Positioning Shinola vs Apple

Positioning means using marketing to create a unique image or position for the product or brand in the minds of the target market. Positioning is a kind of short-hand that helps prospective buyers understand what the product or brand is all about and what makes it different from others in the same category. Differentiation is the name of the game in brand marketing, distinguishing a product from others in a way that is meaningful to buyers.

Sometimes a marketer positions a product as being similar to another product--and sometimes as being dissimilar to another product.

On the very day Apple announced that it would start accepting preorders for its much-anticipated Apple Watch, Detroit-based manufacturer Shinola positioned its analog watch against the Apple smart watch. The ad, shown at right, cleverly tells the entire positioning story in a single headline that also conveys Shinola's brand attitude:

A watch so smart that it can tell you the time just by looking at it.

Shinola placed its advertising in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and online on the company website. As long as the spotlight was on wristwatches, why not shine some of that light on the traditional analog watch that also happens to be hand-made in America? So Shinola's ad tells buyers a lot about the brand and the product by reminding them that this is not a new-fangled, feature-rich, bells-and-whistles kind of watch for the 21st century. No sirree.

For a glossary of marketing terminology, click here.