纪念杰克·特劳特：定位的过去及未来

编者按：昨日，定位学习网刊发了由定位爱好者翻译投稿的里斯先生发表在《广告时代》杂志上纪念特劳特先生的文章后，得知里斯先生曾在此文章基础上，专门增加中国品牌案例，并更加详细地讲述了定位理论的初生，希望里斯中国公司翻译后呈现给中国读者。通过联系里斯中国公司，定位学习网获得“里斯品类战略”公众号授权，将原文及译文完整发布。

The death of Jack Trout and

the birth of the positioning concept.

纪念杰克·特劳特：定位的过去及未来

我的前合伙人和好朋友杰克·特劳特先生去世，我感到难过而万分感慨，想写点什么纪念我们二人过去将近30年共事的时光。

With the death of my ex-partner and good friend Jack Trout, I feel compelled to write a few words about our nearly 30 years of working together.

正如在爱情的世界里，人们总是被跟自己截然相反的人吸引；在商业中，截然相反的两个人也会产生很好的合作。杰克和我就是性格截然相反的两个人。

In love, opposites attract. In business, opposites work well together. Jack and I were opposites.

杰克是一个非常外向的人，而我则很内向。他比较健谈、擅长社交，体格健壮，而我则不是。他是典型的左脑思维 ，而我则是右脑思维。几乎所有方面，我们都是相反的两人。

Jack was Mr. Outside; I was Mr. Inside. Jack was an extrovert, talkative and very social; I am an introvert, shy and retiring. Jack was athletic; I am not. Jack was a verbally-oriented left brainer; I am a visually-oriented right-brainer. In almost every attribute, we were the opposite.

1967年，聘请了杰克·特劳特加入了我的广告公司（Ries Cappiello Colwell），我当时正任公司的总裁，杰克之前在我们的一个客户企业（Uniroyal）广告部工作，因此我对他十分了解。

In 1967, I was president of an advertising agency (Ries Cappiello Colwell) when I hired Jack Trout to join us. Jack had worked for a client of ours (Uniroyal) so I knew him well.

定位的起源

The origin of positioning.

那个时候，业内对于广告有个广泛的认知：广告即“传播”。你研究你的产品，包括它的特性和竞争对手，然后你再准备一条广告来解释为什么你的产品更好。

In those days, advertising was considered to be “communications.” You studied your product, its features and its competitors and then you prepared advertising that explained why your product was better.

尽管各行各业每年投入到广告中的花费高达几十亿美元，但领先品牌的认知和它们的市场份额几乎没什么改变，几乎所有的广告都没有真正发挥传播的作用。

In spite of billions of advertising dollars spent every year, perceptions about leading brands as well as their market shares seldom changed. All that advertising was not doing very much communicating.

对以上现象的深刻洞察触发了定位观念的诞生。相对于聚焦在产品和竞争对手上，我们提出应该聚焦于潜在顾客的心智。在这个过程中，我们逐步发展出了定位理论的几个原则。

That insight led us to the positioning concept. Instead of focusing on the product and its competitors, we focused on the minds of the prospects. And in the process, we developed the principles of positioning.

在杰克加入我们公司之前，我形成了初步的想法，并称之为“rock”。我认为，每个广告都需要一个无法被移动或挑战的“rock”。

Before Jack Trout joined our advertising agency, I had an idea which I called “the rock.” Every advertisement, in my opinion, needed a rock as a foundation that could not be moved or challenged.

杰克加入公司之后，建议我们将这个想法称为“positioning(定位)”。我当即就接受了这个建议。我认为“positioning”是一个比“rock”明显好得多的名字，因为它既可以代表心智中的一个“位置”，又可以将运用这个理念称为“定位”。

Instead of a rock, Jack suggested we call the idea a “position,” which I instantly accepted. The name was much better because it suggested a “position” in the mind and the concept itself could be called “positioning.”

1981年，在经过了十多年的完善之后，我们出版了《定位：心智争夺战》这本书。

In 1981, after more than a decade of work on the concept, we published a book called Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

《定位》一书提出的一些营销领域的概念和原则至今仍具重要意义。

The Positioning book outlined a number of important issues that are still relevant in the field of marketing today.

（1） 品类的概念

 (1) The concept of categories.

人类的大脑里有几十亿个神经元和大约23万亿个连接，是一个庞杂的储藏器。然而，从营销的角度来看，心智中最为重要的就是品类的概念。

With a billion neurons and some 2.3-trillion connections, the human mind is a massive mental storage container. From a marketing point of view, however, the most-important aspect of the human mind is the concept of categories.

