The work of Al Ries and Jack Trout "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" condenses the 22 fundamental principles that govern marketing, a discipline that promotes the exchange of products with value for others:
- Goods that are exchanged for money Electoral promises that are exchanged for votes etc.
Marketing is a social science, where to obtain immutable laws observation, experience, verification and obtaining results of immediate practical utility are necessary.
These 22 Laws analyze what works and what does not work in marketing, since it is not always enough to achieve success applying the necessary energy and trying harder.
The application of these laws violates three aspects:
- The corporate ego of the company, that is, its own convictions (beliefs, ideas). Many companies do what they believe to be the right thing to do, and do not let third parties interfere with their actions. Conventional wisdom. Things have always been done the same way, and will continue to be done. The Company of the Year awards.
The Law of Perception goes against that deeply rooted concept that success happens to be the best. Hence the generalized epidemic of movements aimed at total quality, often behind the back of what customers really want, and believing that success will fall on the company that has the best product.
The Law of Leadership is a jug of cold water for those who believe that they have come to leadership by being the best and not by having been first. The Law of Sacrifice is not very popular either. Everyone wants to be everything to everyone, no one wants to give up anything. So when you speak of a single word, as recommended by the Law of Approach, they will tell you that it is not possible: “we make a variety of products for different companies, it is not possible to use just one word…”.
The Law of Perspective will frustrate everyone who wants quick wins and short-term results.
And, of course, the Law that will surely cause you more confrontations is The Law of Line Extension. Be prepared to demolish what management considers an indisputable truth: Successful big brands have value that can be exploited by using them in different products.
The competition is getting tougher. Mistakes in marketing are not forgiven. At the slightest carelessness we heard footsteps behind us; it is the competition that escapes with our clients. We live in a society where the business war is getting stronger every day.
If you violate immutable laws, you run a high risk of failure. But if you apply them, the risk is being insulted, despised, ignored, or even ostracized.
Have patience. If you apply them, the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing will help you succeed. And success is the best of revenge.
These 22 laws of marketing govern success or failure in the marketplace. Violate them at your own risk.
It's better to be the first than to be the best
The fundamental question in marketing is not to convince customers that you have the best product, but to create a category in which you can be the first. It is better to be the first than to be the best. The Law of Leadership applies to any product, any brand or any category.
- Neil Armstrong was the first man to step on the moon, who was the second? George Washington was the first president of the United States, who was the second?
The leading brand in any category is almost always the first brand in the consumer's mind. For example, IBM in computers, Coca-Cola in soft drinks, etc.
Many companies use the wrong strategy, which can be summarized in the following steps:
The first brands to appear tend to maintain their leadership because the name becomes generic:
- Gillette is a leader in razor blades. Everybody names Gillette when they see a razor blade. Xerox is the leader in plain paper copiers. People stand in front of a Canon copier and say, “How do I make a Xerox copy?” Kleenex is the leader in disposable facial tissues. Your friends will ask you for a Kleenex, even if the box clearly says Scott. Coca-Cola is the leader in cola. In a bar they will offer you a Coke when all they have is Pepsi-Cola. Danone is the leading brand in dairy desserts. Housewives use the word Danone when shopping at the supermarket, even if they later buy Nestlé brand yogurts.
If you are launching the first brand in a new category, you should always try to choose a name that can work generically. For example, Telefónica in the telecommunications sector.
LESSON
- They appeared too late. For example, a national newspaper in the age of Television and the Internet. It was a bad idea. For example, the first ice cream for dogs (dogs may love it, but those ice creams are bought by owners, who think that dogs should be happy just licking the plates).
If you can't be first in a category, create a new one where you can be first.
When the first position is occupied by a brand, then you have to create a new category in order to be the first.
For example, IBM is a leader in computers. Other companies wanted to enter this sector, such as General Electric, RCA, etc. None of them has managed to unseat IBM, since it was the first to enter the sector and is perceived in the minds of customers as the best. DEC's opportunity was to create a new category. DEC was the first in minicomputers.
Sometimes, it is possible to turn a popular product into a winner by inventing a new category.
LESSON
Better to be first in mind than first in the selling point
Being first in mind is everything in marketing. Getting to the stores first is important only to the extent that it allows you to penetrate the mind first.
For example, Remington Rand was the first to hit the market with a large computer, the UNIVAC. However, thanks to a marketing effort, IBM penetrated the mind first and won the battle of computers.
