What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark H. McCormack

Author:Mark H. McCormack [McCormack, Mark H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2016-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

Positioning 1: Is It a Ford or a Mercedes?

Positioning is first and foremost a numbers game, going from mass—a Ford or Sears (affordability)—at one end of the market spectrum to elite—a Mercedes or Neiman-Marcus (quality, luxury)—at the other.

While elitism can be a potent buyer motivation, it can also be dangerous. Companies go just as broke positioning themselves above their market as below it.

A company must figure out where it fits in this spectrum—where the biggest bulge of its buyers is.

We recently finalized a fascinating licensing/endorsement/spokesperson deal for Arnold Palmer with Sears (similar in concept to Sears’s arrangement with Cheryl Tiegs). It was fascinating to me because of its irony.

For two decades we had consciously positioned Arnold at the upper end of the market spectrum, affiliating him with such brands and companies as Rolex, Cadillac, Robert Bruce, and Hertz. Sears, meanwhile, had recently concluded that rising buyer sophistication had pushed them down a couple of notches from where they wanted to be. When Sears decided to upgrade its image, Arnold, like Cheryl, was an ideal choice. Had it not been for Arnold’s previous “up-market” affiliations, he would not have been so perfect.

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