消费者以品类来归档存储他们感兴趣的品牌。当消费者想要购买商品时，他们首先以品类来思考，再用品牌来表达。

Consumers use categories to store brands that interest them. When consumers want to buy something, they check the categories in their minds and the brands associated with each category. They think category first, brand second.

没有人会走进商店对售货员说：我想要买一台联想，请把所有在售的联想拿出来让我看看吧。

Nobody walks into a store and says: I want to buy a Lenovo. Please show me all the Lenovos you have for sale.

相反，他们首先决定自己要买的品类。也许是一台笔记本电脑，或者一个台式机，或一台平板电脑，或者是一部智能手机。然后，他们会走进商店说：我想要买一台联想笔记本电脑。

Instead, they first decide the category of what they want to buy. Perhaps a laptop computer. Or a desktop computer. Or a tablet computer. Or a smartphone. Then they might walk into a store and say: I want to buy a Lenovo laptop.

但是联想把它的这个品牌名放在了所有的产品品类上，品牌被大大稀释。[当然，他们试图为他们的智能手机产品启用一个独立的品牌名“乐Phone”（LePhone）。但消费者并不会将它视为一个独立品牌名，他们只把它作为Lenovo Phone的简写。]

But Lenovo has greatly weakened its brand by putting the Lenovo name on all of these categories. (Sure, they tried to create a separate brand name for their smartphones by calling them LePhones. But consumers didn’t consider LePhone as a separate brand name. They just think it’s a shorthand name for a Lenovo phone.)

联想是什么？消费者如何将联想这个名字在他/她的心智中归类？如果你没有一个特定的品牌名能让消费者将它在心智的品类中归类，那你就无法建立一个强大的品牌。

What’s a Lenovo? And where does a consumer file the Lenovo name in his or her mind? You can’t build a powerful brand if you don’t have a singular brand name that allows the consumer to file your brand in a category in the mind.

你或许认为大多数公司都理解这条定位原则的真义。事实并非如此。

You might think most companies would know the truth of this positioning principle. But they don’t.

以智能手机品类为例。除了苹果公司，每个主流的智能手机企业都没有为他们的智能手机产品启用一个独立的品牌名。他们都是既有品牌延伸的产物：黑莓、HTC、华为、小米、Micromax、摩托罗拉、索尼、诺基亚和LG。

Take the smartphone category. Except for Apple, every major smartphone company does not use a separate brand name for their smartphones. They are all line-extensions of existing brand names: BlackBerry, HTC, Huawei, Xiaomi, Micromax, Motorola, Sony, Nokia and LG.

对比一下联想和苹果公司。去年，联想的营业收入为3050亿人民币，亏损。苹果的营业收入为14660亿人民币，净利润3110亿人民币。苹果的净利润比联想的营业收入还要高。

Compare Lenovo with Apple. Last year, Lenovo had revenues of 305 billion RMB and lost money. Last year, Apple had revenues of 1,466 billion RMB and net profits of 311 billion RMB. Apple’s net profits were greater than Lenovo’s revenues.

苹果公司为它的每个主要产品都启用了独立的品牌名：Macintosh、iPhone和iPad。

Apple uses separate brand names for each of its major products: Macintosh, iPhone and iPad.

实际上在《定位》出版的时候，我们已经看到了品类领先者的威力，它点燃了品类观念的火花，在其后20几年里，我越发感觉到“品类”的革命性和重要性，并探索和研究其背后的动力。因此在《品牌的起源》一书中我系统的阐述了关于“品类”的原理和方法，并称之为《定位》以来最重要的书。我们的中国公司合伙人写了《品类战略》一书，专门来讨论品类这个主题。我建议任何一个中国企业在推出一个新产品之前都应该读读这本书。

We had noticed the power of category when Positioning got published, and I believe the idea of category will be an important essence of marketing. For the next twenty years, I felt the significant revolutionary meaning of category idea as I did more thinking and study on this subject. Therefore, we wrote the book The Origin of Brands, in which we discussed the principles and method of category thinking, and I think it is the most important book of mine since Positioning. Our Chinese partner, Ries & Chuang & Wong, has written a book on this subject called Categoring Strategy. No Chinese company should introduce a new product without first reading this book.

（2）心智的每一个品类里都有一个梯子

(2) For every category, there is a ladder in the mind.

品牌名就在这个梯子的每一层上。偏好的品牌会在梯子的上面几层，其余的品牌就被放在了下面的几层。

On the rungs of the category ladder are brand names, with the preferred brand at the top of the ladder and the rest of the brands in descending order.