LESSON
Marketing is not a battle of products, it is a battle of perceptions
Marketing people believe that in the long run the best product will succeed. It is not true. There is no objective reality. There are no better products. The only thing that exists in the marketing world are perceptions in the minds of current and potential customers. Perception is reality. Every thing else is an illusion.
The minds of current or potential customers are very difficult to change. Clients always assume they are right. The perceptions in the minds of consumers are reality.
For example, would Harley-Davidson be successful if it launched a Harley-Davidson car? Probably not. The perception as a motorcycle manufacturer would harm a Harley-Davidson automobile, and even undermine its status as a motorcycle specialist.
LESSON
The most powerful principle in marketing is having a word on the minds of customers.
A business can be incredibly successful if it succeeds in owning one word to the customer's mind.
This word must be simple, taken directly from the dictionary. For example, Federal Express brought the overnight concept into the minds of its customers because it sacrificed its product line and focused solely on overnight package delivery.
A company that is not a leader in a product category, its word must be “available” in that category (no one else can have a foot on it).
It is clear, the most successful companies are those that have a word in the minds of customers:
- Mercedes in Engineering.Volvo in Security.Pepsi-Cola in Youth.Etc.
Words can be of different kinds: related to a benefit (caries prevention), related to a service (home delivery), related to the target audience (young people) or related to sales (preferred brand).
No word lasts forever. Companies must be prepared to change words when the time comes.
The corporate vision is to own a word or concept, as long as the company has been the first to appropriate the word.
A company cannot abandon its own word and take over a word that belongs to others. For example, Atari owned the word video game. They broadened the definition of business and wanted Atari to mean computers, a word that already belonged to a host of companies (IBM, Apple, etc.). Result: Atari's diversification was a disaster.
Once the company has the floor, you must do everything possible to protect it in the marketplace.
The essence of marketing is to concentrate the focus, narrow the scope of operations. To focus on one idea and be successful, there have to be other companies with approaches to the opposite point of view. For example, no politician can position himself as honest, because nobody wants to take the opposite position.
For a company to be a leader it must have followers. For example, Intel's entry into the AMD business has been very helpful, because it places more importance on the category and people are more impressed with Intel's leadership.
The Law of Focus applies to everything that is sold or even what you do not want to be sold. For example, one approach to an anti-drug campaign would be to use the word loser. The drug causes all kinds of losses (job, family, self-esteem, freedom, life). The message to transmit would be "Drugs are for losers."
LESSON
Two companies cannot have the same word in the customer's mind
When a competitor has a word in the customer's mind, it is useless to appropriate the same word. For example, Volvo has the word safety. No other automaker should develop safety-based marketing campaigns.
It is very important to note that a company cannot change its mind once it has been structured. For example, Duracell first entered the mind and appropriated the concept of "long life". The pink rabbit featured in the Energize commercials (keeps running while the other rabbits stand up) can't take away from Duracell its long-lasting concept. Even part of the name, Dura, communicates it.
LESSON
The strategy to use depends on the rung on the ladder
The first goal of marketing is to get your mind first; but if this is not achieved, the battle is not lost. There are other strategies for the numbers two and three.
Not all products are created equal, and customers make a hierarchy of them in their mind. For example, in car rental, Hertz came in first and ranks at the top of the ladder in the car rental category.
High-interest products (products you use every day: cigarettes, soft drinks, beer, toothpastes, etc.) and those for personal display (cars, watches, video cameras, etc.) tend to have many rungs on the ladder.
Products bought sporadically (furniture, appliances, suitcases, car batteries, tires, life insurance, etc.) usually have few rungs on the ladder.
The leader inevitably dominates the number two brand and the number two brand inevitably chokes the number three.
It seems that in the minds of clients there is a rule of seven, that is, according to George A. Miller, Ph.D. of psychology, the average human mind cannot function with more than seven elements at a time.
Sometimes it is better to be third on a large ladder than to be first on a small ladder. For example, 7-Up was a leader in lemon-lime soda, but two-thirds of soda sales are cola. So 7-Up climbed the queue ladder by linking its soda to the positions of cola competitors with a marketing campaign called: "The No-Cola."
Before starting a marketing program, a business should ask itself the following questions:
- Where are we on the client's mental ladder? On the highest rung? On the second rung? Or maybe we're not even on the ladder?
Next, you have to make sure that the marketing program realistically accepts the position of the company on the ladder.
