by brands and their agencies. He would encapsulate this benefit in a no-nonsense slogan (like the evergreen ‘Melts in your mouth, not in your hand’ for M&M’s) to hammer home the point.Īlthough often painted as a hard-nosed salesman or square in comparison to the creative mavericks who succeeded him, Reeves was a colourful character too – he wrote poetry and was kicked out of university for drunkenly crashing a friend’s car during Prohibition. Working at the Ted Bates agency in New York, he was known for campaigns that zeroed in a single, specific benefit of a product – and then repeated it until consumers could think of nothing else. However, this revolutionary period was preceded by another, less celebrated age, when an executive called Rosser Reeves ruled the roost. This is normally where the white fur would be however, because most people are familiar with the shape and color of a panda, we are able to perceive it as that animal.When they discuss advertising’s past, people often jump straight to the age of clever, creative print campaigns, the era dramatised by Mad Men and exemplified by the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency’s legendary work for Volkswagen. In this example, there are spaces missing in the panda bear’s head and back. This helps our eyes continue to move through the word.Ĭontinuity: When a shape is not complete, but enough of the shape is shown, our minds will fill in the blanks and construct the whole of the shape. ![]() We then follow the C in Cola through to the L and A in the word. In this example, our eyes follow from the C in Coca to Cola. In this example from Sun Microsystems, the SUN logo contains a U and an upside down U however, when they are together, they look like they are forming the word “SUN”, and are part of the same logo.Ĭontinuity: When we see one object, but are compelled to move through another object when our eyes naturally follow a line. ![]() Similarity: we tend to perceive things that physically resemble one another as part of the same object. It can be perceived as both separate faces, or one item. However, they appear to be a part of the one item. This iconic example from the Girl Scouts present three faces, two outlined in white, one in green. Proximity–We tend to group objects that are close together as part of the same object.
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