22 immutable laws of marketing summary

8/18/2019 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Summary

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The 22 Immutable Laws of MarketingBy Al Ries and Jack Trout

The Laws at a Glance ! elaboration further down"

#" The Law of Leadershi$ It is better to be first than be better

2" The Law of the %ategory If you can’t be the first in a category, set up a

new category that you can be first in

&" The Law of the Mind It’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in

the marketplace

'" The Law of (erce$tion marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle

of perceptions

)" The Law of *ocus The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a

word in the prospect’s mind

+" The Law of ,-clusi.ity Two companies cannot own the same word in

the prospect’s mind


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/" The Law of the Ladder The strategy to use depends on which rung you

occupy on the ladder

0" The Law of 1uality In the long run, every market becomes a two horse

race

" The Law of the 3$$osite If you’re shooting for second place, your

strategy is determined by the leader

#4" The Law of 1i.ision Over time, a category will divide and become two

or more categories

##" The Law of (ers$ecti.e Marketing effects take place over an extended

period of time

#2" The Law of Line ,-tension There’s an irresistible pressure to extend

the equity of the brand

#&" The Law of 5acrifice ou have to give up something in order to get

something

#'" The Law of Attributes !or every attribute ther is an opposite, effective

attribute

#)" The Law of %andor "hen you admit a negative, the prospect will give

you a positive

#+" The Law of 5ingularity In each situation, only one move will produce

substantial results

#/" The Law of 6n$redictability #nless you write your competitor’s plans,

you can’t predict the future

#0" The Law of 5uccess $uccess often leads to arrogance, and arrogance

to failure

#" The Law of *ailure !ailure is to be expected and accepted


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24" The Law of 7y$e The situation is often the opposite of the way it

appears in the press

2#" The Law of Acceleration $uccessful programs are not built on fads,

they are built on trends

22" The Law of Resources "ithout adequate funding an idea won’t get off

the ground

#" The Law of Leadershi$

• The law of leadership is convincing people that you are the first in aparticular market

•

It is easier to convince someone that you are first rather than convincethem that you have a better product

• The leading brand in a category are usually the first in the mind ofconsumers

• %eople tend to stick with what they’ve got

• One reason why the first brand in a category is the best known is becauseit tends to become generic

• Marketing is a battle of perceptions, not products & if you are the first thenyou must be the best 'even if your product is inferior, it is seen as beingthe best(

2" The Law of the %ategory• If you are not the first product in the market, you should try to create a new

category and be the first in that category

• I)M was the first in computers, but *+ was the first in minicomputers

• *ell was not the first computer seller, but they were the first in sellingcomputers over the phone

• +veryone is interested in what is new, not necessarily what is better

&" The Law of the Mind

• If marketing is a battle of perception, not product, then the mind takes

precedence over the marketplace• The problem is getting the idea or concept into the person’s mind

• ou cannot change a person’s mind & once they perceive a company ofbeing one thing, they forever feel that it is that thing eg- .erox will alwaysbe a photocopier company and never a computer company, no matter howhard they try

• ou have to blast your way into consumers’ minds


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• $ometimes a simple and easy way of getting into a prospect’s mind is tohave an easy to remember name, such as /pple computers as opposed tothe MIT$ /ltair 0011

'" The Law of (erce$tion

• /ll that exists in marketing is the perception in the mind of the consumers• The only reality that you can be sure about is in your perceptions

• The product itself is not central to the marketing, it is the perception in themind of the consumers that is the important thing

• If you tell someone in 2apan that you bought a 3onda, they wouldautomatically assume that you are talking about a motorcycle & if you toldsomeone in 4ew ork that you bought a 3onda they would assume thatyou are talking about a car5 3onda is perceived differently in differentmarkets

• Taste tests prove that %epsi tastes better than oke, but oke isperceived to be the better drink because a( it was the first and b( becauseits marketing makes you assume that it is the best and puts a perceptioninto your mind about oke and about those who consume it

• The 6everybody knows7 principle is that 6everybody knows7 that 8olvos arethe safest cars in the world & there is a perception that they are the safest,but have you ever tried driving one 'or crashing one9(

• Marketing is not a battle of products, but a battle of perceptions

)" The Law of *ocus

• / company has to be focused on its product, its brand and its category5)ranching out into different markets can kill the company

•

+very product or brand has to have its own word & 8olvo owns the word6$afety7, .erox owns the word 6photocopier:%hotostat7 etc

• The halo effect is when one attribute gives rise to others eg- if yourspaghetti sauce owns the word 6thick7 it also implies that it is tasty, hasnourishing ingredients etc

• )roadening the scope of your word means certain death for the producteg- /tari didn’t want to be known as ;ust a video game company, they alsowanted to own the word 6computer7 when they branched out intocomputers & but the word 6computer7 was already I)M’s word '6I want tobuy an I)M7 definitely means 6I want to buy a computer7(

• ou can’t narrow your focus with quality & everybody says that they are

the best because they produce quality goods & as a result nobodybelieves a company when they push the 6quality7 line

+" The Law of ,-clusi.ity

• ou cannot own another company’s word5 !ederal +xpress will never ownthe word 6worldwide7 & *3< does= +nergi>er will never own the word6long?lasting7 & *uracell does