大多数消费者心智中，每个品类里都只有少数几个品牌的空间。很多品类只有两个品牌。可乐品类中的可口可乐和百事可乐，凉茶品类中的王老吉和加多宝。

Most consumers have room in their minds for only a few brands in each category. Many categories have just two brands. Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola in cola. Wanglaoji and Jiaduobao in herbal tea.

消费者几乎很少将位于顶端的两个品牌视为平等。他们总是偏好于其中一个，通常将第二品牌视为“可以接受的”。

Seldom do consumers consider their top two brands as equals. Invariably, consumers prefer one brand over the other, although the second brand is often “acceptable.”

如果你的品牌在潜在顾客心智中没有占到品类阶梯的最顶上两层，那么你就面临着严峻的营销问题。你可能需要改变你的营销战略，或者创建一个你可以率先占据的新品类。（参见第四点。）

If your brand is not one of the two brands on top of the category ladder in your prospects’ minds, than you have a serious marketing problem. You either need to change your marketing strategy or you need to create a new category you can be first in. (See principle No.4.)

（3）名字是把品牌挂上潜在顾客心智中品类阶梯的钩子

(3) The name is the hook that hangs the brand on the category ladder in the prospect’s mind.

你所能做的最为重要的营销决策就是如何给你的产品命名。这是我们在1981年出版的《定位》中所说的话。

Here is what we said in our 1981 Positioning book: The most important marketing decision you can make is what to name the product.

在俄罗斯，Kremlyovskaya是领先的伏特加品牌。因此这个企业在美国市场上推出Kremlyovskaya伏特加时用的口号是：Kremlyovskaya，俄罗斯伏特加第一品牌。

The leading vodka brand in Russia is Kremlyovskaya. So the owners of the brand introduced Kremlyovskaya in the American market with the slogan, The No.1 vodka brand in Russia.

很自然地，这个品牌在美国市场没有什么地位。这个名字让说英语的消费者如何在他的心智中将这个品牌名放到伏特加品类中呢？

Naturally, the brand went nowhere. How can an English-speaking person file that brand name on the vodka ladder in the mind? It’s too long, too complicated and virtually unpronounceable for an English speaker.

Barilla是意大利领先的意大利面品牌。因此企业在美国市场上推出Barilla品牌时用的口号是：Barilla，意大利第一意面品牌。三年之后，Barilla成为美国市场上排名第一的意大利面品牌。

The leading pasta brand in Italy is Barilla. So the owners of the brand introduced Barilla in the American market with the slogan, Italy’s #1 pasta. Three years later, Barilla was the No.1 pasta brand in America.

（我在墨西哥做过几次演讲，建议Kremlyovskaya在美国市场上更名为“红场”伏特加。但是，很显然，企业决策层听不进去。）

(I made several speeches in Moscow suggesting that Kremlyovskaya in America be called Red Square Vodka. But it never happened.)

很多中国品牌的名字就像Kremlyovskaya，英语世界的消费者无法发音。Xiaomi就是一个例子。

Many Chinese brand names are like Kremlyovskaya, unpronounceable for English-speaking people. Xiaomi is one example.

英语是全球第二大语言。要建立一个全球品牌，你的品牌名必须要在英语世界也行得通。

English is the second language of the world. To build a global brand, your brand name has to work in the English language.

幸运的是，对中国品牌来说有一个优势。你可以在中国使用一个品牌名，同一个产品在全球其他市场使用另一个品牌名。

Fortunately, that’s no problem for a Chinese brand. You can use one brand name in China and a different brand name (for the same product) in the rest of the world.

你们的国家就是这么做的。Zhong Guo是你们这个国家在中国国内的名字，它在全球其他地方的名字叫China。

That’s exactly what your country has done. Zhong Guo in your country is China in the rest of the world.

（4）在心智中找到一个空缺

 (4) Find an open category in the mind.

心智中，有些品类被一个品牌占据，有些品类还空缺着。如果这个品类还没有被品牌填满，那么它就是一个你的品牌容易占据的空缺或定位。

Every category in the mind is either filled with a brand name, or it’s not. If the category is not filled, then it’s an open hole or position which your brand can easily occupy.

特斯拉进入心智占据了“电动车”这个空缺的新品类。如今，特斯拉的市值（610亿美元）已经超过了通用汽车（520亿美元）和福特（440亿美元）。

Tesla moved into the mind to occupy an open category called “electric cars.” Today, Tesla is worth more on the stock market (415 billion RMB) than either General Motors (354 billion RMB) or Ford (299 billion RMB.)  

