Mind Ladder method: How to find your marketing position at Customer’s mind

Alvis, the car rental company, tried to compete with Hertz, the market leader. They were trying harder to get into the first position for 13 years, and they could not show the profit. Then they changed their tag line as  “Alvis is only No.2 in Rent-A-Cars, so why go with us? We try Harder “. After this change of tagline Alvis again made a profit for the next three years and sold it to I.T.T. 

What has made Alvis realize that they cannot compete with Hertz? The answer may look simple, but the concept is very philosophical. When we cannot win the competition, we can strengthen our position and fight with our strength. Alvis realized accepting this second position and the crowd would perceive them as no.2 as under-dog. They can use this sympathy to gain market position and profit by positioning themselves as No.2 .Also, they Acknowledged the competitor’s strength. Now, we can explore more about Alvi’s acceptance and the mind ladder concept.

Let’s understand the mind ladder concept

When we have many products in mind, people have learned to rank products and brands. Perhaps this can best be visualized by imagining a series of ladders in mind. There is a brand name on each step, and each different ladders represent the other product category. Now, how many brand names we can remember at a time? Our mental ladder is too small to handle many products and associated brands. Scientists found out that the average human mind cannot deal with more than seven units at a time. Hence big brands must realize to position themselves within seven layers of the consumer’s mind. For example, we can find seven concept books, seven wonders of the world, etc., But still, the mind ladder concept is universally followed.

why newcomers do not consider the mind ladder concept

Often newcomers to the markets or new product launching ignore the mind ladder concept. They spend their money by not considering concepts and assume the competitor does not have the existing position. They advertise their product in a vacuum and are disappointed when the messages fail to get through. When we want to take a competitor’s position, we need to understand that we need to move up the mind ladder and remove the previous brand at the consumer’s mind. Practically it is impossible to achieve this. Often we need enough money for advertisements to move up the ladder. Spending too much money without understanding the consumer’s mind leads to failure. 

But there is another concept called “against,” which does a miracle.

We should not ignore the competition in today’s market since we don’t know their strengths and weaknesses. It is easy to find the competitor’s strength than finding a flaw in competitors’ strategy. So we would position ourselves as “Against” the competitor’s strength. Seven-up did the exact magic when their product was against Coke and Pepsi. They set themselves against both the competitors and called their drink as “un-cola.” Seven-up could succeed in their positioning, and prospects mind ladder received it as a third layer for soft drinks and seven up occupied the third position as they wanted

Why companies ignore the mind ladder once they become successful

Successful positioning requires consistency. We must repeatedly do the same thing for an extended period to penetrate our brand in the consumer’s mind. But once companies become successful, they will follow the F.W.M.T.S. concept, “Forgot What Made Them Successfully”. In Avis’s case, They have regained market position after their tagline of accepting them as Second in Car Rental and made a consecutive three-year profit. But once the new company took over, they again changed their slogan as competing with the first position, and “Alvis is no.1 position”. So when we find our tagline worked for the first time, we should not change the tagline or slogan since our position has been created at the customer mind ladder, and changing the successful tagline requires repositioning.

Summary

We can be honest ourselves and accept who we are. Once we are an established business, Consumers have a perception of our brand. Hence, using consumers’ perceptions and climbing their ladder is more comfortable than promising new things that our consumers are not aware of. In the case of Alvis, they found their second position is their cozy story, and in the case of Seven-up, un-cola is their story. So when we find our story and position the story at the customer’s mind ladder, we would become successful.