An Idea can change your life

Today I decided to write about something which has fascinated me over past few years.Its simple.Technically called Positioning.For layman and people in the market its simple advertising while for industry its called Branding.
"An Idea can change your life"-punch line for Idea Cellular,"A lot can happen over coffee"-Coffee Day,"The network Follows you"-Hutch..and so on.Among these I like the Idea best.Its how they deliver the intended message of marketing.They dont say we are the best or second in telecom services.They have "positioned" their products differently in the prospects mind.Well these are not my words.These are the polished words of the book by Al Ries-"Positioning-A Battle for Your Mind".
In the book, the experts point out that marketing a product is not about the market but about the prospect's mind.Its the prospect's mind thats the target of a product be it a place,an item,a country....a person.Its either with respect to something already established or a new idea.All such terminologies apart,this polished concept is best exemplified by "Dalda" - Vanaspati; an alternative for ghee in Indian Cuisines.If you refer "Vanaspati" to an Indian housewife or a middle class head of the family who does the monthly shopping for the family, he/she would think twice but talk about "Dalda", they would immediately recognise.They identify the Brand more than the product.I personally know this as back in Kolkata during my school days, "Luchi" or Puri cooked in dalda was a common delicacy in functions at home.And often I would hear Ma(thats what I call my mother) calling out to me or Baba(thats my dad) to get some Dalda from the market.Thats what we call positioning in the prospect's mind.Another famous example is Cadbury;even to this day when a child visits a shop, he would ask for a "cadbury" rarely a chocolate.He may eventually chose to take an Amul Chocolate but still he identified the product by the brand Cadbury not by the product "chocolate" itself.
Such marketing or rather positioning has been done by few other companies like Xerox-the copier and Noodles-the chowmien product.Even Maggi positioned itself well; different from noodles; well enough to identify itself as a separate product though essentially its similar to noodles.The others were the first in the the target market while brands like Idea positioned itself differently in an already crowded market;not as the best or the first but as different.
In life too, the fact is that we have to market or position ourselves;be it profession,marriage,academics(specially MBA schools)...everywhere in the repective prospect's mind.Summing up..to win you dont have to perfect ; you got to be different in one way or the other to leave a mark in the prospect' mind.Oh !! thats marketing extrapolated to philosophy of life; thats truly a step in transitioning.