![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/goodjob.com.tr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/resim_2021-03-04_225609.png\")
<\/p>\nPositioning theory is built on some very fundamental cognitive structures of human beings. When we want to set out a strategy for a brand, relativity offers us an easier way to segment and a stronger field in which to position. The most fundamental advantage relativity gives people is the ease of comparison. Relativity \u2014 a theory originally put forward by Einstein \u2014 holds that time, space and speed are not absolute, and that they are all bound to one another. We feel this ourselves, in fact: sometimes time refuses to pass, and at other times we don’t even notice how evening arrived. Of course, Einstein’s theory of relativity is not as superficial as that. According to Einstein, if a friend of yours set off on a journey at the speed of light and returned after what was, for you, 10 years, the time that passed for your friend would be “zero.” Because at the speed of light time stops \u2014 that is, for your friend, time does not flow (on the other hand, Einstein also says that no object can reach the speed of light).<\/p>\n
Let’s bring this a bit more into everyday life with a car example. To someone standing still, a car doing 100 km\/h flashes past; but to someone travelling in another moving car, that same car is perceived as going much more slowly. In other words, a car’s “perceived” speed changes according to where you look from. In physics this is called “relative velocity.” Here we see perception contradicting reality, because an object’s perceived speed varies according to where we observe it from and can differ from its real speed.<\/p>\n
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This theory of relativity (that is, relativeness, or relativity) holds in every area of life. For example, when we watch a remote indigenous tribe, we see that they own far less than we do and sometimes feel sorry for them. Alain de Botton produces a wonderful thought on this: he says that we are in fact far poorer than they are, and always will be. The basis of this idea is that a person’s poverty has to do with their knowledge of the goods around them, how much of them they want to own, and how much they actually own. Whatever we own in the modern world, there is always something one step beyond that we want to own \u2014 and we are in a race. The indigenous people, meanwhile, expect from life only what they already know.<\/p>\n
Let’s look at the three figures above and try to determine which circle is the biggest.<\/p>\n
![\"Ebbinghaus](\"https:\/\/goodjob.com.tr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/resim_2021-03-04_225452.png\")
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The circle in the middle of the leftmost figure looks the biggest, and the one on the right the smallest, doesn’t it? Yet in all three figures the middle circle is exactly the same size. It is simply that the sizes of the circles around it change how we perceive the size of the middle one. Almost all of our thoughts and perceptions take shape relative to a reference point. We might put it this way: if you want to look more attractive, then instead of wearing more makeup or having cosmetic work done, you could try not surrounding yourself with people better-looking than you. That is, by changing the reference point, you can look better.<\/p>\n
We can also grasp how far relativity carries us from reality \u2014 and how much perception deceives us \u2014 with an experiment we can do at home. First, place three bowls in front of you, wide enough to put your hand in. Fill the first with cold water, the second with room-temperature water, and the third with hot water. Put one hand in the cold bowl and one in the hot bowl, wait a while, then plunge both into the room-temperature bowl: one hand will feel it as hot and the other as cold \u2014 even though the water touching both hands is the same water at the same temperature.<\/p>\n
The environment a person lives in also creates different reference points in them. From the moment we are born, the knowledge and experiences we acquire build up a certain store within us, and that store becomes a reference point on many subjects. We describe the Chinese (and, in fact, all Far Eastern peoples) as “narrow-eyed,” while they perceive Europeans as “round-eyed” (I suppose that is why the characters in Japanese cartoons always have big, round eyes \u2014 that is how they see us; and when we caricature East Asians, we draw their eyes as lines). In fact there are three different shapes of this “narrow” eye, and they perceive the differences among themselves very well. But because of the environment we were born into, we perceive our own eyes as normal and theirs as narrow. Another example of how a person’s living space affects perception and reference points is the way people who live in big cities perceive their living conditions: they earn more and spend more, and their sense of what is “normal” shifts accordingly.<\/p>\n
The experiences and knowledge we acquire create different reference points on almost every subject, and these reference points help shape our perception in new situations we meet. Air travel is a good example. Journeys that once took 8 hours by road were shortened by about 90% with the airplane, dropping to as little as 1 hour. Seen this way, the improvement is, relatively, tremendous, and everyone ought to be delighted. But over time people get used to flying, and their expectations about travel time change to match. Today, when a plane is delayed by an hour, or when people are kept waiting as they disembark, frequent flyers protest far more than first-timers \u2014 because for them the shift from road to air travel is psychologically complete, and the old reference point, travel time by road, has lost its validity. So the experiences each of us has with a product or service also create a reference point, and relativity comes into play.<\/p>\n
The sense of taste, for example, is underdeveloped up to a certain age; afterward it completes its development and, like every sense organ, begins to age. That is why children tend to like sharp, pronounced tastes (hamburgers, ketchup, chocolate, and so on). But as a person grows older, they begin to taste other things too (broccoli and cauliflower, for instance). In old age, the sense of taste tires and draws less flavor from food. That is why older people happily eat some foods young people cannot stand at all. Of course, the “experiencing” we mentioned earlier is an important factor here too: we more easily accept tastes close to ones we have had before.<\/p>\n
