Some 45 years ago, we got our hands on a new book by famed marketing gurus Al Reis and Jack Trout. The book was named “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.” It was a hot topic in the television promotion world, as the people who did that function in local television stations were grappling with the age-old question of how to stand out in an ever-crowded marketplace.

A reminder that it was 1980. Cable Television was barely a thing, as only 16 million households were subscribers that year. CNN would just launch that summer. The FOX broadcast network wouldn’t launch until six years later, and Fox News would take another decade to debut. Cell phones weren’t sold on every corner. Outside of a few universities and the defense department, the internet wasn’t a thing yet, either.

So the “ever-crowded marketplace” typically consisted of three commercial television networks, one non-commercial television network, and, depending on how large a city you lived in or near, maybe an independent station or two. At a maximum, there typically were a half-dozen local television stations to choose from. And the people charged with promoting and marketing local television stations were concerned about too many competitors fighting for attention.

We know that all of that seems pretty quaint in today’s world. But that was the reality of the time.

And the idea of the Positioning book was bold. “How to create a memorable position for a product or brand in the minds of consumers.” The small book became a classic text in the marketing world. If you have never read it—or can’t remember if you did—we’d urge you to spend about ten bucks to buy a paperback or digital copy from Amazon right now.

Here’s a link to order: amzn.to/41LqCtB Full disclosure: This is an Amazon affiliate link, so we will get a small commission if you order from that page.

So why are we pushing you to read this book? Too many people today in local television stations, especially in their news departments, don’t fully understand the positioning of their news—or perhaps more importantly, what it should be.

We were reminded of this problem watching a recent news promo from KABC-TV in Los Angeles.

ABC7, as KABC is branded these days, has had “pitch-perfect” promotion for a long time. The station made “Eyewitness News” a household name in Southern California, and its success in the nation’s second-largest market is legendary. But this one fifteen-second promo made us stop and admire the station’s current positioning of its news.

The first words you hear from the anchor in the spot are these: “If it happens in Southern California, you’ll see it on Eyewitness News.”

What a simple and direct positioning statement for the station. It is easy to understand but makes an explicit promise to the customer. The promo references that the station has said this to viewers “for decades, but it’s just as true today.” And finally, the payoff copy: “In the air, on the ground, in your neighborhood—no one covers Southern California better than ABC7 Eyewitness News.”

A key point from the “Positioning” book is to highlight both your business’s strengths–and the potential weaknesses of your competitors.

Instead of declaring their “number one in the ratings” position as so many stations focus on, ABC7 makes it simple. If nobody is better, then why would you watch any other station? We’ve found for years that so many stations are reluctant to position their news aggressively. Or if they try to be aggressive, they miss the target and come off arrogant and tone-deaf. The KABC spot threads the needle with a strong message that isn’t too strong. Also, the fact that the station has been “Southern California’s News Leader” for many years gives them license to make the claim.

Lest you believe we are in love with everything that KABC does, we aren’t huge fans of that “Southern California’s News Leader” tagline. We’ve seen some stations adopt this phrase, and we always think when we hear it, some viewers will ask the same question: “Exactly what are you the leader of?” We get that it is a neat way to say you are the number one station for news, but frankly, if that is what you want to communicate, then why not say so directly? Back in the days of longer opens to its newscasts, viewers of KABC would hear this at the beginning of each edition of Eyewitness News. “This is Channel 7, the number one station for news and information in Southern California.”

That is a positioning statement if there ever was one.

Here’s a takeaway for you. Could you describe the positioning of something in just 15 seconds? Your station? How about you? Positioning isn’t just for a business or a product. If you have been reading of late about building “your personal brand,” you’ll find the insights in the book by Reis and Trout to be well worth your time, too. With apologies to “Kenny Rogers and The First Edition” and their 1967 record, there is never a bad time to drop in and see what position your position is in?

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