In their landmark book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (McGraw-Hill, 2000), Al
Ries and Jack Trout describe positioning in terms of ladders in the audience’s mind: Each
ladder is a market, and each rung is a brand. Where a brand fits on the ladder is its positioning.
For example, imagine what the positioning ladder looks like for cola drinks: rung
1: Coca-Cola, rung 2: Pepsi-Cola, rung 3: RC Cola, rung 4: everybody else.