可是，通用汽车、福特和全球其他主流汽车生产商不也推出了电动汽车吗？当然，但是他们没有给新产品起一个新的品牌名，因此消费者无法将这些品牌名在心智中进行归类。

But didn’t every major automobile company in the world also introduce electric vehicles? Sure, but they didn’t give them different brand names so consumers had no way of filing these electric-car brands in their minds.

你无法将奔驰、宝马、雪佛兰、日产和大众这类品牌名放到心智中“电动汽车”的梯子上。你可以去验证一下。让身边的人说出他们知道的所有电动汽车的品牌名，大部分人会告诉你：特斯拉，以及……我似乎想不出其他的了。

You can’t put brand names like Mercedes, BMW, Chevrolet, Nissan and Volkswagen on the electric-car ladder in your mind. And you can prove this to be true. Ask someone to name all the electric-car brands they know and most people will say: Tesla and… I can’t think of any other.

（5）与心智中的既有认知产生关联

 (5) Touch base with what’s already in the mind.

两种战略：为你品牌的一个非常主要但却无人知晓的特性投放广告，或者，为你品牌的一个已经存在于潜在顾客心智中的小特性进行广告传播。后者是更好的战略。

Advertising a minor feature of your brand that is already recognized in prospects’ minds is a better strategy than advertising a major feature of your brand that nobody knows about.

然而，大多数公司的做法恰好相反。针对人人都已经知道的特性去投放广告传播没有意义，不如用广告来传播他们不知道的方面吧。

Yet most companies do exactly the opposite. No sense advertising what people already know, let’s use our advertising to communicate what they don’t know.

归功于发明了三点式安全带，沃尔沃被认知为“安全”的汽车。因此，沃尔沃在1978年至1992年期间，成为美国市场上进口豪华汽车的领先品牌。但这对沃尔沃来说并不够。

Thanks to its invention of the lap-and-shoulder seat belt, Volvo was known for safety. As a result, Volvo was the leading imported luxury-vehicle brand in the American market from 1978 to 1992. But that wasn’t good enough for Volvo.

它的全球广告经理说，沃尔沃拥有了“安全”还不够。因此，沃尔沃推出了一系列车型，包括敞篷车、配备了涡轮增压引擎的C30两厢车。（《汽车新闻》称后者为“孩子口袋里的火箭”。）

As Volvo’s global advertising manager once said, Safety on its own is not enough. So Volvo introduced a range of vehicles including convertibles and the C30 hatchback with a turbo-charged engine. (Automotive News, our leading automobile trade publication, called it a Pocket rocket for the kids.)

沃尔沃的广告开始诉求美观和性能，各种不同的主题，包括“生活在一起更美好”。（Life is better lived together.）

And Volvo advertising talked about beauty and performance with various themes including Life is better lived together.

去年，美国市场上的进口豪华汽车品牌排名依次是：奔驰、雷克萨斯、宝马、奥迪、讴歌、英菲尼迪，之后才是沃尔沃。

Last year, the leading imported luxury-vehicle brands in America were (1) Mercedes, (2) Lexus, (3) BMW, (4) Audi, (5) Acura, (6) Infiniti. And Volvo came next.

（6）你无法移动心智中的品牌

 (6) You can’t move a brand in the mind.

由于违反了这条定位原则，成千上万亿的资金被企业浪费。IBM试图让品牌进入个人计算机领域，柯达试图让品牌进入数码照相领域，黑莓试图让品牌进入触屏智能手机领域，诺基亚试图让它的传统手机品牌进入智能手机领域，联想试图让个人计算机品牌进入智能手机领域。

Many billions have been wasted by companies that violate this positioning principle. IBM tried to move its mainframe-computer brand into personal computers. Kodak tried to move its film-photography brand into digital photography. Nokia tried to move its cellphone brand into smartphones. Lenovo tried to move its personal computer brand into smartphones.

还可以举出很多企业。我们称之为“品牌延伸的陷阱”。

The list is endless. We called this exercise in futility, The line-extension trap.

（7）英文缩写并不存在于心智中

(7) Initials don’t exist in the mind.

字母存在于字母表中，词汇存在于心智中，但是由字母组成的缩写并不存在于心智中。当人们听到或看到企业使用的字母缩写，他们的第一反应就是“这些字母缩写代表什么意思？”

There are letters of the alphabet and there are words in the mind, but not initials. When a person hears or reads about a company using initials, the instant reaction is What do those initials stand for?

