5. The History of Brand Positioning

The 1960s: When Brand Stories Were Born

• The Sixties marked the shift from functional, jingle-driven ads to brands with complex personalities and cultural relevance.
• Avis: "We’re No. 2 — we try harder." Volkswagen: self-deprecating humor.  Levy’s Rye Bread: early cultural diversity in advertising.

Key Insight: Brands with personality and a point of view began to win.

David Ogilvy: The Father of Advertising

• Ogilvy’s unlikely path — door-to-door stove salesman → London ad agency → Gallup researcher → WWII propagandist — gave him an unmatched foundation in consumer behavior and persuasion.
• He founded Ogilvy & Mather on three principles: Generate Big Ideas, Focus on Truth, and Incorporate Story Appeal and Singularity.
• His 1972 New York Times essay “How to Create Advertising That Sells” shared 38 principles with the world. His #1 rule:

“The effect of your advertising depends more on this decision than on any other: How should you position your product?”

Key Insight: Positioning matters more than creative execution. Even brilliant advertising can’t rescue a product fighting for the wrong territory.

Trout & Ries: The Positioning Era Cometh

• In 1973, Jack Trout and Al Ries argued in Advertising Age that RCA and GE failed by attacking IBM head-on — IBM’s position was unassailable from the front.
• The lesson for start-ups: never compete head-on with a dominant brand. Find your own niche and own it.
• Psychology insight: the human mind holds a maximum of seven brands per category — in smaller categories, often just one or two.
• Sony’s entry into U.S. televisions: instead of competing broadly, they claimed the unoccupied slot as the specialty leader in tiny TVs.

Key Insight: Find the unoccupied slot. Your job is to claim a position in the consumer’s mind before someone else does.

The Four C’s: Policing Your Brand

Every brand communication must pass all four tests: