Contents
After the war, West Germany has many newspapers that resemble one another: pages of text, reports, commentary. Axel Springer, already the publisher of the listings magazine Hörzu and the Hamburger Abendblatt, does not want another title of this kind. He is looking for a position nobody has yet occupied. The example shows how Positioning in Michael E. Porter’s sense works: as a deliberate choice of a target group and a benefit, with all the consequences.
A concept at the kitchen table
Situation
According to wissen.de, Springer developed the concept at home in the spring of 1952, with scissors, paste and newspaper clippings. His models are the British mass-circulation tabloids. The new paper is to carry topics that interest almost all readers and to be a printed answer to television. Red becomes the brand color.
Link to the principle
Springer does not start with the question of how to make a better newspaper. He asks whom he is making it for. His answer is the reader on the streetcar or on a breakfast break, not the subscriber with plenty of time. Everything else follows from this choice.
The price as part of the position
Situation
The first issue appears on June 24, 1952, with a print run of 455,000 copies, and is initially handed out free of charge. After that, the paper costs 10 pfennigs. After a slump at the end of 1952, circulation passes the one-million mark in March 1953. At the end of the 1970s and in the 1980s, it at times exceeds five million copies.
Link to the principle
The low price is not a loss leader but part of the position. A newspaper for the masses has to be cheap enough to buy in passing. High circulation and a low price support each other. If you take this position, you cannot at the same time be an expensive newspaper for connoisseurs.
Form follows target group
Situation
Bild stands out for its big photos, big headlines and short texts. It is often called the paper with the big letters. As a tabloid, it relies on newsstand sales, not subscriptions.
Link to the principle
A position is more than an advertising message. It shows in every detail: in the type size, the length of the texts, the distribution channel. When every detail fits the chosen target group, the position becomes instantly recognizable to readers and hard for competitors to copy.
Different titles, different positions
Situation
Besides Bild, Springer publishes other newspapers, including the Hamburger Abendblatt, which he has published since 1948, and Die Welt, which he buys in 1953. These titles appeal to different readers and have a different tone.
Link to the principle
Springer does not mix the positions. Bild is not meant to look serious, Die Welt not to sound loud. If you want to serve several target groups, you need separate offerings. A single product for everyone would be exactly the middle Porter warns against.
The price of unambiguity
Situation
The paper repeatedly sparks fierce debate. After the assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke in April 1968, protests by the student movement are directed against the Springer publishing house. In 1974, Heinrich Böll attacks the tabloid press in his novella “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum.” Günter Wallraff works undercover in the Bild newsroom in Hanover and in 1977 publishes “Der Aufmacher” (“Lead Story”).
Link to the principle
A sharp position attracts not only customers but also opponents. That is no accident but the flip side of clarity. If you don’t want to displease anyone, you end up in the middle. Whether a position also holds up ethically is a separate question, one you have to ask yourself before you choose it.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- First ask whom you are there for, then what you offer.
- Make the price part of your position, not an afterthought.
- Let your position show in every detail.
- Serve different target groups with separate offerings.
- Be prepared for a clear position to provoke opposition too, and check whether you can stand behind it.
Summary
With Bild, Axel Springer occupied a position in 1952 that had not existed in this form in Germany: a cheap newspaper, rich in pictures, for a mass readership. Price, layout and distribution followed this one choice. The success was great, and so was the criticism. Both show how much power an unambiguous position has.
Sources
- Michael E. Porter: Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. New York: Free Press 1980.
- Heinrich Böll: Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (in German). Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch 1974.
- Günter Wallraff: Der Aufmacher. Der Mann, der bei Bild Hans Esser war (in German). Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch 1977.
