Get to Aha!: Discover Your Positioning DNA and Dominate Your Competition by Andy Cunningham

About the Book

From the marketing strategist who helped Steve Jobs launch the original Apple Macintosh comes a groundbreaking guide to positioning any company for industry dominance 

Andy Cunningham has been at the forefront of tech and innovation since day one, and she’s been helping companies create new product categories ever since.

Now she reveals the winning framework she uses to transform markets and industries.

Get to Aha! shows how to establish the kind of foundation world-class brands are built on.

Too many business leaders fail to ask the most basic questions about their company―Who are we? And why do we matter?―before they leap right into branding.

Big mistake. A company must first know itself (establish its position) before it can express its identity (execute its branding). 

There are three types of companies in the world, each with its own DNA: Mothers are customer-oriented, Mechanics are product-oriented, and Missionaries are concept-oriented―and it’s absolutely critical for business leaders to know which type their company is to create an authentic and ultimately “sticky” position in the market. 

A company’s DNA is the key to achieving this and with it, a competitive advantage.

Why? Because if a Mechanic creates a marketing campaign based on its belief that it is a Missionary, the underlying positioning will not ring true and the company won’t gain a foothold in the market.

But if a company positions itself in alignment with its DNA, it will resonate authentically and establish its role and relevance even in the face of a major competitor.

Get to Aha! presents a clear step-by-step framework that will help you determine your company’s precise position in the marketing landscape, using Andy’s DNA-based methodology.

It takes you through the process of performing “genetic testing” on your company, examining the market through the six Cs of positioning, and developing your positioning statement―a rational, factual statement about your company’s role and relevance.

Then and only then can you create a branding and marketing strategy that will build market momentum and crush the competition.

Trust Andy. Steve Jobs did.

About the Author

An entrepreneur at the forefront of marketing, branding, positioning, and communicating “the next big thing,” Andy Cunningham has played a key role in the launch of a number of new categories, including video games, personal computers, desktop publishing, digital imaging, and software as a service. 

Andy came to Silicon Valley in 1983 to work for Regis McKenna and help Steve Jobs launch Macintosh. 

She is the founder and president of Cunningham Collective, a marketing strategy firm that has worked with companies in a variety of markets, such as artificial intelligence, cannabis, crypto, information technology, big data, cloud, gaming, mobile apps, search, semiconductors, and virtual reality. 

She has taught marketing classes at several universities including Harvard Business School, New York University, Northwestern University, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California. Andy is a graduate of Northwestern University. 

And, interesting fact - she and her husband Rand split their time between an old wooden boat in Sausalito, California, and the Alpine Airpark in Alpine, Wyoming! 

Listen to the Interview...

Links...

• Get to Aha!: Discover Your Positioning DNA and Dominate Your Competition by Andy Cunningham (Amazon)

• Andy Cunningham (website)

• Cunningham Collective

• Andy Cunningham (LinkedIn)

• Andy Cunningham (Twitter)

• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, 20th Anniversary Edition by Al Ries and Jack Trout

• Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore

• Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath

• The Regis Touch: New Marketing Strategies For Uncertain Times by Regis McKenna

• Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy by Mark Schaefer (Marketing Book Podcast interview)

• Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton

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