Reframing in business and life
It’s Friday, so I’m going to go slightly, but not entirely, off topic. Positioning is all about how we frame things and the context we put them in. It’s a tool that’s very useful in business — because it helps put our product or service in the best context possible — but is also an important part of how we interpret pretty much everything in life.
One day last week, I was taking my daughter to school by bike. She’s five. We live in Oregon. On this particular day it was pouring.
How would you (and your five-year-old kid) interpret biking to school in the rain? As it turns out, it really depends on how you frame the situation.
I suspect some of the parents think I bike because I don’t have a car (not true) and frame the idea of biking as one of deprevation: That poor kid has to bike to school and get wet.
I don’t always bike in the rain, but when I do I always wonder why I don’t do it more frequently. Even when it’s raining, I think biking is a more pleasant way to get around than driving, at least in most circumstances. In fact, I consider being able to travel by bike a privilege — it’s possible for me because I’m self-employed, because I’m not under a huge time crunch to get places and because I live relatively close to my daughter’s school. I happen to live along a river bike path, and biking is extremely pleasant. When my daughter is forced to travel by car, she often complains that she can’t get enough fresh air.
On this particular day, though, I was worried she’d be mad about getting wet so I very deliberately positioned the choice to go by bike as a privilege. I said things like “wow, aren’t we lucky we get to go by bike,” and “look at all those wimps in their cars.”
She bought my positioning. Not only did she not mind getting soaked, she was mad the next time I did decide to do drop off in the car.
The exact same principles can be used for products, too. Sure there are some product attributes that are pure negative (think — buggy and unreliable), many others could be either. If your platform has just a few features, it could be sleek and simple — both positive for the right people.
Good positioning can turn a negative into a positive. If you need help doing it, here’s how I help.