The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
Al Ries, Jack Trout
39 min
8 Key Points
4.4 RateWhat's inside?
Discover the unchanging rules of marketing that can make or break your business. Learn to use them to your advantage and avoid costly mistakes.
You'll learn
1. What makes marketing work?2. How can you make these marketing rules work for you?3. What are the big no-nos in marketing?4. How to make your product stand out?5. Why is your place in the market important?6. How to use marketing rules to beat the competition?Key points
01Why Being First Beats Being Better?
Consider the history of aviation for a moment. Who was the first person to fly an airplane solo across the Atlantic Ocean? Almost everyone instantly knows the answer is Charles Lindbergh. Now, ask yourself this: who was the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic? The silence that usually follows this question is profoundly revealing. The second person was a brave aviator named Bert Hinkler. He actually flew faster than Lindbergh, consumed less fuel, and executed a technically superior flight. Yet, history has almost entirely forgotten him. This historical anecdote perfectly encapsulates the very first and most critical law of marketing: The Law of Leadership. It is always better to be first than it is to be better. In the business world, we are conditioned to believe in the ultimate triumph of quality. Companies spend millions of dollars in research and development, painstakingly tweaking their products to make them five percent faster, ten percent cheaper, or slightly more durable than the competition. They launch massive advertising campaigns proudly declaring their objective superiority. But the marketplace does not care about objective superiority. The marketplace only cares about who got there first. Take a look at the most dominant brands in the world. Harvard is the top university in the United States not necessarily because it has the absolute best professors in every single department, but because it was the first college established in America. The brand name carries the weight of history. Hertz is the leading car rental company because they were the first in the business. Coca-Cola remains the undisputed king of the cola industry because they invented the category. When you are the first to enter a market, you enjoy a massive, almost insurmountable advantage. You become the original, the standard-bearer against which all future competitors will be judged. But what happens if you find yourself in a situation where someone else has already claimed the first spot? Are you doomed to failure? Absolutely not. This brings us to the brilliant Law of Category. If you cannot be the first in a category, you must simply set up a new category in which you can be first. Let us return to aviation for another perfect example. Who was the third person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean? You might think that if the second person is forgotten, the third person must be entirely erased from human memory. However, the third person was Amelia Earhart. She is world-famous. Why? Because she was not marketed as the third person to fly across the Atlantic; she was celebrated as the first woman to do so. She created an entirely new category and claimed the number one spot within it. This strategy works flawlessly in business. When Digital Equipment Corporation realized they could never beat IBM in the massive mainframe computer market, they did not try to build a better mainframe. Instead, they invented a smaller, more specialized machine and called it a "minicomputer." By creating this new category, they became the undisputed leader of it, eventually growing into a massive enterprise. If your product is not the first on the market, look closely at its features. Can you narrow the focus? Can you target a specific demographic? Can you change the delivery method? Find a new angle, draw a circle around it, and declare yourself the absolute first in that specific arena. However, simply being the first to launch a product in the physical marketplace is not enough if nobody knows about it. The true battlefield is not the supermarket shelf or the department store display; the true battlefield is the human mind. This is the Law of the Mind. It is infinitely better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace. You might be surprised to learn that IBM did not invent the mainframe computer; a company called Remington Rand actually beat them to the marketplace with the UNIVAC. But IBM was relentless in their marketing, pouring massive resources into ensuring that when business owners thought of computers, they thought of IBM. They secured the prime real estate in the consumer's mind, and Remington Rand was left in the dust. The human mind is incredibly resistant to change. Once a person has made up their mind about a brand, altering that perception is nearly impossible. Think of the mind like a container of wet cement. When a new product or category is introduced, the cement is wet and receptive. The first brand to jump in leaves a deep, permanent impression. But very quickly, that cement dries and hardens. Once it sets, no amount of advertising dollars or logical arguments about product superiority will easily chip away that initial impression. Your ultimate goal is not just to rush a product to a store shelf, but to fiercely aggressively secure that untouchable number one spot inside the mind of your prospect.
