Like virtually everything written by Trout and Ries, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind is a foundational text; it expands on concepts the authors published in 1972 after a decade of work.

As legendary adman David Oglivy wrote in his 1971 New York Times article, outlining 38 things he had learned about creating advertising:

1. The most important decision. We have learned that the effect of your advertising on your sales depends more on this decision than on any other: How should you position your product?

Positioning has since become one of the most important concepts in marketing. Every strong company today has also created a strong market position.

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind is the the most through and most accessible discussion of what positioning is, how it works, and how to use it in your business.The book is oriented toward advertising, but the concept of positioning extends far beyond advertising, even to the core operations of a business.

As we describe in our brief guide to positioning, a company’s market position is the idea that the company wants to associate with itself in the minds of customers. A company’s tagline often indicates its position: Fedex guarantees overnight delivery, Verizon assures us that its network is continually improving, and Miller Lite promises great taste in a light beer.

More than simply a guide to the concept, Positioning provides examples of a broad range of marketing challenges, including the positioning of companies, products, services, the country of Belgium, and even the Catholic Church. While it doesn’t provide detailed instructions for positioning and the writing style is terse (but pithy), the many examples all have an unexpected complication with a creative solution. And, since the book also serves to sell Trout and Ries’ marketing services, each example is notably successful for the client.

Although it does not demonstrate the rigor of other marketing books and the examples are most appropriate for the large clients that Trout and Ries serves, Positioning is an essential introduction to one of the most important concepts in marketing, and it should be required reading for owners of businesses of any size.