Inspired by a flight home from a recent workshop, I found myself connecting the dots of light below, which made me think about how our words work in similar ways - guiding decisions and perceptions. This month’s reflections are all about how language shapes our business positioning.
An occasional newsletter and community round-up, shining light on the art and science of powerful market positioning.
Hello my friend
"Inspiration exists" Picasso famously said, "but it has to find you working". Well, inspiration found me in the window seat of a flight home to Auckland a week back, slumped zombie-like after a few days of workshops. Staring into the dark outside, I was fascinated to observe how I couldn’t stop my tired brain from trying to connect the dots of street light to work out where I was. Just a little south of Huntly as it happens, but I digress.
It led me to reflect in the days after about the true nature my work. Could "Finding patterns in the dark" be the perfect metaphor? Positioning work is after all, largely applied psychology, but we're often too squeamish to admit it. Somehow it makes us feel manipulative, but isn't that the point of great positioning?
So over the coming months, I'm going to explore a few of these areas of psychology in action, so you can make up your own mind. To start, let us dive into our use of language to identify, label and describe our position to others.
Let me know where it takes you. I’ll see you all out there,
Andy
Words Matter
I love language. It’s amazing how one tiny phrase when well delivered, can shake us from our stupor and inspire action.
Now, this isn’t some deep scholarly side of me that you haven’t seen before, my youth definitely wasn’t spent studying famous historical orators. But it was when I found joy in people who play with language to make us laugh and think, from the Victorian political satire of WS Gilbert, to the barbed social commentary of cartoons in 90’s Viz. That’s quite a cultural spectrum of inspiration.
I guess it’s no surprise that I’ve spent most of my career working with words. In particular, unleashing them to influence what people think, feel and buy. But over the past decade, this topic has taken on a darker edge. In this “post-truth" world, the cynical use of language has us all on edge for misinformation or disinformation. I believe it’s essential for us all to discuss our understanding of how language works for us and against us.
Words and influence in business
I’m always amazed at how little attention language gets in business. It’s almost always relegated to the marketing department, as if communication only matters in ads, press releases or social posts.
But this, of course, is nonsense. Our workdays are spent interacting with other humans, formally or informally, in writing and in person. We're constantly influencing, advising and conversing. Words are our signposts, guiding people's thoughts and actions. While it's hard to tell an executive to pay more attention to the meaning of their words, I’ve yet to find a business where this skill can’t be improved.
The power of positioning
Market positioning projects offer a great opportunity to rethink our language. This process relies on deliberate labelling and description. When you define the precise value you offer to your most valuable customer, generic words just aren't going to cut it.
Positioning projects also let you hear how your market describes you. Nothing as powerful as using the words of your customer to describe what you mean to them. This can be challenging when our customer communicates very differently from ourselves, but the discipline to listen and learn is invaluable if you are to be intuitively understood by your market. After all, we all know that outliers need explanation, and explanation is the enemy of sales.
Tricks to teach: Anchoring and Framing
There are two word tricks from behaviour economics that we all need in our kit bag and I’d recommend you teach your whole team. Anchoringand Framing
These are based on deep psychological processes where our minds continually scan for the familiar. That happens when you’re looking out a plane window at night, trying to work out where you are just by the pattern of the lights below. These tools, however, offer us quite distinct advantages.
Anchoring is choosing a starting point that skews later judgment.
Framing is adapting the context through wording that powerfully shapes perception.
Anchoringrefers to the cognitive bias where people make decisions on the first piece of information they receive. The anchor word influences all future judgements, even if they are unrelated.
We commonly use anchoring in pricing strategy. Set a high price and our customer assumes that the product is of higher quality. Drop the price, however, and the customer maintains those beliefs about our product and believes that they are getting a deal.
When we anchor with words, we’re deliberately choosing the first word that we want our customer to hear. For example, when I say “I'll give you a quick overview of my hamster project”, I’m anchoring on the word "quick", which subconsciously prepares the audience for brevity, not depth.
One of the best positioning anchors is comparison. So when I proudly boast that my new pet food is the “Rolls-Royce of New Zealand Hamster Snacks”, my audience instantly associates it with super premium, simply because of their intuitive understanding of the famous luxury brand.
Framing uses another psychological bias, where we react differently depending on the way that information, or choice, is presented to us.
You will be familiar with framing of “gains and losses”. I might describe my Hamster Snacks as either 90% fat free, or only 10% fat, depending on the motivation of the market I’ve chosen. The product is the same, but the framing changes the context of the purchase and who it competes against.
This subtle shift can dramatically change how a customer feels about a product. For instance, does a subscription to my Hamster Snacks service save you $100 per year, or does not subscribing cost you $100 per year instead?
This profoundly matters in positioning as it lets us more precisely fit the solution of our product to the problem that our market has described. It’s like a torque wrench for product-market fit.
Keep practicing
Nuance in your language isn’t a magic bullet, but a skill we all have to practice. That's why we plan our positioning and test it, then test again. Playing with our customer’s language keeps us closer to the needs of those we serve.
But however you operate, remind those around you that your language is an expression of your strategy. Words are your signposts. It’s up to you to point them in the direction you want to go.
Brain food
The reading pile isn’t getting any smaller. But I’m deep into The Geography of Thought by Richard E Nisbett at the moment, which I think you’ll enjoy. It explores how people from different cultures, particularly Western and East Asian, think in fundamentally different ways.
Though thousands of years of societal evolution, we see and define our world through different cultural norms, shaping our decision making, reasoning and relationships.
It’s a fascinating read for anyone internationaling their business. Encouraging us to reassess our assumptions and develop new strategic frameworks to better match how different markets work.
Whether you're facing a specific positioning challenge or just want to learn more, this interactive session is your chance to ask questions, share your experiences, and hear how others are approaching their positioning.
I’ll hold the space, but the real magic comes from the conversation. You’ll get just as much from the ideas, challenges, and reflections shared by others.
Lani and I run these clinics every couple of months, and with limited spots, everyone gets the chance to share and ask questions. We've got two spots left on our Tue 10 June clinic! Register for free here.
If you know anyone who might enjoy this read, feel free to pass it on or suggest they sign up here.
3Green is a Commercial Strategy Practice in Aotearoa, led by B2B market positioning expert Andy Mitchell.
If you’d like to discuss your business’s market position, schedule a free 15-minute call with me. I’d love to hear what’s happening for you and explore how I can help.
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