Laws of Marketing

Immutable Laws of Marketing

In the book, the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk, authors Ries & Trout (1994) present a series of insights, guidelines and concepts that together form the foundation of how marketing needs to be based more on the perception of customers and less on product features and branding. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the authors' passion for communicating how critical it is for marketers to look first to the expectations and perceptions of their customers for guidance in how to design, sell and service products. This book also reminded of the Harvard Business Review article Blue Ocean Strategies (Kim, Mauborgne, 2004) and corresponding book with the shared title. Blue Oceans are synonymous with uncontested markets, and in book authored by Ries & Trout, I can see how having a finely tuned sense of the perception of customers' unmet needs and preferences could lead to the development of entirely new markets. Combining both the work of Ries & Trout and Drs. Kim & Mauborgne, entirely new strategies for defining new markets based on customer's perceptions is possible. This made the 22 laws particularly fascinating in terms of new market definition and development.

Assessing Each of the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Each of the immutable laws of marketing is discussed and lessons learned are described. Beginning with the first one, which is the law of leadership, it's clear that when a company has first-mover advantage into a new market, they have an innate competitive advantage. This is seen in much of the research in Blue Ocean Strategies (Kim, Mauborgne, 2004) as well. This first law underscores the critical role of perception in any marketing strategy. Being first in effect creates the perception of being able to anticipate customers' unmet needs in a given market, and this enforces the perception of leadership. The second law, the law of the category is ancillary to the first law in that it states if you can't be first in a given market, strive to be first in a given category. This law specifically illustrates how critical it is for later market entrants to create and fulfill expectations of exceptional insight into unmet needs of customers' needs. The third law, the law of the mind is one that is central to the entire book's core message in that it centers on being first in the mind of the customer first, regardless of market position. I particularly liked this law as it showed that over time if a company is first in a customers' mind, sales leadership will follow. The forth law is also one of the catalysts of this book, which is the law of perception. This specific law reminded me of Regis McKenna's contention that the customers' perception is your reality. Further, Ries & Trout contend that it is a battle of perceptions first, and products later. This law seemed to be the catalyst for the entire book. The fifth law, the law of focus is the staking out of semantic real estate in a customers' mind, with examples given of how Coca-Cola and Xerox had done this. The law of exclusivity is the sixth law, which states that only a single company can own a given word in a prospects' mind at a given point in time. This is also one of the main laws of the entire book, with Ries & Trout relying on this concept to further support their premise of perceptions being more important than product features or attempts to communicate branding without taking into account the context of prospects'; and customers' perceptual biases and mindsets. The law of the ladder is the seventh law, and defines the series of options that any given product or service has in the markets they are designed to meet the needs of. This law is useful for defining a given product or service in terms of the hierarchy of needs in any given market segment. The eighth law, which is the law of duality, reminded me of the role of consolidation in re-shaping markets and the eventual structure of competitive industries to support only a few competitors. The law of the opposite, which is the ninth law, seems to be contrarian to many of the marketing cases cited by the authors. I liked this specific law because the authors successfully showed how customers' perception, not overwhelming spending on marketing and advertising, makes a significant difference. The law of division, which also speaks to the maturation of markets, was useful for seeing how the perception of customers can re-align a market. The essence of this law is that over time a category will divide and become two or more categories, and I felt this was true due to the fact that as many markets mature, there is a segmentation of unmet needs driven by perceptions that affect them. The eleventh law, which is the law of perspective, was one of the best in the book. I especially liked this law as it showed that there is no "quick fix" to any marketing challenge and that for any strategy to work successfully it takes investments over an extended period of time. The twelfth law, which is the law of line extension, was also exceptionally insightful in that it showed that launching new product line extensions can actually harm a brand. This point also reminded me of the research presented in Blue Ocean Strategies (Kim, Mauborgne, 2004), who call this practice making red oceans. The thirteenth law, which is the law of sacrifice, is also particularly relevant to any marketer in that it discusses how critical it is for service and a willingness to give before receiving. This law also states that to gain the trust of prospects and customers, give up something, whether that is knowledge, insight or expertise, in order to gain credibility and trust. The fourteenth law is that of attributes, which appears to be one of the catalysts for this book as well. This law states that for every attribute, there is an opposite effective attribute, which translates into the concept of marketing being a battle of ideas and perceptions, not purely features, functions and benefits. The fifteenth law I especially liked, which is the law of candor. I felt this is particularly relevant in the times we live in today, so dominated by social media and the need for marketers to be transparent in everything they do. The law of singularity is the sixteenth law, and I felt this was comparable to the writing of Malcolm Gladwell in his books Blink and Tipping Point, where the concept of only slight moves or even one move can make a tremendous difference in a situation. The seventeenth law of unpredictability was also particularly relevant; given how often marketers have the illusion of predictability and cause-and-effect in their strategies. Unpredictability was also highly relevant to the perception of customers' preferences changing over time. The law of success which is the eighteenth was particularly relevant to marketers who had been successful in anticipating the unmet needs and perceptual biases of prospects and customers. The fact the success does breed complacency and arrogance is dangerous for any company, no matter how successful. The law of failure logically follows the law of success as the nineteenth in the series, and consistent with the pragmatic tone of the book, the authors contend this is not to be avoided, but learned from. The law of hype, which is the twentieth law, is also particularly relevant with how dominant social media has become in marketing this decade. The law states that the situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press or for that matter on blogs. I liked this law because it stated that if a company is relying purely on hype it is in trouble. The law of acceleration is the twenty-first law, and states that successful marketing is based on trends, not fads. The acceleration occurs when trends are capitalized upon by serving customers' unmet needs, which the authors argue, is the basis of trends. The last law is the law of resources, which states that without adequate funding, ideas will not be able to be communicating clearly and with differentiation.

Laws worth Emulating

In evaluating the book, I felt that the laws most worth emulating where the laws of focus, perspective, sacrifice, candor, and singularity. These laws create a foundation of sincerity, candor and service to prospects and customers, taking into account the need for being mindful of their perceptions and unmet needs. I also chose these laws as the ones to emulate in that they connote a longer-term perspective to how one can accomplish success from a marketing standpoint. The combining of focus and exclusivity would create a brand immediately recognizable and of value from the prospects' perspective. Combining this with the law of candor and a focus on unmet needs, the ability to create trust with prospects would be further enhanced. I also felt that candor is critical today as social networking has become pervasive in its influence and monitoring of marketing as well. Overall, the need for perspective and a long-term orientation is also critical to allow for marketing strategies to achieve their intended objectives.