Marketing a battle of perceptions, not products: Trout

“The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion,” writes marketing guru Jack Trout in his latest book In Search of the Obvious - The Antidote for Today’s Marketing Mess. He gives the example of the Honda cars, which sell a lot more in the United States than in Japan.

“If marketing were a battle of products, you would think the same sales would hold true for both countries. After all, the same quality, the same styling, the same horsepower, and roughly the same prices hold true for Japan as they do for the United States. But in Japan, Honda is nowhere near the leader… Toyota sells more than four times as many automobiles in Japan as Honda does,” writes Trout.

And why? Because, he explains, “If you told friends in New York you bought a Honda, they might ask you, “What kind of Honda did you get? A Civic? An Accord?” If you told friends in Tokyo you bought a Honda, they might ask you, “What kind of motorcycle did you buy?” In Japan, Honda is a clearly identified as a motorcycle company and so people don’t want to buy a car from a motorcycle company.

Trout, the president of Trout & Partners, a marketing firm with headquarters in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, USA who has authored such marketing classics as Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Marketing Warfare and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, spoke to DNA.

Why do you say marketing is in a mess?
Marketing is in a mess because more and more categories are becoming commoditised. Read the following from one of my readers. It says it all. “I felt like an idiot because I didn’t understand all the mumbo-jumbo coming out of the marketing industry, press and agency business. Emotional branding, brandscape, etc. “My God, what does it all mean and what have I missed,” I cried! The answers: It’s meaningless and I’ve missed nothing! Thank you for your voice of sanity and reason.” I would blame Wall Street more than anything. This pressure to grow overcomes common sense and staying focused on what you are versus your competitors.

How can marketing be turned around from its current mess?
They have to focus more on differentiation strategy and less on numbers. They have to convince top management that Wall Street is nothing but trouble and they have to be involved.

You’ve always maintained that “Naming the product is the single most important marketing decision you can make.” What have been the major disasters as far as naming products is concerned?

My favorite naming disasters are:
* “Dummer since 1763.” That’s actually a motto for the Governor Dummer Academy, the oldest independent boarding school in America. The academy became the butt of endless jokes because of its name: There’s “Dumb and Dummer.” Or, “Students go in and come out Dummer.”

* “Lolita” beds. Woolworth stores in Britain were found to be selling beds named Lolita, designed for six-year old girls. Angry parents put a stop to this in a hurry

* “Incubus” sneakers. Reebok had to backpedal like crazy after it introduced a running shoe for women named Incubus. News reports promptly revealed that the dictionary definition had an unpleasant meaning: “Incubus, an evil spirit believed to descend upon and have sex with women while they sleep.”

You have quoted late economist Milton Friedman in your book as saying “We don’t have a desperate need to grow. We have a desperate desire to grow.” How is that desire for growth at the heart of what can go wrong for companies?
Growth is a Wall Street trap because it undermines your identity and makes your company harder to manage. Being everything for everybody ends up as being nothing. If you have any doubts, consider GM, AIG and Citicorp.

“There is nothing that a whole lot of awareness won’t cure.” What’s wrong with that?
Awareness is of little value if it is not awareness of what makes you different. Almost all of the GM’s brands had high awareness but no point of difference as they were about everything for everybody. What’s a Chevrolet? What’s a Buick? Answer: I don’t know.

Why are advertising people an obvious problem?
Much of today’s advertising does a bad job of selling. Agencies like to win awards and get people talking about how much they like a commercial, not about the product’s story. Agencies should not be about creativity but “dramativity.” In other words, dramatizing the product’s point of difference. My favorite commercials are for BMW, the ultimate driving machine. Nothing cute, just a point of difference.

If human “minds don’t change”, why are marketers hell bent on trying to change them?
Psychologists point out that people don’t want to change what they believe. Xerox wanted to be a computer company not just a copier company. Customers said any Xerox machine that can’t make a copy isn’t a Xerox machine. Coke wanted to be “New.” Customers said you aren’t new, you are the original. Volkswagen wanted to be big and expensive. Customers said you are small, economic and reliable.

“The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion.” Why is that?
Because what we perceive is real to us. Just look at religion. People of one faith see their perceptions as real and those of others as not real. Life as in marketing is a battle of ideas or perceptions. The world exists in our minds. Most in Europe perceived the world as flat until Columbus proved it was round by sailing beyond the horizon.

What can be done to turn around the American automobile industry in general and GM in particular?
GM has to focus on clearly differentiating its brands and less about GM as a Brand.
The strategies I would pursue:
Chevrolet: “America’s favorite car.”
Buick: “You pay for quality not prestige.”
Cadillac: “The leading edge of technology.”
GMC: “Rugged reliability.”