The New Positioning

by Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin

Packed with keen insight, penetrating analysis, and irreverent advice, The New Positioning delivers hundreds of examples, anecdotes, and case studies on computers, oil companies, television shows, soft ice cream, even political candidates.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Finance, Management, Communication

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

John Francis "Jack" Trout was an American advertising executive and an owner of Trout & Partners, a consulting firm. He was the founder and pioneer of positioning theory and also marketing warfare theory.

Reviews

[Dmitry · Rating 3 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)

Перечитывая все книги Траута во второй раз, я нашёл эту книгу особенно слабой. Слабость этой книги определяется тем, что в ней автор не только ничего нового не предлагает, но даже и старый материал выглядит как текст, полностью скопированный из прошлых книг автора.

Да, я согласен со всем, что пишет Траут в этой книге (да и по отношению к любой другой его книге). Так что проблема не в содержании.

По сути, в этой книге присутствует только три темы: возросший уровень информации или информационного шума во всём мире, примеры позиционирования и важность названия бренда или фирмы. Те, кто хорошо знакомы с книгами автора, знают, что это отнюдь не новые для Траута темы, а уж про тему важности выбора правильного имени для товара, это и подавно. Поэтому я очень удивился когда, прочитав четверть книги, я дошёл до главы, где были представлены одни лишь примеры, которые я решил все пропустить, начав читать следующую и заключительную часть книги. К моему разочарованию данная часть книги выделяет аж три главы на тему выбора названия бренда. Поэтому эти три главы я тоже перелистнул не читая, ибо эта тема не заслуживает, чтобы ей посвящали три главы, да и тема, сама по себе, не настолько сложная, чтобы опять её перечитывать. В итоге я чуть ли большую часть книги просто пролистал! Да, если вы совершенно не знакомы с книгами Траута и Райса, то тогда эта книга вас, возможно, впечатлит, но если вы прочитали все основные и самые знаменитые книги этих авторов, а потом решите прочитать и эту книгу, то у вас возникнет ощущение, что вас обманули.

Я не знаю, что в книге есть ценного. Ибо если книга «Траут о стратегии» является конспектом всех его книг (которую я также не рекомендую), то эта книга совершенно ничего не предлагает. Да, Траута всё также приятно читать и да, трудно с ним не согласится и да, возможно для кого-то самым ценным будут примеры, что приводятся в книге. Но, в общем и целом, эта книга больше походит на статью, а не на книгу как таковую.

Как итог - ограничьтесь основными работами Траута и Райса, а эту книгу и книгу «Траут о стратегии», просто пропустите.


Rereading all of Jack Trout's books for the second time, I found this one particularly weak. The weakness of this book is determined by the fact that not only does the author offer nothing new, but also that even the old material looks like a text completely copied from the author's past books.

Yes, I agree with everything that Jack Trout writes in this book. So the problem is not the content.
In fact, there are only three themes in this book: the increased level of information or information noise around the world, examples of positioning, and the importance of a brand or firm name. Those who familiar with the author's books know that these are not new topics for Jack Trout. The same goes for the importance of choosing the right name for a product.

So I was very surprised when, after reading a quarter of the book, I got to a chapter that presented only examples, which I decided to skip and began reading the next and final part of the book. To my disappointment, this part of the book highlights as many as three chapters on the topic of choosing a brand name. So I also flipped through these three chapters without reading because this topic does not deserve three chapters. Besides, the topic itself is not so complicated that I have to reread it. In the end, I almost spent most of the book just flipping through! Yes, if you are completely unfamiliar with the books by Jack Trout and Al Ries, then you might be impressed with this book, but if you have read all the major and most famous books by these authors and then decide to read this book as well, then you will feel like you have been duped.

I don't know what's valuable about this book. Because if the book "Jack Trout on Strategy" is an outline of all his books, this book offers absolutely nothing. Yes, it is still a pleasure to read Jack Trout, and yes, it is hard to disagree with him, and yes, perhaps the most valuable for someone will be the examples that are given in the book. But, by and large, this book is more like an article than a book per se.

Bottom line: Limit yourself to the major works of Jack Trout and Al Ries. As for this book and the book "Jack Trout on Strategy," just skip it.

[Coral Wang · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Chinese version, and I have to say I fell asleep while reading it. It may not be fair to say the book isn't good enough, maybe it's just simply the translation sucks. Overall, I think the idea is not something new from the old positioning book.

[Steven Shook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the "rules of thumb" presented in The New Positioning have become standard marketing practices. An obvious weakness of the book is that there is little coverage concerning segmenting and targeting strategies, which are exercises an organization must go through before considering any positioning strategy. Also absent is positioning's reliance on the other three "Ps" of marketing; namely, product, price, and place (distribution). A comprehensive, effective, and efficient marketing strategy effectively weaves the positioning, or promotion, of the product/service with its price and distribution elements. While Trouts touches upon these concepts, he does so in almost a dismissive manner.

Trout's The New Positioning is worth reading if your have any connection to the marketing function at your organization. It's a breezy, quick read that provides considerable "third-party" insight to what marketers often do wrong with respect to positioning strategy and the author provides considerable inside into how to critically evaluate various elements of a positioning strategy.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

These gentlemen are supposed to be marketing professionals and I’m sure that some of what they share accurately reflects the consistency of human thinking particularly when making purchase choices. However, written in the early 90s, these gentlemen failed to exercise foresight of where technology and products would evolve that they now lack any sort of credibility. Never mind that when they were making these (inaccurate) statements, they wrote with an arrogance that is completely off putting.

[Sergej van Middendorp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic to understanding positioning in marketing.

[Tord Helsingeng · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good general advice, but a bit dated in its understanding of online marketing and especially how the internet is moving towards video.

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part 1 was well written. Straight forward concepts of understanding the mind. Part 2 fell quite short, however, as the examples used did not seem to convey the point the author was making. In fairness, the blame may partly rest on the fact that this book is 15 year old at the time of this review. Many of the companies used as examples were not familiar to me, and there may be some presuppositions that passed me by. Part 3 was better than part 2, although it seemed to stretch on longer than necessary to make the author's point. Also, the book ended abruptly without any summary. Decent book, but my expectations were not met.

[Serdar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Positioning is the key concept of the integrated marketing communications, if not the whole businesses, of our era. And positioning defines what your brand is, what your product represents and where it stands in the world of notions.

[Filip Hvizdal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seems like they run out of money so decided to "let's publish any crap and just use the popularity of the original positioning". Terribly confusing, nothing new, not even structured in a practical way; I had the audiobook and they even didn't bother to hire a profesional narrator.

[Lincoln]

My first Jack Trout book. Differentiate. Be different. The book has tons of reasons why this makes sense but this is what it is in a nutshell. Very quick read, love the whitespace.

[Ginee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitivamente sin desperdicios.

[Susy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellente, easy-to-read book!

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

虽是旧作，但对现在的工作也有不小借鉴意义。跟直觉不太一样，正确的定位是直白、清晰、关键的。新的想法可以有无数个，跟用户的想法一致吗？跟机构战略一致吗？意外的是里面提到了如何在定位工作中与工作团队沟通。留意那些想要做英雄的人，留意那些非常自信的人。

[Kaloyan Roussev · Rating 5 out of 5]

A more modern reiteration of the immensely powerful Positioning concept.