Book Review- Part II: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
Why are we reviewing the 22 immutable laws of marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout? Especially considering it was published in 1993 - and the internet was barely a decade old?!
For starters, at ADage we understand that there are some timeless problems in marketing and sales. We also believe that there’s always the opportunity to innovate but you have to know where you came from. The fact that the book is dedicated to “the elimination of myths and misconception from the marketing process,” was enough of a reason for us to believe that it was worth sharing…but looking at the outcomes of the companies referenced in the book, they seem prophetic.
As they astutely pointed out at the time, “when a company makes a mistake today, footprints quickly show up on its back as competition runs off with its business. To get the business back the company has to wait for others to make mistakes and then figure out how to exploit their situation.” They point out that the way to avoid making mistakes in the first place is easy - make sure your programs are in tune with the fundamental laws of marketing.
Self-admittedly, what makes two ad guys from Connecticut capable of discovering what thousands of others overlooked? Simple, no one else was willing to admit that there are any laws of marketing - much less, and that they were immutable. If there are laws of nature, something wholly unpredictable in most cases, why wouldn’t there be laws of marketing? But as Alchemy points out - a flower is just a weed with an advertising budget.
The rebel-innovators on our team agree that for a damn near 30-year-old book about rules it absolutely packed with actionable insights that can position your brand for the better.
The turning point here is that while Jane will benefit from the activities the community offers and the maintenance-free lifestyle, the event that triggered her search was her husband’s fall and her current isolated living arrangement. These two urgent, base concerns can create overwhelming feelings of insecurity, causing Jane to feel unsafe. With emotional safety needs coming second only to the physical survival needs; humans are programmed to seek safety with all their attention in order to survive. It is only once a person feels safe that they can turn their attention to the other needs further up the hierarchy, such as seeking connection and belonging.
The Laws of The Land – 5-11
For Laws 1-4 - See Part I
The law of focus
“The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect's mind.”
As previously noted in the law of leadership - it’s better to be first than to be better - implies that it’s the leader that enables a brand to own a word in the mind of a prospect but the leader owns the word that stands for the category, for example how Google owns search engines. You can work your way around the law of leadership by getting specific with the word that you want to associate your brand with in the prospect's mind. In the highly competitive automotive industry, that looks like Volvo = safety, Mercedes = engineering, BMW = driving.
A word of caution my friends, now is the time to be very very intentional. You can’t select a word like quality, everybody stands for quality and as a result, nobody does. Remember, this is going to be your defining characteristic - go out of your way to protect it in the marketplace! Once you decide on what you want to be known for, be willing to stand behind that word with action. (consistent, exceptional execution of your brand promise requires organizational alignment - ask how our game-changing EQ culture program can help make sure you can stand by your word.)
The law of exclusivity
“Two companies cannot OWN the same word in the prospect's mind.”
When a competitor owns a word or position already, it is futile to attempt to OWN the same word! Let me give you an example: Volvo owns ‘safety’ others have tried but no one has succeeded. Yet still, there are violators – I’m looking at you Subaru!
Another example is Duracell and the Energizer bunny… Dura (meaning long-lasting) is actually in the name, so why does the Energizer bunny still fight to win the war on ‘longest lasting’? It’s because the primary prospect pinpoint is that batteries always quit at the worst possible time (no pun intended!). For the execs at Energizer, if owning the word long-lasting is the only path to success your agency sees, fire them. A smart, honest agency would advise against it – if your agency is one of the ones who don’t like making waves and fail to take a stand, they too will end up fired.
The law of the ladder
Should you fail to exclusively capture the mind of the prospect, don’t fear. There is a ladder to success for the number two and three brands, depending on when they hit the scene! My personal favorite example of this is from the rental car industry. There’s a direct relationship between market share and ladder position in the prospect's mind. See, a prospective mind is selective. Based on research at Harvard by Dr. George Miller, his team determined that seven items max out the human brain.
So, after years of trying to sell on value, which was apparent since they weren’t #1 in the prospect's mind at the time, they did the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the dare I say it, the disruptive choice to ‘call a spade a spade’ with the campaign, “we’re number two so we try harder.” After 13 years of losing money, this risk paid off.
Before you start designing campaigns it’s important to understand the marketing math. Let’s say you are the second in your category/industry/market.
You have 2x the market share of the #3 Brand.
You have ½ the market share of the #1 Brand
To put that more plainly, when you look at the top three brands, as marketing people tend to do…#1 is usually destroying #2 and #2 is pretty much trouncing #3.
The key is to ask yourself, “where are we on the ladder? top rung? second rung? not on the ladder at all?” Answer, then deal with the reality.
The law of duality
“In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race.”
We already talked about the many rungs of the ladder, but that is early on. Now it’s time to get out the saw and start hacking away at the competition. Over time, within a category, it (almost always) comes down to just two.
We already talked about batteries, so instead, let’s consider mouthwash…what do we find? Listerine and Scope. Try it with any category! It could be a fun game to play with marketing teams over happy hour drinks! (Don’t actually do this - y’all have way better things to talk about!)
The reason is simple: the human brain likes simplicity. (That pun was intended!)
One example that comes to mind with “duality” is the diet craze a few years ago, “eat this not that.” The road to fame for ETNT began after appearing in “men’s health” a few decades ago as a column. Since then, the phenomenon has evolved into: A best-selling book as listed by New York Times that sold over 7 million copies A quarterly magazine with emailed weekly meal plans to their premium subscription members ($10/mo)Captured on a website with over 5 million monthly users, and a syndicate partner with yahoo!
In looking more closely at the company's success – beyond the law of duality that they leverage so effectively – turns out that the “eat this not that” Brand is actually owned by the Meredith company, a TV franchise and a media holdings firm.
Source: https://www.tagari.com/is-the-eat-this-not-that-book-still-being-published/#0