Title The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Author Al Ries & Jack Trout

Year Published 1994

Kind of Book How to/Sales & Marketing

How strongly I recommend it 8/10 

My Impressions This is a classic on how to think about marketing your product or service. Each chapter highlights a marketing law and gives examples of those who have obeyed and those who have broken it.

Date Read April 2020

Practical Takeaways

  • Focus on being the first in a category, not being better

  • If you're introducing the first brand in a new category, you should always try to select a name that can work generically (eg. Jello, Kleenex, Spanx)

  • If you can't be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in (eg. First woman pilot, first disposable razor)

  • When you launch a new product, the first question to ask yourself is not "How is this new product better than the competition?" but "First what?"

  • Make your brand name simple and easy to remember

  • Don't try to change people minds about your brand. (make your brand stand for one thing in their mind. Don't try to change what it stands for)

  • Don't try to mix your branding. Stand for one thing

  • Don't make quality the thing you stand for (everyone stands for quality)

  • Own a word in your customer's mind. (focus on one word rather than 2-4) (eg. Safety, sexy, next-day delivery etc.)

  • Don't try to own the same word in your customer's mind as your competitor (eg. If they own "fun", you should own "sophisticated")

  • Study the brand above you in the marketplace. Where are they strong? How can you turn that strength into a weakness?

  • Don't emulate the leader. Present yourself as the alternative (eg. Burger King "have it your way" vs. McDonald's fast food)

  • Don't try to beat #1 at their game. Play a new game

  • Don't be timid in your marketing approach (even if you're in the #2 spot)

  • Don't take a well-know brand name in one category and use the same brand name in another category (eg. Trying to use the beatle brand to sell big cars)

  • Don't develop a 'sale' reputation. Don't make your product on sale too much (it suggests that your normal price is too high. Your sale price will be the new normal.)

  • Do not use coupons (There is no evidence that couponing increases sales in the long run and coupons become a drug. You have to continue to get sales because the withdrawal symptoms will be too painful)

  • Resist the urge to do a line extension after a brand becomes successful (line extension almost never works)

  • Narrow the focus in order to build a position in the prospect's mind

  • Don't try to be all things to all people

  • Sacrifice some options of what your product offers and focus on one thing (eg. We make sub sandwiches, not all sandwiches. We do next day delivery, not all delivery) (you will win a word in your customers head and be able to get really good at just one thing easier)

  • Make your target small even if your market is everybody (Pepsi targets young people, but still gets customers who are not young)

  • After your brand becomes successful, don't try to then be all things to all people

  • Don't change your marketing strategy and brand if it is doing well (most people will try to change it and be all things to all people)

  • Try to own the most important word in your category (eg. Cavity in toothpaste)

  • Own a different word than the #1 brand in your category (eg. If Colgate owns cavity you should own white teeth)

  • Admit a negative in your product and then twist it into a positive (eg. With a name like smuckers it has to be good") *your negative must be widely perceived as negative. *don't overdo this

  • Find one place where your competitor is vulnerable and then focus all of your effort on invading that spot

  • Build an enormous amount of flexibility into your organization to cope with the unpredictable world

  • Don't inject your ego in the marketing process

  • Put yourself in your prospects shoes

  • Make mistakes. Admit them. Fix them. And just keep coming

  • Ready, fire, aim -Sam Walton

  • Don't worry about a ton of hype for your product (if your brand is doing well it won't need hype. Hype is for the products that are failing)

  • Forget fads. When they appear, try to dampen them. (one way to maintain a long-term demand for your product is to never totally satisfy the demand)

  • Control your products appearances. Don't wear out your welcome. Keep people wanting more

  • Make sure you have funding to make your idea work

Big Ideas

  • Usually the first company in a category is the leading company in the category

  • The first is often the leader because

    1. People assume the leading brand is the best brand

    2. People tend to stick with what they've got

    3. The brand name of the first becomes synonymous with the product

  • In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race

  • 7 is the maximum number of brands in a category people remember

  • Putting your product on sale helps in the short term, but hurts in the long term

  • The people a brand targets are not necessarily who buys it the most.

  • Brands know that by targeting the right demographic they can get their ACTUAL target more interested in buying it

  • Marketing is a battle of perception, not products

  • When you admit a fault in yourself people's guards come down

  • Even the best idea in the world won't go very far without the money to get it off the ground

Surprising Facts

  • Harvard was the first college founded in America

  • New Coke scored higher than both Pepsi and coke in blind taste tests. Pepsi routinely scores higher than coke in blind taste tests. Yet Coca Cola remains the leader in sales

  • Only 7 people have ever known the Coke formula. The formula is kept locked in a safe in Atlanta

  • There is no evidence that couponing increases sales in the long run

 

Unknown Terms

Immutable: unchanging over time or unable to be changed.

Benchmarking: The process of comparing and evaluating your company's products against the best in the industry

Line-Extension: the use of an established product brand name for a new item in the same product category. It occur when a company introduces additional items in the same product category under the same brand name such as new flavors, forms, colors, added ingredients, package sizes. (eg. Diet coke, cherry coke, coke zero etc.)

Target Market: refers to a group of customers to whom a company wants to sell its products and services, and to whom it directs its marketing efforts. (remember the people you target are not necessarily the people who are going to buy your product)

 

Notes