Art and Positioning

“To make the stone, stony, again,” is a surviving line from a long, heady essay, "Art as Technique," by Victor Shklovsky—a Russian Literary Critic, artist, cynic and inquisitive man. 

A Cynical and Inquisitive Man

The essay, was, perhaps surprisingly, not about marketing. It was about art …and more specifically, about poetry. 

But among many other reasons, one that makes it worthwhile read for marketers is its relevance to positioning. Shklovsky argues that the purpose of art is to give something familiar meaning, to take what we know to be inherent truths, and revisit them. In so doing, a writer can capture what it is that makes what we call a stone, stony. 
 

Mind Exploding from Circular Logic

It strikes me that in positioning the task is often the same as Shklovsky’s, that is, urging people to look at a product or brand closer to respond to its essential qualities.

This might take some of the pressure off of striving for something new. Rather this essay presents a world of opportunity for marketers, because it suggests that everything is inherently differentiated; stones are stony, water is wet.  A marketer’s challenge can be to discover, or rediscover inherent qualities, as opposed to inventing them. 

--JC Longbottom,

Associate Consultant