GE代表的是General Electric（通用电气）。HP代表的是Hewlett-Packard（惠普）。IBM代表的是International Business Machines（国际商务机器）。JD.com代表的是JingDong.com（京东网）。

GE stands for General Electric. HP stands for Hewlett-Packard. IBM stands for International Business Machines. JD.com stands for JingDong.com.

HTC代表什么？大多数人都不知道，这也是这个公司陷入困境的一个原因。HTC的销售额从2011年的1040亿人民币下跌到去年的175亿人民币。去年，HTC亏损24亿人民币。

But what does HTC stand for? Most people don’t know and that’s why the company is in trouble. HTC sales have fallen from 104.0 billion RMB in 2011 to 17.5 billion RMB last year. And last year, HTC lost 2.4 billion RMB.

LG代表了什么？又是一个深陷困境的智能手机企业。去年，LG的营业额达到3120亿人民币，净利润率只有0.1%。LG的营业额已经连续多年下滑。十年之前，它的年营业额是3780亿人民币。

What does LG stand for? Another smartphone company that is in trouble. Last year, LG had a net profit margin of just 0.1 percent on revenues of 312 billion RMB. LG revenues have been consistently declining. A decade ago, they were 378 billion RMB.

在心智中，字母缩写并不被认知为首字母的组合，而是代表了品牌名字的简写。如果这个品牌名并不存在于心智中，那么潜在顾客就很难记住它的字母缩写。

Initials are recognized in the mind not as initials, but as the shorthand for names. If the names are not in the mind, the prospect is unlikely to remember the initials.

这是一个全球性的问题。在美国的500强企业中，有39个并不使用全名，他们只使用字母缩写，包括：GE, IBM, AT&T, HP, TIAA, 3M, PPG, CBS, HCA, CHS, TJX, EMC, PNC, AES, NRG, PBF, CDW, VF, CSX, CBRE, BBGT, DTE, CST, EDG, PVH, KKR, PPL, AGCO, LKQ, AK, UGI, CMS, XPO, WEC, HRG, CH2M, SGP, LAM 和 NVR.

This is a global problem.  Of the 500 largest companies in America, 39 companies don’t use names, just initials. They include: GE, IBM, AT&T, HP, TIAA, 3M, PPG, CBS, HCA, CHS, TJX, EMC, PNC, AES, NRG, PBF, CDW, VF, CSX, CBRE, BBGT, DTE, CST, EDG, PVH, KKR, PPL, AGCO, LKQ, AK, UGI, CMS, XPO, WEC, HRG, CH2M, SGP, LAM and NVR.

其中最小的企业NVR去年的营业收入为352亿人民币，足够去聘请一家营销战略机构了。

The smallest, NVR, had revenues last year of 35.2 billion RMB, enough money to hire a marketing-strategy firm.

（8）品牌口号或标语不是定位

(8) A slogan or a tagline is not a position.

几乎全球每个企业都会使用口号或标语。然而，几乎没有一个口号或标语是杰克和我所说的“定位”。

Almost every company in the world uses either a slogan or a tagline. Yet almost none of these slogans or taglines are what Jack Trout or I would have called a “position.”

定位是已经存在于心智中的。大多数口号或标语只是“雄心壮志”。企业希望通过足够的广告传播而到达潜在顾客的心智中。这几乎不会实现。

A position is something that exists in the mind. Most slogans or taglines are “aspirational.” With enough advertising, they hope to be inserted into prospects’ minds. It seldom happens.

以日产的口号“Innovation that excites”（激动人心的创新）为例。日产真的认为潜在购车消费者的心智中存在一个空缺的品类叫做“激动人心的汽车创新”吗？

Take Nissan’s slogan Innovation that excites. Does Nissan really think potential car buyers have has an open category in their minds called “Exciting automobile innovations.”

安全是一个定位，驾驶乐趣是一个定位，低价是一个定位，小也是一个定位。但是“激动人心的汽车创新”不是定位。

仍然还有很多工作要做

There’s still a lot of work to be done.

失去了杰克，将定位理论的概念植入全球企业高层心智的事业就变得愈加困难。

And without Jack Trout, it is going to be a lot more difficult to move the positioning concept into the minds of business executives around the world.

但是和我的女儿劳拉·里斯，以及包括中国在内的全球合伙人们一起，我们将继续努力。

But with my daughter Laura Ries, and our long-time Chinese partners, Ries & Chuang & Wong, we will keep trying.

艾·里斯 里斯全球公司主席，2017年6月12日 于亚特兰大

By Al Ries, chairman, Ries & Ries, Atlanta, Georgia USA.