LESSON
Ultimately, each market turns into a two-participant race
Over time a multi-rung ladder becomes a two-rung affair. Numerous real examples demonstrate this assertion:
- In stacks they are Eveready and Duracell, in photographic films they are Kodak and Fuji, in hamburgers they are McDonald's and Burger King, in sneakers they are Nike and Reebok, in cola they are Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, etc.
In a mature market, brands that are in third place or more are in a weak position, so they should comply with Law No. 5 of Approach, that is, carve out a profitable niche.
In a developing market, positions number three or four seem attractive. Sales increase and new, relatively unsophisticated customers enter the market. These customers don't always know which brands are the leaders; so they choose the ones that they find interesting or attractive (usually the brands that occupy the number three or number four positions). Over time these customers become educated and want the leading brand, based on the naive assumption that the leading brand has to be the best.
Customers believe that marketing is a product battle. This way of thinking is what keeps the first two brands at the top: "They must be the best, they are the leaders."
LESSON
If you run for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader
Every leader has a weak point in his strength, that is, where he is strongest. You have to find that weakness in the strength of the leader, and attack right at that point. You don't have to try to be better, it's about being different. You never have to imitate the leader, you have to present yourself as the alternative.
For example, Coca-Cola is the old traditional brand that older people baby, so Pepsi-Cola invested the essence of Coca-Cola to become the chosen one of a generation: “The Pepsi generation”.
Typically, customers of a certain product category are divided into two types: those who want to buy from the leader and those who do not want to buy from the leader. A potential number two has to attract the second group.
As a product ages, it often accumulates negative connotations. For example, Aspirin is a product that came onto the market in 1899. A study conducted in 1955 found that it could cause stomach bleeding. Thus, Jonson & Jonson launched Tylenol, establishing itself as the alternative with the message “For the millions of people who should not take Aspirin”.
Another example is that of Stolichnaya, as it repositioned American vodkas as “fake Russian vodkas” because they were made in the United States, while Stolichnaya was made in Leningrad (Russia), which makes it the real vodka.
LESSON
Over time, a category will split into two or more categories
A category starts out as unique, but over time the category breaks down into other segments. For example, at the beginning it was the computer, a category that ended up being divided into large computers, minicomputers, workstations, personal computers, laptops, electronic agendas, etc.
Naively, many managers believe that the categories are merging, because they believe in the concepts of synergy and strategic alliance. It is not true. The categories are dividing, not combining.
The leader, to maintain his dominance in a certain category, must use a different brand for each segment that emerges.
For example, Volkswagen introduced the small car category with its Beetle, which earned it 67% of the market for imported cars in the US. Given the great success, the mistake that Volkswagen made was to try to sell other car models (older, faster and sporty) using the same Volkswagen brand for all models. Its market share fell to less than 4%.
In the US Volkswagen means small and ugly. Nobody wants to buy a big, beautiful Volkswagen (Law 4: The Law of Perception).
LESSON
The effects of marketing are long-term
When taking a marketing action, the long-term effects are often the opposite of the short-term effects.
For example, do some increase or decrease the business of a company? In the short term, some increase business by increasing sales, but in the long run they reduce business because they educate customers not to buy at “normal” prices, since they think that their “normal” prices are too high. The same can be said of discounts and coupons, that there is no evidence that sales increase in the long term.
In the retail field, the winners are the companies that have a policy of "continuous low prices", since they are setting a trend and not a passing or temporary fad. For example, Wal-Mart is growing rapidly.
LESSON
There is an irresistible pressure that leads to the extension of the brand
Typically, companies start out focused on a single product, which is highly profitable. Before long, the same company spreads its efforts across many products and loses money.
For example, IBM was concentrating only on big computers, and it was making a lot of money. Then she tried to be in everything (personal computers, workstations, software, telephones, etc.). Along the way, IBM lost millions of dollars.
When you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being almost nothing to anyone. It is better to be strong in something than weak in everything. For example, Microsoft is a strong software company, which should lead them to create a strong corporate image and different proper names for each product.
In 2002 Microsoft launched the XBox game console, entering the hardware field and presenting itself as the alternative to the Play Station (a leading brand in the video game console sector). However, for the customer Microsoft is a company specialized in software, will Microsoft manage to mean software and hardware, at the same time, in the minds of customers? Time will tell (see Law 5: The Law of Focus).
Line extension consists of taking the name of a successful product and applying it to a new product that you want to launch. For example, Levis means jeans in the minds of customers; it would be absurd to put the same name, Levis, on some shoes.
