The 22 Immutable laws of marketing. by Al Ries & Jack Trout

Summary

If I was to summarise the laws into one it would be:
Create a new opportunity in a new category don’t improve another. Own the words in the category. Don’t dilute the brand with extra superfluous products. If you’re second best, you strategise based on the leader.

These laws don’t only apply to companies. They also apply to individuals. Leverage them for your personal brand and personal marketing.
 
A lot of the laws overlap. There are more like 4/5 laws with some sub points. I guess it creates for more simplistic reading when the examples are smaller. Each page following the law is the most useful. The few pages that follow include some (now outdated) examples to strengthen the point. I found these examples a bit verbose at time and I ended up skipping a few.
 

Key Insights

  • Be first. – It pays so much to be first in a category (the law of leadership) that it’s worthwhile creating a new category. This is reminds me of Russell Brunsons advice. “Create a new opportunity, not an improvement offer”. People want new things that they haven’t tried.
  • Perceptions > products. – Marketing is about what the consumer thinks. They don’t care about the facts, they only care about what they perceive is best. Usually the consumer trusts that the leader is best, regardless of facts.
  • You shouldn’t apply a brand to all products. – Businesses who try to leverage their brand to launch lots of products dilute the brand power. Companies should invent new brands for their new products, not extend the old one.

Snippets

Being unique and being first
The basic issue in marketing is creating a category you can be first in. It’s the law of leadership.
Be a new opportunity not an improvement offer
Everyone is interested in what’s new. Few people are interested in what’s better.
Don’t try to change perceptions
The single most wasteful thing you can try to do in marketing is to try to change a mind.
People’s perceptions are set
People don’t like to change their minds. Once they perceive you one way, that’s it. They kind of file you away in their minds as a certain kind of person. You cannot become a different person in their minds.
Products and facts don’t matter – perceptions do.
Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions.
Sacrifice for specificity
This is the law of focus. You “burn” your way into the mind by narrowing the focus to a single word or concept. It’s the ultimate marketing sacrifice.
Don’t beat the crowd, create your own
Don’t try to be better, try to be different.
Be specific with your proposition
When you try to be all things to all people, you inevitably end up in trouble.
Don’t dilute brand with superfluous products
If you want to be successful, you want to reduce your product line, not extend it.
Be candid
One of the most effective ways to get into a prospects mind is to first admit a negative and then twist it into a positive.
Getting a customer to agree is easier with negative statements
You have to prove a positive statement to the prospect’s satisfaction. No proof is needed for a negative statement.
Don’t try and change perceptions
You can’t change a mind once it’s made up, your marketing efforts have to be devoted to using ideas and concepts already installed in the brain.
People respond well to honesty
When a company starts a message by admitting a problem, people tend to almost instinctively open their minds.
 
 
Lou Bichard
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