Segmentation, differentiation, positioning. Three well-known concepts used by many marketers. But are you totally sure what each word means?

Segmentation is a business strategy – deciding for whom to be best, and acquiring and managing the resources needed to be best for the chosen customers. Segmentation is something you do with your own company.

Differentiation is a product development strategy – deciding how to be best and putting together offerings that clearly set the company apart from its competitors in those respects. Differentiation is something you do with your product.

Positioning is a communications strategy – choosing a method of influencing customers so that they know and remember why you are best. Positioning is something you do to your customers’ minds.

These definitions are from Sandberg Trygg’s booklet: ”Positioning: The Art of being first” by Bengt Anderson. It was first published in 1996 but the principles are still the same. It is full of useful information and we have some copies left if you would like to your own free copy.

Tour & Andersson is the world’s leading producer of manual balancing valves for hydronic heating and cooling systems. Now they are about to launch the next generation of their best seller, the STAD valve. First introduced in 1957, sales took off during the 80s (with the help of Sandberg & Co), through smart segmentation, differentiation and positioning.

And now the agency has again been entrusted to launch a new generation of STAD. This product with its basically perfect design is installed in HVAC plants all over the world and delivers a pleasant indoor climate at a low energy cost, with the track record to prove it. But you can always improve on details. The new handwheel is better ergonomically and the design of the capholders has been improved.

Otherwise there are no major changes – and that is indeed the theme of the campaign.

Raptor is a brand new system for tank gauging with radar. Behind the introduction is the world’s leading company in this area – Emerson Rosemount Tank Radar.

Sandberg Trygg has developed material to support the launch of Raptor. It started with positioning work that produced the concept “Always ready for your next challenge” (the system is open and scalable). Then came production of an interactive sales presentation, sales brochure, roll ups, posters and event material, some of which you can see in the slide show. Next on the agenda are ads, an exhibition stand, value calculator and e-newsletter.

Ever heard of Moore’s Law? This law has had a devastating effect on those that failed to grasp its implications. Multinational corporations collapsed in a matter of days. Respected companies. They just happened to overlook one important detail.

Take Facit AB in Åtvidaberg. Thanks to the popularity of its mechanical calculators, the company reached its zenith around 1970 with 14,000 employees in140 countries. Then along came cheap electronic calculators from Japan … and goodbye Facit. If they had known Moore’s Law, they would probably still be here today.

The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore who, in 1965, predicted that the number of transistors that can be placed on a chip will double every 18 months – without increasing the cost.  Which means the price of computing power is halved every one and a half years. Whenever you buy a new computer, you feel the effect of Moore’s Law. Soon after your purchase, a new one is available for the same price – but it’s twice as powerful with twice as many transistors.

Another business that felt the effect of rapid digitalization is photography. Hasselblad opened beautiful, brand new headquarters in 2003. Two years later the building was empty.

Visit the deserted building and read the story of the Swedish camera manufacturer that even provided cameras for space missions. They may have captured the earth from the moon, but they missed two important words: Moore’s Law.

Competition in industrial pneumatics is cut-throat. But Parker Hannifin has made up its mind – within a couple of years they are going to be one of the top three preferred suppliers of pneumatics.

With an extended offering of more products, more services and more distributors, the first steps have already been taken. Add to that a big campaign (developed by Sandberg Trygg) that was launched a few weeks ago. The campaign materials help the sales people all the way from the first contact to the signed contract, via both digital and printed media. To find out more take a look at the campaign site.

Just do it (Nike). Das Auto (Volkswagen). Connecting people (Nokia).

Sometimes it feels like the world is awash with taglines. Some get etched on your brain like the ones above. But most of them just vanish. And yet the question turns up time and again here at the agency: Does my company (or product) need a tagline?

It’s easy to think that the job is all about a catchy phrase but a good definition of a tagline is “a phrase that is easy to remember and that summarises what a brand or a product stands for”.  So, in actual fact, it’s also about going into what a company really stands for.

How does the company differ from its competitors? Which promise do customers value most? What are the differences between various markets? The barrage of questions is almost endless. The bigger the organisation, the harder it is to find something that unites.

The trick is to think first and then write. The ideas need to be discussed several times both at the agency and at the customer. When the right words turn up, the phrase is often accepted without much resistance.

An example: A couple of years ago the agency did a project for Alektum Inkasso. This business is made up of a number of agencies who all say they are good at collecting money from debtors. But nobody thought about what many clients value, that is if you do the job well, you win back customer relationships. Together with Alektum we realised that this thought was something to build upon. We then arrived at the following tagline: “Get your money back. And the customer”.

