Page 62 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

54 Marketing: the Basics
to position their laptop as the preferred choice for users who are constantly moving and who place convenience as their top priority. A second strategy is to grab an unoccupied position. Though a number of companies were involved in the business of professional wrestling, the WWE were the first to brand their product as sports entertainment. By admitting their matches are staged, the rules are malleable and are bent in favour of the cast of colourful personalities, the WWE turned the sport of professional wrestling
into a billion-dollar soap opera.
A third approach is to reposition. Repositioning requires a large
investment if the product has been heavily advertised in the past. As oil supplies dwindle worldwide, Shell Oil has been quietly repositioning itself as an energy supplier that offers a wide range of renewable and non-renewable energy sources. In 2005 the Hawaii Tourism Board sought to reposition Hawaii in the mind of its second most important market, Japanese tourists. In the past it had used Hawaii Sumo wrestlers in their ads in Japan. In 2005 they launched ads using a famous, young ukulele player, Jake Shimabukuro, to present a different positioning of Hawaii in Japanese minds. Beyond the cool of Jake they also used a new tag line, ‘The islands of Aloha’. The slogan was to signal to the Japanese – who tend to stay at Waikiki beach when they are in Hawaii and tend to think of Waikiki as being Hawaii – that there are eight major islands in the Hawaiian islands. Thus they were suggesting that there was a lot more to explore in Hawaii than just the urban beach of Waikiki. Insiders say the repositioning has been quite successful in getting the Japanese to experience the many charms of Hawaii.
Finally, creating an exclusive club is a strategy to position a product. Accountancy firms are often referred to as the Big Five. While there are tens of thousands of accountancy firms whenever someone in the business world hears the words Big Five, most immediately recall the names of all five firms. It’s a neat party trick to out the accountant.
Positioning a product in the mind of a consumer is very controversial. Some see the practice as being a form of brainwashing. We’re not convinced that it is immoral. The fact is that people will always position products spatially in their minds if they perceive a difference exists. If we agree that companies have a right to