What is Disruption! anyway?

Disruption! is what sells goods & services.

And, other than spending bunches of money to incessantly pound the brand message into everyone's brain...the only thing that works (read as sells) in this still difficult, scared, unsure economy.

And, we're the only San Diego Ad Agency that offers Disruption! Indeed, Quantum is the only San Diego Ad Agency that specializes in Disruption!

Disruption! is making the unstrange strange...and making the familiar unfamiliar.

It's blowing the doors off of conventional wisdom.

To say that we specialize in beating "impossible" deadlines is maybe an overstatement. But, we are v-e-r-y good at it.

We're the only San Diego Ad Agency that stakes their claim on this positioning.

What does the Army Corps of Engineers (Seabees") during WWII say??...the difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer.Yeah! Like that!

OK...here's the Brand positioning to match up with the Brands I called out in my last post. Or, if you're new to this blog, you can follow along right from here. I'm identifying a Brand...and then their associated positioning.

Just to re-state my belief that Positioning is the single most important marketing decision you'll ever make...

Just ask Mervyn's department store. They're out of business for a variety of reasons. The most damaging is that they did not know who or what the Brand stood for nor where the Brand was positioned. The Brand was merchandised like the low price leader---WalMart, yet did not have the low prices to support that position.

It was not classy enough to be Target.

This is another post in a series about positioning.

Today, I'll identify some well-known Brands and see if you can come up with their positioning.

Then, in my next post, I'll provide the answers along with some more useful, usable information about positioning.

BTW...as a reminder, at this point in my career, having worked in marketing for 30+ years, I'm absolutely convinced that positioning is the most important marketing decision you'll ever make. Ever.

Get the positioning right and the Brand will become a Brand...and, btw...generate revenue.

Get the positioning wrong and it's a long, uphill battle.

Here's some Brands.

Here's the answers to the Positioning game...

Nordstroms (to quote Mr. Bart Simpson...well---duh!) is the Department Store that flat-out owns the service position. Their service creates Raving Fans...which is exactly how to own a position in the prospect's mind. This was a slam dunk question.

Cheerio's is the heart healthy breakfast cereal I was looking for. This Brand has done a spectacular job of positioning. In fact, it is one of the 1st Brands to jump on the heart healthy bandwagon...actually before there even was a bandwagon...

Would you like to have some fun with positioning?

I firmly believe, after nearly 4-decades in the business of marketing, that Positioning is the single most important marketing decision you'll ever make.

And no...I do not think that's overstated.

Let's quickly review what positionins is...

It's the place or space or...position that a Brand occupies in the mind of a prospect---when thinking of a product or service category. But, here's a part that's not talked about very often. That prospect is, the majority of the time, thinking about that category when they are in buy mode.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Well...sometimes anyway.

As we continue to progress throught the "new" marketing era...using blogposts, forums and incorporating social media into our marketing plans, it's comforting to realize that many, many of the same marketing basics still apply.

We're a 22-year old San Diego Ad Agency with a Brainstorm of our own. We'll Brainstorm with you for 90-minutes for Free on any (business) topic you choose.

It's that simple. No strings attached.

You get 3 Brains for your Brainstorming session. 3 Brains with over 50 years of professional Brainstorming successes.

Here's how it works...

We'll arrange a video conference call between your brain & 3 of our Brains. The Video component adds a vital aspect to the process...which also includes a Whiteboard that we can all see all the time to record all the ideas that will be flying around.

Exciting stuff...right??

Brainstorming with a Twist..

As a 22-year-old San Diego ad agency, we've seen, and survived, many ebbs & flows in the economy. We were almost taken out after 9/11. We had all the worst working...being an ad agency when advertising was being deleted; living in San Diego where the COL already made running a business here a challenge and having a significent number of resort hotel clients when travel was simply stopped completely. Triple ouch!

But we've never experienced anything like this current financial landscape. Ugh! Yet, through it all we've survived in San Diego still operating as a successful ad agency.

I learned a long time ago, from one of my favorite all-time clients—David Jenkins, founder of Next Proteins—that if you want a better answer—ask a better question.

Do you know of anyone who starts out with the thought of having a non-productive show at Natural Products Expo East (Or, any other trade show for that matter?)?

Of course not.

Many companies ask the question before going to Expo East—"How can we keep our costs down for this show?" Or, "What can we reuse from last years booth?"