Let’s come to marketing. As we know, brands offer a promise. In offering it, they aim to differentiate from rivals and to answer a certain need of the consumer. Positioning theory comes into play at exactly this point. Dan Ariely, in his book Predictably Irrational, says this on the subject: “Most people don’t know what they want unless they see it in context.” It can be said that people grasp something faster, and decide faster, when it is shown to them within a comparison. This is used, when a category is just forming, to explain what gap the category fills and which need it answers. Recall the toothpaste-on-an-egg example. In it, part of an egg is brushed with toothpaste and then soaked in vinegar water; as a result, the part brushed with Colgate stays intact compared with the unbrushed part. The vinegar-soaking method makes people’s minds work within the framework of relativity and, by creating a reference point, turns the wheels of positioning. The aim of such ads was to increase the tooth-brushing habit and to make it easier to grasp what benefit the product offers. The softened part of the egg symbolizes the “unbrushed tooth” and is in a far worse state than the brushed part. We know that a human tooth would never actually soften like that egg, but the comparison creates a very strong perception in us.<\/p>\n
The same logic aims to persuade people to use a dishwasher. Using numbers while doing so makes it even more convincing. Knowing that you use twice as much water washing by hand matters more than knowing exactly how many liters you use and how much money that comes to \u2014 because there is a reference point. It is grasped and learned more easily.<\/p>\n
One of the most important things that makes being first in a market matter for brands is the chance to become a reference point. We spoke earlier about how the perception of taste differs by age; we have a reference point for tastes, too. Just as tea tastes more flavorless after we have eaten honey, the products we have tasted before shape our perception of later ones. Cola is a good example. Cola was produced by Coca-Cola as a wholly chemical, artificial drink, so the reference point of the cola market is that product. Other colas are always compared with Coca-Cola, and to the degree they resemble it they are seen as successful, and to the degree they differ from it, less so.<\/p>\n
The new product is clearly stated to be X% better than earlier versions. What is mentioned is not an absolute value but a value relative to the old one. Sometimes the product used as the reference gives up its place in the market to the product that is X% better; sometimes the two products are positioned toward different audiences and both go on existing in the market.<\/p>\n
In the same way, many brands try to persuade consumers with ads that compare their own products against products they describe as “ordinary” (bleach, dishwashing-liquid and laundry-detergent ads work this constantly). This way, they do not give the consumer the chance to weigh the product within the frame of its own features and price. The consumer’s mind decides by comparing the product’s value (and, in fact, its cost) with the rival product’s value. Although this comparison sometimes feels to us as if it took a few seconds, it is the outcome of a complex, multi-functional equation. The brand perception built up to that point also forms the basis of the purchase decision.<\/p>\n
For instance, we know that an A-class washing machine consumes less energy than a B-class one, and we care about that. This relativity is enough for us to understand that the A-class machine is more valuable than the B-class one \u2014 but we still have no idea how much more valuable. We come to understand that, too, only by seeing the alternatives and comparing.<\/p>\n
Brands use people’s relative thinking in retailing as well. When you walk into an electronics store, for example, you get to see many televisions side by side. When I used to visit such stores, I would notice that some televisions really had a very poor picture, and I would think that set had no chance at all \u2014 so I found it pointless for it to be there. But now I understand very well that the real aim is to sell not that TV but the one next to it. What is being attempted is to make the poor-picture TV a reference point, because that way a person perceives the set beside it as far better.<\/p>\n
The comparison should be easy, because consumers prefer not to compare things that are hard to compare. Most brands make this comparison in its simplest, clearest form, leaving the consumer little time to think. In it, highly persuasive numbers sometimes do the talking, which lets the consumer see the brand’s advantages more clearly and shortens decision time.<\/p>\n
The ad below is for Remington’s shaver, the Remington 60. In this ad, shot in the 1950s, we get to observe advertising in its most rational form. It explains that the new shaver is better than the old one, making both a surface comparison and a comparison of blade length \u2014 because the perception in men’s minds here is clear: more blades means a better shave. And even today, men’s razors go on equating a better shave with more blades.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/goodjob.com.tr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/resim_2021-03-04_225704.png\")
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Again in the 1950s, in the ad Broxodent made for its motorized toothbrush, relativity is used very effectively \u2014 it claims to save time by cutting a task down to just 4 seconds.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/goodjob.com.tr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/resim_2021-03-04_225730.png\")
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I would guess that in the days when products’ physical features loomed larger than what they made you feel, relativity formed the basis of positioning and of advertising. Over the years, much in marketing has changed and many new concepts have appeared. But even today, presenting a brand or a product to people within a context is the most effective way of getting it perceived \u2014 and positioning is one of the most effective methods for creating that context. Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth.” In marketing it is the same. The one thing people want is a place to stand \u2014 a footing, a reference point that will make their decisions easier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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