Positioning Reverse Positioning and Breakaway

Positioning Reverse Positioning and Breakaway Positioning This report aims to present a summary of an article entitled "Break Free From the Product Life Cycle" by Youngme Moon that was in the May 2005, Harvard Business Review. The article presented insights into some creative marketing methodologies that could help businesses and marketers redefine products and industries as they pertain to their life cycles.

A life cycle analysis has traditionally been considered as a reliable manner for studying the phases of life, repeated patterns occurring throughout a life or pointers to specific causes and effects on particular products and industries. Traditionally, marketers and business in general have utilized the concept of life cycles to distinguish how or when products reach a level of maturity and may therefore begin to decline in the sense of their profitability potential or acceptability in the eyes of consumers.

This particular article offered some innovative approaches and novel ideas that certain companies have used to either reinvigorate individual products or to completely alter an entire business industry. The idea was based on the fact that convention and routine use of the notion of a product's life cycle have inadvertently begun to dull the senses of far too many marketers and within the business settings.

"Today, this concept remains at the center of most firms' marketing and positioning strategies, helping them to manage the methodical progress of their offerings along a bell-shaped curve, from introduction and growth to maturity and decline. But as useful as this model has been over the past 40 years, it has given marketers tunnel vision." (Moon) The author therefore offered new 'out of the box' thinking patterns that revolved around three positioning strategies: reverse positioning, breakaway positioning and stealth positioning.

"Reverse positioning strips away "sacred" product attributes while adding new ones; breakaway positioning associates the product with a radically different category; and stealth positioning acclimates leery consumers to a new offering by cloaking the product's true nature. Companies can use each of these strategies to alter a product's competitive environment to their advantage." (Moon) The author showed how these unconventional business strategies for repositioning have already been extremely successful and have helped various businesses overcome the stigma of the life cycle and the associated thinking.

But more importantly, the author also demonstrated how these repositioning approaches forced consumers to do what could be considered to be complete mental shifts. By providing examples such as IKEA, Swatch, Sony and more, the author offered 'tried and true' business example of how his line of reasoning on product positioning and repositioning worked.

The author also presents the notion that many more companies should follow in the footsteps of his chosen organizations in order for them to also reap the rewards and find success in a highly competitive, technologically advanced global business spectrum. In conclusion, This report was a summary of the article "Break Free From the Product Life Cycle" by Youngme Moon. I enjoyed the article and feel that it will help me be more open minded when it comes to future thinking.

"Most companies aren't technology innovators like Apple or Sony, whose novel products readily lend themselves to unconventional positioning. But a product does not have to be novel to benefit from radical new positioning, nor does it have to be past its prime. Watches, banks, furniture, airlines, sitcoms -- even ketchup -- can defy the old rules of the product life cycle by simply challenging consumers' notions about what, exactly, they are. Ask your customers what they expect your products to be, then shatter their expectations.

You'll find they'll be delighted." (Moon) This report aims to explain the difference between the two strategies of reverse positioning and that of breakaway positioning. These notions were covered in a recent article entitled "Break Free From the Product Life Cycle" by Youngme Moon in the May 2005, Harvard Business Review. The secondary objective of the paper is to provide examples of how each of these repositioning methodologies could be used for some current brands that were not described in the original article.

The key to each of these theories is that the customer still plays a major role in the success or failure of their applications. In other words, the underlying goal is to not only reposition for the sake of repositioning, there is also a need to redirect the thinking of the consumer. In order to provide an example of how Reverse Positioning could be used with current brands, it is first good to get a good understanding of the meaning of the concept.

As noted, it is important to first understand the role of the consumer. "Most players in a category continually augment their value proposition because they assume customers can never be fully satisfied.

Reverse positioners, however, assume that although customers do want something more than the baseline product, they don't necessarily want an endless parade of new features." (Moon) How it works is that a company must thoroughly understand what attributes a product or industry thrives on and 'considers sacred,' and then change their product so that it offers a reengineered product with attention to detail for one or more intricate attributes that consumer's desire. Then, this new 'stripped-down' version of the product is offered which entails reverse positioning the industry.

"This unconventional combination of attributes allows the product to assume a new competitive position within the category and move backwards from maturity into a growth position on the life cycle curve." (Moon) Thus, a good example of this type of reverse positioning can be seen when certain products or organizations establish unique positions in their category but still retain clear category membership. For example, the brand DHL has been gradually gaining market share in the overnight delivery business.

"In 1969, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn (D, H, and L) founded DHL as a service shuttling bills of lading between San Francisco and Honolulu. The company grew rapidly and in a few years initiated service to the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, creating an entirely new industry of international door-to-door express service in the Pacific Basin. Steady expansion continued in the 1970's as DHL initiated service to Europe (1974), Latin America (1977), the Middle East (1978) and Africa (1978).

The international delivery company was the first to bring air express to the Eastern Bloc countries in 1983 and to the People's Republic of China in 1986." (DHL) They have established a reverse positioning role against the immediate competition of UPS, FedEx and the postal service by focusing on specific attributes and taking advantage of them. "DHL's rapid growth reflects the globalization of trade. As our customers expand into international markets, DHL is there to meet their needs.

Today, DHL is the world's largest and most experienced international air express network with service to 120,000 destinations in more than 220 countries and territories. DHL maintains its position as the world's leading international air express network by continually expanding and upgrading its network of offices, hubs and gateways, and by offering superior service through a well-trained and dedicated workforce." (DHL) The same applies to notion of breakaway positioning. Breakaway positioning entails a product escaping from its category altogether and making efforts to be associated as a completely different category.

"Marketers leverage the new category's.