Sony is facing competition from other robot manufacturers, including Honda. It is also facing competition from toy manufacturers selling low-­‐end knock-­‐offs (e.g., Poo-­‐Chi).
How should these affect Sony's positioning strategy?

"AIBO is not at all intended to replace live animals," said Grace Ann Arnold, spokeswoman for Sony Electronics. "It is technologically designed primarily for entertainment purposes. You can train it and teach it. It does have emotions and instincts built in. But it is not intended to replace animals."

"We're keeping in perspective that it's a child's toy," said Rachel Johnson, spokeswoman for Tiger Electronics. "It's fun and exciting and a whole new level of interactive play. But it's not our goal to replace household pets."

When firms adopt a reverse or breakaway positioning strategy, there is no pretense about what they're up to. Part of the appeal of their cleverly positioned product offerings comes from explicitly subverting convention through unconventional promotions, prices, and attributes. In contrast, companies that use stealth positioning adopt a covert approach. They conceal the true nature of their products by affiliating them with a different category.

This is a powerful strategy for marketers when a category is in some way tainted. Consumers may feel intimidated by products in the category (as can be the case with new technologies); they may be skeptical of the products because previous offerings have failed to live up to expectations; or they may have personal objections to products or companies in the category. By using stealth positioning, companies can, in effect, sneak products into the market and gain acceptance that might otherwise prove elusive. Although stealth positioning doesn't typically disrupt categories, it can give products a fresh run at the life cycle and keep them from languishing—or dying outright—in the introduction phase.

One word of caution: There is an important difference between stealth positioning and deceit. The difference is both ethical and economic. When used thoughtfully, stealth positioning is a legitimate way to diffuse prejudice about a product or company, encourage acceptance, and deliver value to customers. But the strategy can backfire if consumers discover that a company used the technique to cheat them by exploiting their naïveté. The difference is evident in the following examples, where companies have thoughtfully adopted a stealth-positioning approach.

AIBO. Sony exploited a similar stealth strategy to gain a foothold in the nascent household robot category. In a March 2004 article in Harvard Business Review, I described the company's approach to the challenge of warming consumers to its imperfect early robots. Sony had spent tens of millions of dollars to develop the first household robot, with the goal of seizing a leadership position in the emerging field against formidable competitors like Honda, Toyota, and Matsushita. But making a robot that could do anything useful proved daunting. Sony knew that marketing an unreliable, humanlike household robot that couldn't handle even simple chores was sure to backfire.

Sony's solution was to stealth position its product. Rather than set consumers up to be disappointed by an inadequate household robot, Sony positioned the product as a lovable but otherwise useless pet. Although buggy and unpredictable, the doglike AIBO was an immediate hit. In its first two years on the market, Sony sold out its limited production of 100,000 units. During what amounts to a five-year market test of a flawed technology, Sony has gathered invaluable consumer feedback to guide continued development of its robots. The company is now prototyping its next-generation robot, a little humanoid named QRIO.

"Aibo" means "companion" in Japanese, and Sony apparently is not using this term frivolously or tongue in cheek. "Aibo is not a toy!" stresses the Aibo Web site (http://www.us.aibo.com). Aibo is "a true companion with real emotions and instincts. With loving attention from its master, it can even develop into a more mature and fun-loving friend as time passes," the Web site says.