REPOSITIONING: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis

CHAPTER NINEREPOSITIONING TAKES TIME

It is critical to remind readers here that repositioning is about readjusting people’s perceptions, not changing their perceptions. The marketplace is littered with failed efforts to change people’s minds. Xerox lost hundreds of millions of dollars trying to convince people that Xerox could make computers and other machines that didn’t make copies. Coke blew prestige and money in an effort to convince the market that its New Coke was better than the Real Thing. Cadillac tried to convince the market that its small versions were as good as its big versions, first with the Cimarron, then with the Catera. Both were disasters because a Cadillac that looks like a Chevrolet makes no sense. It’s important to understand ...