By Al Ries. Published on June 09，2017

艾·里斯，于 2017 年 6 月 9 日。

导语：

杰克·特劳特先生前合伙人——艾·里斯先生近日在《广告时代》 (Advertising Age )颁发文章，回顾二人过去将近 30 年共事的时光，并重申定位原则。

一位英语八级的定位喜好者特别将艾·里斯先生原文进行了翻译，并提供中英文对照的版本，投稿给定位学习网。

现在我们将全文刊发，让定位喜好者可以更直不雅观地感受两位定位大师的风采……

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·特劳特去世之际，我感到有须要写些话，谈一谈我们近三十年的合作经历。

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

在恋爱里，异性相吸，在商业中，截然相反的人合作良好。杰克和我是截然差别的人。

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.

杰克负责对外，我负责对内。杰克性格外向、健谈、善于社交，而我是个内向的人。杰克有运动天赋，我则没有。你看，我们是十分相反的人。

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

当杰克 1967 年加入我的广告公司时，广告在业内还遍及被视作“沟通工具”。

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

你研究你的产品，包孕其产品特点和竞争对手，再准备做广告来解释为什么你的产品更好。

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.

尽管各行业每年有数十亿美元的广告投放，但行业领导品牌的认知优势和市场份额却鲜有摆荡。广告并没有真正起到沟通的作用。

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.

基于这样的洞察，定位的概念应运而生。我们关注于顾客心智，而不是产品和竞争对手。在这个过程中，我们发展了定位的几点原则。

(1) The concept of categories.

(1)品类的概念

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.

人类大脑是一个庞大的储藏箱，由 10 亿个神经元和2. 3 万亿个连接组成。然而，从营销的角度看，心智中最重要的是品类的概念。

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

顾客用品类来存储他们感兴趣的品牌。当顾客要买东西时，首先想到品类，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.

不会有人走进商店说：我想买台索尼，请给我看看店里所有的索尼。

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

(2)每个品类都有心智阶梯

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.

心智阶梯的每一层上是品牌的名字，最受欢迎的品牌在顶层，其他品牌依次降序摆列。

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.

在顾客心智中，每个品类仅能存储少数品牌。许多品类只能存储两个品牌，如电池里的金霸王和劲量，牙膏中的佳洁士和高露洁。

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，排名前两位的品牌很少被顾客同等对待。顾客总是更青睐其中一个品牌，尽管另一个品牌通常也是“可接受的”。

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

(3)品牌名是钩子，将品牌挂在心智阶梯上

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

你能做的最重要的营销决策就是给产品命名。这是我们在 1981 年出版的《定位》中所说的。

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.

在俄罗斯，伏特加的领导品牌是Kremlyovskaya。因此，这个企业在美国市场推出Kremlyovskaya时用的广告语是，俄罗斯伏特加第一品牌。

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

不消说，这个品牌在美国没有激起丝毫水花。你怎么能要求一个说英语的人把阿谁复杂难读的俄罗斯名字在心智的伏特加品类里存档呢?