By Al Ries. Published on June 09，2017

艾·里斯，于 2017 年 6 月 9 日。

導語：

杰克·特勞特先生前合伙人——艾·里斯先生近日在《廣告時代》 (Advertising Age )頒發文章，回顧二人過去將近 30 年共事的時光，并重申定位原則。

一位英語八級的定位喜好者特別將艾·里斯先生原文進行了翻譯，并提供中英文對照的版本，投稿給定位學習網。

現在我們將全文刊發，讓定位喜好者可以更直不雅觀地感受兩位定位大師的風采……

With the passing 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.

在我的前合伙人及好友杰克·特勞特去世之際，我感到有須要寫些話，談一談我們近三十年的合作經歷。

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

在戀愛里，異性相吸，在商業中，截然相反的人合作良好。杰克和我是截然差別的人。

Jack was Mr. Outside; I was Mr. Inside. Jack was an extrovert， talkative and very social; I am an introvert. Jack was athletic; I am not. You name it， we were opposites.

杰克負責對外，我負責對內。杰克性格外向、健談、善于社交，而我是個內向的人。杰克有運動天賦，我則沒有。你看，我們是十分相反的人。

When Jack joined my ad agency in 1967， advertising was widely considered to be "communications."

當杰克 1967 年加入我的廣告公司時，廣告在業內還遍及被視作“溝通工具”。

You studied your product， its features and its competitors and then you prepared advertising that explained why your product was better.

你研究你的產品，包孕其產品特點和競爭對手，再準備做廣告來解釋為什么你的產品更好。

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.

盡管各行業每年有數十億美元的廣告投放，但行業領導品牌的認知優勢和市場份額卻鮮有擺蕩。廣告并沒有真正起到溝通的作用。

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

基于這樣的洞察，定位的概念應運而生。我們關注于顧客心智，而不是產品和競爭對手。在這個過程中，我們發展了定位的幾點原則。

(1) The concept of categories.

(1)品類的概念

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 mind is the concept of categories.

人類大腦是一個龐大的儲藏箱，由 10 億個神經元和2. 3 萬億個連接組成。然而，從營銷的角度看，心智中最重要的是品類的概念。

Consumers use categories to store brands that interest them. When consumers want to buy something， they think category first， brand second.

顧客用品類來存儲他們感興趣的品牌。當顧客要買東西時，首先想到品類，其次才是品牌。

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

不會有人走進商店說：我想買臺索尼，請給我看看店里所有的索尼。

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

(2)每個品類都有心智階梯

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

心智階梯的每一層上是品牌的名字，最受歡迎的品牌在頂層，其他品牌依次降序擺列。

Most consumers have room in their minds for only a few brands in each category. Many categories have just two brands. Duracell and Energizer in appliance batteries.Crest and Colgate in toothpaste.

在顧客心智中，每個品類僅能存儲少數品牌。許多品類只能存儲兩個品牌，如電池里的金霸王和勁量，牙膏中的佳潔士和高露潔。

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."

而且，排名前兩位的品牌很少被顧客同等對待。顧客總是更青睞其中一個品牌，盡管另一個品牌通常也是“可接受的”。

(3) The name is the hook that hangs the brand on the ladder.

(3)品牌名是鉤子，將品牌掛在心智階梯上

The most important marketing decision you can make is what to name the product. That's what we said in our 1981 book "Positioning."

你能做的最重要的營銷決策就是給產品命名。這是我們在 1981 年出版的《定位》中所說的。

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.

在俄羅斯，伏特加的領導品牌是Kremlyovskaya。因此，這個企業在美國市場推出Kremlyovskaya時用的廣告語是，俄羅斯伏特加第一品牌。

Naturally， the brand went nowhere. How can an English-speaking person file that name in the vodka category in the mind?

不消說，這個品牌在美國沒有激起絲毫水花。你怎么能要求一個說英語的人把阿誰復雜難讀的俄羅斯名字在心智的伏特加品類里存檔呢?