Seinfeld on Positioning
I find Seinfeld's opinion on the Olympic games a great story to help me summarize the positioning theory (Al Ries and Jack Trout).
Seinfeld says:
[ The Olympics is really my favourite sporting event, although I think I have a problem with that silver medal. I think if I was an Olympic athlete I would rather come in last than win the silver, if you think about it. You know, you win the gold, you feel good. You win the bronze, you think "well at least I got something".
But you win that silver, that's like "congratulations, you... almost won". "Of all the losers, you came in first of that group". "You're the number 1 loser". "No one lost ahead of you".
...
"I trained, I worked out, I exercised my entire life, I never had a date, I never had a drink, I never had a beer, I was doing push-ups since I was a fetus... I flew half way around the world, everybody I knew in my whole life was there, the guy shot off the gun and then... oh !".
...
And they always have that photo-finish, you know the photo-finish is always "silver... gold". "Greatest guy in the world... never heard of him". You know, the guy's gotta be thinking "if I had a pimple, I would had won".]
Seinfeld says:
[ The Olympics is really my favourite sporting event, although I think I have a problem with that silver medal. I think if I was an Olympic athlete I would rather come in last than win the silver, if you think about it. You know, you win the gold, you feel good. You win the bronze, you think "well at least I got something".
But you win that silver, that's like "congratulations, you... almost won". "Of all the losers, you came in first of that group". "You're the number 1 loser". "No one lost ahead of you".
...
"I trained, I worked out, I exercised my entire life, I never had a date, I never had a drink, I never had a beer, I was doing push-ups since I was a fetus... I flew half way around the world, everybody I knew in my whole life was there, the guy shot off the gun and then... oh !".
...
And they always have that photo-finish, you know the photo-finish is always "silver... gold". "Greatest guy in the world... never heard of him". You know, the guy's gotta be thinking "if I had a pimple, I would had won".]
