CHAPTER THREEREPOSITIONING THE COMPETITION

As you read in the prologue, the original concept behind repositioning was hanging a negative on your competitor as a way to set up a positive.

In recent times, you’ve been seeing more of this as companies battle for scarce consumer dollars amid the recession. Kodak, a film company, contrasts its ink-jet printers with those from unnamed “big printer companies” that cost a lot of money. The positive for Kodak is being affordable. It even sends people to a Web site to calculate how much money they have lost by owning another brand. Apple has hung “nerdy” on PCs. Its positive is Apple’s coolness. (More on this in Chapter 8.)

Similarly, McDonald’s has been trying to hang the “Snobby coffee” label on Starbucks ...

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