02Winning the Battle Inside the Mind
Have you ever passionately argued with someone about which brand of coffee tastes the best, or which manufacturer makes the most reliable car? We love to debate these topics, firmly believing that our preferences are based on objective reality. But we are deceiving ourselves. The business world is completely governed by the Law of Perception. Marketing is not a battle of products; it is exclusively a battle of perceptions. There is no objective reality in the marketplace. There are no ultimate truths or universally superior products. All that exists are perceptions in the minds of customers, and those perceptions are the only reality that matters. The most spectacular proof of this involves the legendary story of New Coke. In the 1980s, the Coca-Cola Company was terrified. Pepsi was running the "Pepsi Challenge," a brilliant marketing campaign where consumers took blind taste tests. Time and time again, people chose the sweeter taste of Pepsi over Coca-Cola. Panicked by these objective results, Coca-Cola's executives decided to change their century-old formula. They engineered "New Coke," a sweeter beverage that consistently beat both Pepsi and original Coke in heavily monitored blind taste tests. Based on the objective quality of the product—the actual taste—New Coke was an undeniable winner. Yet, when they launched New Coke and removed the original formula from the shelves, it caused massive consumer outrage. People protested in the streets. They hoarded old bottles of Coke in their basements. The backlash was so vicious that within months, the company was forced to bring back the original formula under the name "Coca-Cola Classic." Why did this happen? Because the taste of the liquid in the bottle was completely irrelevant compared to the perception of Coca-Cola in the minds of the American public. Coca-Cola was viewed as an American institution, a piece of childhood nostalgia, a classic. You cannot change a classic. The perception was infinitely stronger than the physical product itself. To dominate these precious perceptions, you must master the Law of Focus. The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a single word in the prospect's mind. When you focus your entire brand around one simple, highly desirable word, you cut through the noise of the marketplace like a laser beam. When you absolutely need a package delivered by tomorrow morning, what company do you use? Federal Express. They completely own the word "overnight." What is the first word that pops into your head when you see a Volvo? "Safety." What about BMW? "Driving." These companies did not achieve their massive success by trying to be everything to everyone. Volvo does not brag about having the fastest cars or the most luxurious interiors. They relentlessly pound the concept of safety into the consumer's mind year after year, decade after decade. By sacrificing other attributes, they burn their chosen word into the collective consciousness. The simpler the word, the better. You want a word that is universally understood and highly valued by your target audience. Once you own that word, you hold the ultimate competitive advantage. But be warned: the Law of Exclusivity dictates that two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect's mind. If a competitor already firmly owns a word, it is financial suicide to try and steal it from them. Look at the battery industry. Duracell successfully claimed the concept of "long-lasting." Their entire brand identity was built around outlasting the competition. Energizer, desperate for market share, decided they wanted to be known as the longest-lasting battery too. They launched the famous Energizer Bunny campaign, featuring a mechanical rabbit that just kept going and going. The commercials were incredibly entertaining, but they violated a fundamental law. Duracell already owned "long-lasting" in the consumer's mind. When people saw the bunny commercials, their brains automatically associated the concept of "long-lasting" with the category leader. The result? The Energizer Bunny actually ended up boosting sales for Duracell! You cannot forcefully pry a word out of another company's grip. You must find your own unoccupied word and claim it for yourself. Finally, as you navigate this mental battlefield, you must understand the Law of the Ladder. The strategy you choose depends entirely on which rung of the ladder you occupy in the consumer's mind. The mind intuitively ranks brands in a hierarchy. In the car rental business, Hertz is clearly on the top rung. Avis is on the second rung. National is on the third. For years, Avis tried to run marketing campaigns that made them look like the biggest and best car rental agency. These campaigns failed miserably because they contradicted the reality inside the consumer's mind. People knew Avis wasn't the biggest. Avis only achieved massive profitability when they finally accepted their position on the ladder and launched one of the most famous campaigns in history: "Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars. So why go with us? We try harder." By openly acknowledging their position on the second rung, they instantly gained credibility. They aligned their marketing with the existing perception in the consumer's mind, and the public rewarded them heavily. Before you launch any strategy, you must ruthlessly and honestly assess exactly which rung you currently occupy. Only then can you choose the right tools for the climb.
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03How to Fight the Heavyweights?
04The Deadly Trap of Line Extension
05Turning Weaknesses Into Unfair Advantages
06Navigating Success, Failure, and Reality
07Conclusion
About Al Ries, Jack Trout
Al Ries and Jack Trout are renowned marketing strategists, consultants, and authors. Ries is the co-founder of Ries & Ries, a marketing consultancy firm. Trout, who passed away in 2017, was the founder of Trout & Partners. Both have significantly contributed to the field of marketing and positioning.
