Branding and positioning

I came across a insightful piece today in Advertising Age. (You can find it here.)

Al Ries, the author, makes a considered plea for more brands to carve out their distinctive territories based on being "first," and he gives loads of good examples. "First" doesn't have to mean, literally, the first. In other words, the iPod wasn't really the first MP3 player; the Wright brothers weren't really the first to fly; and Henry Ford wasn't the maker of the first auto. But their positions were those of pioneers - the "first" - because they were the first to go to market that way.

Softspikes captured the first position in plastic cleats, and they never let go. Those guys used to worry about becoming the generic name for the category. We at BURRIS argued that's exactly where they wanted to be.

First in the mind of the customer. That's a great place to be.