Now a lot of competitors are talking about the importance of keeping good relations with those in debt. But Alektum Inkasso was first and is therefore, according to all positioning theories, king of the castle. And with its tagline “Get you money back. And the customer” the company makes it even more difficult for competitors to lay their hands on the concept of customer relationships.

What then is the answer to the question in the heading? Well, if you have thoroughly thought through what the company stands for, a tagline is suitable because it conveys and strengthens this thought. Otherwise it’s better to resist the temptation. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet:

“Words without thoughts never to heaven go”.

By the way, “Das Auto”, Volkswagen’s tagline, was first used by Opel in the ‘70s , but that’s another story.

With all due respect to friends and clients at SKF, the question is not quite as ridiculous as you might think. At least not for this layman. Some background. SKF has provided bearings for over a century, in the process learning just about everything there is to know about how objects rotate – and just as importantly, why they suddenly stop. And guess what they discovered? The vast majority of mechanical breakdowns can be attributed to a malfunctioning rotating part. Who’s the greatest expert on those parts? SKF. And who’s the world’s leading supplier of them? Right again.

No, dear reader, as you’ve already guessed, I wouldn’t dream of blaming SKF. My aim was simply to share with you what an extraordinary company it is. But had the headline been ’SKF is fantastic,’ you would never have made it this far. After all, nothing bores a reader more than bluster and blarney.

Distance Selling Day (Distanshandelsdagen) celebrated 30 years on November 19th, this year. It was only natural that Alektum Inkasso, with many clients in distance selling, was among the exhibitors at Åhaga event centre i Borås.

Sandberg Trygg developed a stand for the exhibition based on the same theme as the international campaign rolled out earlier this year. The campaign strengthens Alektum Inkasso’s strong position on caring for its clients’ customer relationships.

It was also important to stress the company’s continual expansion internationally. Which is why we produced the Travel Game (Resespelet) – a game where the visitors have to match the right airport code to the right city in the shortest possible time. The prize? An orange Alektum suitcase … of course!

A friend sent me this link the other day. It’s a simple little website for a simple little idea:
The Fun Theory.

The theory is this: Changing people’s behaviour is easy if you make it fun.

From that small seed, they’ve developed several short films showing people enjoying themselves while making a small difference to the world. We’ve got musical stairs, the world’s deepest litterbin and an arcade machine that recycles at the same time. Take a look and enjoy.

And you probably won’t see it immediately but you’ll eventually notice a logo on the right hand side and in the last seconds of each film. This site is very discreetly brought to us by Volkswagen (and their ad agency DDB Stockholm). There is certainly no heavy sell going on here – you have to click on the logo before you’ll even see a car – VW are just choosing to associate their brand with entertaining content. Content that also has a social point. Perhaps content that’s a little bit like … oh I don’t know … a sporty, environmentally sexy Golf?

Well, there’s no harm in that. Just like the way the site makes use of its visitors and their willing participation. Shortly there will be new content as visitors start putting forward their own ideas. And in the meantime everyone (me included) is spreading the word, sending links to friends or putting the films on YouTube where they are creating a real buzz with millions of viewings.

Why are we doing VW’s job for them? Because it’s fun :)

Now is the time. Those who dare to invest in a recession are more often the winners when the market recovers. But there are still those who hesitate, postpone important decisions until ”later” or wait with that special campaign.

Don’t be one of those also-rans – continue to develop your offer. It’s when your competitors cut down on their advertising that you can make a bigger impact. All it takes is courage, an eye for new possibilities and being smart about how to use your resources.

You can explore, for instance, how to build your brand with social media. Or how to create a stronger relationship with your current customers. Keep up to speed with what your competitors are doing, and then do the opposite. Just like Kellogg’s did in the middle of the 1929 crash. When their competitor Post cut down on advertising, Kellogg’s increased theirs, gaining a lead that still lasts. A more recent example is Dell, who during the recession in the nineties increased their marketing budget by 300 percent, taking their business to a new level.

No matter what you invest in, it’s important to build some momentum and not wait for the economy to turn around. Because turn it will – some say it already has. The average recession lasts about 11 months. The longest we’ve had during the last 50 years lasted for 16 months and the shortest for 7. From that point of view it’s not really interesting how long this recession will last. The question is more: What should you do to be first out of the blocks?