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• The law of exclusivity states that if a word is owned by another company,the chances are that you will never be able to own that word, so find adifferent word

/" The Law of the Ladder

• /ll products are not created equal5 There is a hierarchy in the mind thatprospects use in making decisions

• Marketing should be based on where on the ladder you stand5 If you arethe first in the category, then you occupy the minds of most consumers sothen you are on the top rung, if you get in second, you are a rung downetc

• "hen /vis admitted to its public that they were number @ in the car rentalmarket, they started to do better business ie- 6"e may be the number @company, but we try harder7 was their slogan5 Their honesty and theperception created by the fact that they were number @ and they are reallytrying harder to become number A won them many more customers

• There is a maximum of seven rungs on a ladder because consumers oftenfind it difficult to remember more than seven brands of any particularproduct & that is why B is a popular number5

0" The Law of 1uality

• "hen you take the long view of marketing you usually find that the battleends up between two ma;or players & usually the original brand and theupstart brand

• It might take a season or two to eliminate or make redundant the minorplayers 'eg- video games( or it may take decades 'eg- telephonecompanies(

• 2ack "elch- 6Only companies that are number A or number @ in theirmarkets could win in that increasingly competitive global arena7

• In a developing market, the number C or D brand might be popular,because customers don’t always know which brands are the leaders, sothey pick interesting looking ones5 Once they are educated as to which isthe leading company, the Crd or Dth companies tend to be eliminated orignored

" The Law of the 3$$osite

• ou must find the strength in the opposition and turn it into a weakness by

promoting your product as the opposite eg- oke is the original whichimplies that older people drink it5 $o %epsi came up with the 6%epsiEeneration7 & the choice of the new generation

• )y making yourself the opposite, you take business away from all otheralternatives to number one & if old people drink coke and young peopledrink %epsi, then who is left F


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• *on’t simply knock the opposition & promote your product as well eg- Thismouthwash won’t leave you smelling like a hospital & it is the good tastingmouthwash that kills germs

#4" The Law of 1i.ision

• ategories that were at one time general 'eg- computers( tend to break upinto other categories 'eg- desktops, laptops, minicomputers, mainframesetc(

• /ddress each emerging category with a different brand name'8olkswagen works well with small, cheap and affordable cars, but a8olkswagen name on a luxury car will not work(

• Eet into the new categories as soon as possible to be the first & but becareful not to extend the brand name so that it hurts the original brand

##" The Law of (ers$ecti.e

• "hat is alcoholF Is it a stimulant 'eg- workers look alive and refreshed inthe pub after work( or is it a depressant 'workers who drink too much fallasleep or get groggy after a while(F This is a perception & it depends howyou look at it

• If a business runs continuous sales, they will not do well & if theyconstantly have sales they tell their customers that they don’t have goodprices and that they should always wait for the next sale to make apurchase5

• 3ow do your prospects view your productF

#2" The Law of Line ,-tension

• )y extending your line, you run the risk of losing sales of your originalproduct and also total market share

• +xtending your line causes confusion5 %eople will not know what anIG!$ is because it could be one of many things if the line is extended

• Giding the wave of the success of one line can destroy that line in the end

• "hen you be all things to all people you inevitably wind up in trouble

•


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• If you want to be successful, you have to reduce your product line, notexpand it5

• ou may have to give up part of the market to build a perception about theproduct5 This can be a winning strategy in the long term

• /n example of the law of sacrifice is when !ed+x sacrificed the potential

market for delivering packages worldwide5 It concentrated on deliveringparcels overnight to the domestic market5 They built up a strong customerperception5 Once they started going worldwide 'and broke the


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• Often the opposition only has one weakness, but you have to find thatweakness and focus your marketing on it

• Only one tactic is going to destroy your competition & not a whole lot ofweak tactics, but one strong one

• If your competition is marketing a particular way, market the opposite way

and concentrate your marketing5 This will give you focus and help you togain market share 'eg- If they are marketing to Men, market to "omen(

#/" The Law of 6n$redictability

• "eather forecasters cannot tell what the weather is going to be like in thenext C days5 3ow can you predict the market over the next C years

• ompanies that pin their marketing strategy on one point that is based onthe market developing over a period of years, may end up big losers5 oumust be focused but with the ability to be flexible in your approach5

•


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• "hen things are going well, a company doesn’t need hype5 "hen acompany uses hype, it is usually because they are in trouble and need toget publicity for their product

• 3istory is full of marketing failures that were successful in the press

• The greatest hype comes from those developments that promise to single?

handedly revolutionise the world

2#" The Law of Acceleration

• / fad is a short term phenomenon that might be profitable but doesn’t lastlong enough to do a company much good

• / trend takes effect more slowly but can be profitable over a longer periodof time

• If you are faced with a fad, the best thing to do is to dampen it, because itdraws it out over a longer period of time

• 4in;a Turtles were a fad, )arbie *olls is a trend

•

+lvis appeared on stage on a limited number of occasions & thus, eachshow caused a bigger impact

• 4ever totally satisfy demand5

•

22 immutable laws of marketing summary

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