The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]


If You Don’t Stand For Something, They Might Fall For Anything …
November 15, 2011, 6:10 am
Filed under: Comment

Brand positioning’s are funny things.

Every one of them is carefully designed to give the brand a bit of breathing space from all the competitors that stand around them … even though in a lot of cases, they pretty much do exactly the same thing.

Even then, some are bloody awesome.

Regardless if all they’ve done, is make a clever play on words, they can be powerful, memorable and effective.

Of course it’s a bit mad that many positioning’s are influenced more by what the competitors say than what the brand could – or should – talk about, but hey, the industry is so obsessed with differentiation that they’re occasions where we will bite our nose to spite our face.

That said, every now and then there’s a brand that comes out that loudly, proudly and clearly expresses what they’re all about.

They don’t care if what they ‘offer’ is a condition of entry for the category.

They don’t care if the competition are saying similar things, albeit in a more flowery way.

They don’t care if the product they sell is in a low interest, low involvement category.

They come out and own the moment and drive attention … which is why if I was walking along a supermarket aisle, casually looking for a hand sanitiser, I’d choose this:



26 Comments so far
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theres a half fucking decent message hidden deep in this post about who is fucking influencing who in the big bastard decisions but compared to “cleaner than shit” its fucking not worth fucking talking about.

Comment by andy@cynic

I agree with you Andy, Rob is making a great point in this post, I wonder how many people will realise it and how many will understand they have contributed to this situation by letting the competition dictate where they need the brand to go. I know I have. Good to have you back Rob.

Comment by Pete

campbells best point is still no where near my worst fucking point (if i ever had one) so stop your fucking creeping to that fucking nottingham loser and start being sycofuckingphantic to me, at least i fucking well deserve it.

Comment by andy@cynic

Oh it’s good to be back. Ahem.

Comment by Rob

thats a matter of fucking opinion campbell.

Comment by andy@cynic

not a bad come back campbell. not worth the wait but better than your usual bullshit.

Comment by andy@cynic

planning. like wading through shit.

sell that bastard piece of brilliance to the apg or whatever 3 letters your “discipline” uses to try and make itself sound important. to themfuckingselves.

Comment by andy@cynic

What will upset you Andy is that I wholeheartedly agree with your comment.

Comment by Rob

that fucking upsets me to my very fucking core.

Comment by andy@cynic

shame huggies were scared of your “protects you from people full of shit” line. best line you ever came up with. maybe you should approach huggies china or wherever cleaner than shit is. be a shame to not use grade a offensiveness.

Comment by andy@cynic

Do you still have the film or was that part of the hush money?

Comment by Billy Whizz

it was part of the buy our fucking silence cash. best fucking ad that never ran but got fucking made. on the fucking positive, it paid off #1 so shit got flushed away forfuckingever because of shit. how fucking apt.

Comment by andy@cynic

You are the greatest person that has ever lived Andy.

Comment by Pete

And I agree with this comment as well Andy. I don’t know about making the heart grow fonder, but absence certainly seems to make my level of objectivity grow softer.

Comment by Rob

i fucking love the photo on the packaging.

forget using some cliche hand bollocks to sell a hand sanitzer, use a nude nun with a fucking flower on her face. now thats fucking taking a creative bastard leap. an drugs. lots and lots of fucking drugs.

Comment by andy@cynic

I daren’t imagine what the image would be if the company made sanitary pads or condoms. Actually I don’t want to imagine – it makes me think of Billy’s “specialist magazines”.

Comment by Rob

Where was that stuff when I got one of your briefs?

Comment by Billy Whizz

If you don’t stand for something, you might fall for anything – like novelty products?

Comment by John

The name mighy be, but hand sanitisers are not novelty products John, especially across Asia.

Comment by Pete

thats for all the fucking handjobs you have to give clients to keep them spending.

Comment by andy@cynic

That explains why Rob has thrived there.

Comment by Billy Whizz

I don’t want to know how you come to that conclusion.

Comment by John

I was young and needed the money.

Comment by Rob

have you got sore fucking knees?

Comment by andy@cynic

Good post.
Interesting positioning.
Welcome back Robert.

Comment by Lee Hill

dont give the fucker hope he can get more fucking freebies off you or hes going to hang around like a fucking hairy 70s band that wont fucking kill themselves like they fucking should. like queen.

Comment by andy@cynic




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