The Strategic Enemy goes global

From NYC to Manila I'm out teaching the world about the strategic enemy

The USA is home, but the world is a big place. The opportunities to build brands can come from anywhere. Positioning is a global concept and I’m taking the Strategic Enemy on the road. The past week I spoke at two major conferences on two sides of the globe.

First stop: Brandersfest in New York City, USA.

Second stop: BrandCon in Manila, Philippines.

Two cities, thousands of miles apart, but the same fundamental truth: brands need enemies.

First up was Brandersfest in New York City. An exclusive group of fellow branding nerds. Insiders can be the toughest critics. These are people who’ve read the books, studied the case studies, and lived through enough brand failures to be skeptical of anything that sounds too simple or too clever.

But the Strategic Enemy concept landed. The most common response? “Geez, I never thought about it that way. Your explanation and examples make so much sense.”

That’s when you know a theory works. Theories are only understood after an abundance of examples. Not just one brilliant case study, but pattern after pattern showing the same truth from different angles.

Many thanks to Luis Fernando Vergara and his amazing team!

Here is one of my favorite examples from my speech.

The Farmer’s Dog

Positioning requires a narrow focus. Pioneering a new category with the right name and positioning is the ultimate achievement.

But positioning isn’t all about YOU! Positioning is also about being against something. That something is your strategic enemy

What you say about yourself is suspect. Saying you are better isn’t believable. Being is different is great, but you also need to be specific about what exactly you are different from.

That is what a strategic enemy is all about.

When you can contrast your position to your strategic enemy the contrast brings clarity to why your brand difference matters.

The Farmer’s Dog is specific about being fresh and not highly processed. Dry dog food is highly processed. They brilliantly call it out as burnt brown balls. Eating highly processed food every meal of your life isn’t good for humans, why would you feed that to your dog? Hard to argue with that!

This gives the battlecry Long Live Dogs emotional power and makes Farmer’s Dog a brand worth fighting for, by standing up against highly processed food.

BrandCon - Manila

After NYC last week, halfway around the world, I found myself in Manila this week. And I was thrilled to be back.

BrandCon is the first-ever conference devoted to branding and the RIES principles of positioning.

I headlined the event with a keynote on Positioning & the Strategic Enemy, and introduced each section of local speakers throughout this 3-day event.

What a thrill to review the core positioning ideas such as category, visual hammer, battlecry, PR vs advertising. Then listen to amazing local brand leaders present their case studies on how they used these principles to achieve success.

One of my favorite speakers went all in on the Power of No.

Ryan Cruz of Mendokoro and Yushoken Ramen. No utensils, No takeout, No salt/pepper, No customizations. The list of Nos goes on. Cruz was inspired by a visit to Japan and the masters there, including “Ramen God” Kazuo Yamagishi, to bring a high level of authenticity to the ramen scene in the Philippines. And he delivers.

At a big conference it is hard to make close connections. But at the book signings I got my chance. After a long year of writing this book, nothing is more rewarding that meeting people so inspired by my talk that they lined up to buy a copy!

Many thanks to Bingo Soriano (aka Branding Nerd) and his team at BrandCon!

Whether it was branding insiders in Manhattan or entrepreneurs in Manila, the reaction was the same: positioning matters and the concept of the strategic enemy makes it stronger. Like positioning, it is a universal idea for the world. The strategic enemy isn’t an American concept or an Asian concept. It’s a market reality.

Brands that win have a strategic enemy. Brands that lose are trying to be everything to everyone.

That truth travels.

In my career I’ve been to 60 countries, I’m looking forward going back to many of them and hitting some new ones too.

I’ve got a lot of events on my calendar and plenty of red dresses.

To learn more about having me speak at your next event - go to https://ries.com/speaking.