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Title: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing : Exposed and Explained by the World's Two by Al Ries ISBN: 0-88730-666-7 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 27 April, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.99 (72 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent thought-piece coffee table stuff, but some caveats
Comment: After 10 years, this still remains a classic work in the marketing field, and perhaps a must-read for anyone in business. And no, unlike many reviewers I do not believe that Ries and Trout have ever managed to redo the glory of this book in their Laws of Branding, Laws of Internet Branding etc.
Don't expect an excruciating marketing treatise with elaborate case studies and What-If scenarios. Expect instead 22 capsules of business wisdom, or "laws" of common sense marketing with some brilliant examples from the real world to prove them. In this, the book excels and is to date the briefest and best argued work I have come across.
However, given the passion with which some reviewers comment about this book I am inclined to offer a caveat -- please don't base your career around it. Although I love thin, in-your-face books such as this (great reading, great examples to bounce off) they also have a fundamental flaw: the fact that they attempt to shove "laws" on to the ever-morphing scaffold of the business of marketing that does not lend itself easily to codification, much less of an "immutable" nature.
It would be a cinch to come up with examples that go against each law in the book if you really wanted.
For instance,
(1) Law of Leadership (better to be first than to be best) can be argued against with the theory of disruptions and how first-mover advantages do not always materialize. Why is WebCrawler not more popular than Google? Because Google is (way) better.
(2) The Law of Sacrifice (that talks about focus, as do a couple of other similar if not redundant laws, including, well, the Law of Focus) would not hold much fizz in the case of many very successful conglomerates, especially in Asian countries. Imagine a company selling everything from oil to fruit juice to IT services, and still being a top brand in a country. Examples abound in China, Hong Kong, India, Japan.
(3) The Law of the Opposite that advocates the definition of your strategy by considering the leader's (also redundant with the Law of the Ladder, which essentially says the same thing) can be argued by giving umpteen examples of companies that shot from being No.2 to being No.1, some times because No.1 filed for Chapter 11. In such cases, emulating the leader could have in fact been detrimental.
Etc.
Anyway, despite redundancies across the laws, and the possiblity of counter-argument against most of them, this is a ripper of a read for the business intent that it was written for, and 10 years after its publication still as charming as it first was.
Highly recommended reading, but keep your discerning senses about you. Noteworthy: Law of Perception (also Law of the Mind), and Law of the Category.
Rating: 5
Summary: Has Your Marketing Plan Failed?
Comment: If your marketing plan has failed, then the chances are that you have not adhered to several of the 22 laws which are described in the clear and concise wording on 132 pages in this book. Each law or chapter is usually about five pages long, which requires only a short attention span to read it quickly. I do not recommend reading the book in one evening but to read a chapter and then reflect how these laws effect your company or products.
I will only list those laws that I found most important for me:
Law 3.) The Law of the Mind - It is better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace. Examples of this are the personal computer market with MITS Alistair 800 being the first in the marketplace; Apple was the second in the marketplace but first in the mind of the people. The same example is shown with different companies such as Remington Rand and IBM.
Law 4.) The Law of Perception - Marketing is not a battle of products, it's a battle of perceptions. You can have a much better product than your competitor but perception wins out most of the time over product. A great example of this is the battle of the imported japanese car market of Honda, Toyota and Nissan as well as the soft drink war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
Law 12.) The Law of Line Extension - There is an irresistable pressure to extend the equity of the brand. One of the best chapters of this book explains how a winning product is turned into a loser by creating a spin-off version of the original product. Marketing managers continue to make this fatal mistake today of taking a successful brank like Coke, then creating Cherry Coke, Coke Classic, Caffine Free Coke etc., Engaging in line extension dilutes the original successful brand and the new version will never recoup the market share lost by the leading product. In the end there is an overall market share drop for the entire brand. Other examples of this is IBM's flirtation with the personal computer market, which was already dominated by the Apples, Commodores and Ataris.
The book is very condensed and I am sure a lot of the business scenarios depicted are more complex than they appear. Yes the book is rather old but a lot of these theories still have held true through the internet boom and bust cycle experienced over the last several years.
All people in the field of marketing should have these laws chiseled into their crainium somewhere.
Rating: 5
Summary: The most easy and interesting book about marketing
Comment: In general, the book is easy to read, each law is precise and illustrate with many examples that we are familiar with. Therefore anyone who didn¡¦t studying marketing can also understand.
I learned so much from these 22 laws. For instance, it is better to be the first then it is to be better. It is because the first one always becomes generic name of that category and becomes the leading brand. As a result the prospects can easily recall you since yours product or service almost always the first brand into their mind. And that is the author say ¡§Marketing is a battle of perceptions, not products¡¨.
If anyone who wants to explore more about marketing, I highly recommend reading this book and I am sure you can gain a lot of insight from it.
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Title: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries, Laura Ries ISBN: 0060007737 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 17 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries, Jack Trout ISBN: 0071373586 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade Pub. Date: 13 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Marketing Warfare by Al Ries, Jack Trout ISBN: 0070527261 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade Pub. Date: 01 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Differentiate or Die : Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition by Jack Trout ISBN: 0471357642 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 17 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The New Positioning: The Latest on the World's #1 Business Strategy by Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin ISBN: 0070653283 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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