Over time, the line extension weakens the brand name and eventually leads to oblivion. If someone says do I want some Levis? Are you referring to jeans or shoes?
In marketing less is more, that is, to be successful today you have to concentrate your focus to create a position in the mind of the potential customer.
Launching a new brand requires not only money, but also an idea or concept. For a brand to succeed it must be first in a new category (Law of Leadership), or the new brand must position itself as an alternative to the leader (Law of the Opposite). You have to have the corporate courage to do one of these two things, because companies that wait until a new market has developed find these two leadership positions already filled, and end up on the easy path of line extension.
LESSON
You always have to give up something to get something
To succeed today, you must give up something. There are three things to sacrifice:
- Product line Target market Constant change
1) Product line
Where is it written that the more you have to sell, the more you will sell? The product range must be reduced, not expanded. The full range is a luxury for a loser.
Companies must create a position in the minds of customers, that is, be able to have a word in the minds of customers. Marketing is a mental war game. It is a battle of perceptions, not of products or services.
For example, Eveready was a long-time leader in batteries. With the advent of new technology, Eveready named its alkaline battery Eveready Alkaline (a name born from the brand extension). Soon after, PR Mallory launched a unique range of alkaline batteries, called them Duracell, and was able to put the idea of "long life battery" in the mind of the potential customer, and it was very successful. Eveready reacted by changing the name to “Energizer”, but it was too late (see Law 1: The Law of Leadership).
2) Target market
Where is it written that you must attract everyone? For example, Coca-Cola was first in the cola soft drink market and consolidated a strong position. So what could Pepsi do to attack Coca-Cola's powerful position? The company sacrificed the entire market, except for the youth market, and exploited it brilliantly by signing its idols (Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, etc.).
It is a mistake to believe that the larger network will fish more clients. The goal is not the market. The apparent target of your marketing program does not match the people who will actually buy your product. For example, even though Pepsi-Cola's target was youth, the market was the whole world. The fifty-year-old who wants to think he is twenty-one will drink Pepsi.
3) constant change
Where is it written that you must modify your strategy every year when reviewing budgets? The best way to maintain a consistent position is not to change it the first time around, otherwise you will be losing focus.
LESSON
Creating and maintaining a position in the minds of customers consists of developing a strategy that reinforces and is focused on the tactic that has been selected. The strategy must be focused on the same tactic, since if we alter the tactic and, consequently, the strategy, the company is blurring the competitive advantage achieved with the tactic.
For each attribute there is another opposite equally effective
A company cannot own the same word or position as its competitor. He must look for another opposite attribute that allows him to oppose the leader, that is, to differentiate him.
For example, Coca-Cola is the original and therefore the choice of the elderly. What did Pepsi-Cola do? He chose the opposite attribute, successfully positioning himself as the young people's alternative.
Typically, the leader has the most important attribute from the prospects' point of view. If a company has to choose a less important attribute, it will have a smaller share in the category. Therefore, your job will be to promote the importance of this attribute, thereby increasing your participation.
LESSON
When you admit something negative, the prospect will grant you something positive
It is against corporate and human nature to admit a problem. Surprisingly enough, one of the most effective ways to get into the mind is to first acknowledge something negative and then turn it into something positive. For example, "Avis is only number two in car rentals."
Marketing is often a search for the obvious. A mind cannot be changed once it has been structured. Therefore, marketing must use ideas and concepts that are already installed in the brain, and use the marketing program to "crush" them.
For example, Listerine before Scope's attack with a mouthwash of good taste, what he did was to recognize the negative perception of the taste of his mouthwash, thus resorting to the Law of Frankness: “Listerine, the taste you hate twice up to date ". This established the idea that Listerine "kills a lot of microbes." The potential customer assumed that anything that tastes like a disinfectant must be a microbe killer.
LESSON
- It has to quickly change to the positive. The purpose of candor is not to apologize, but to establish a benefit that will convince your potential customer.
In each situation, only one play will produce substantial results.
Many marketers believe that success is a sum of many small, superbly executed efforts. It is not true. Trying harder is not the secret to marketing success.
In marketing, it often happens that there is only one point where a competitor is vulnerable. At this point is where all forces must be concentrated.
We have said many times that marketing is a search for the obvious, and to find that unique idea or concept, marketing managers must know what is happening in the market. They have to know what works and what doesn't.
Given the high cost of mistakes, a company management cannot afford to delegate important marketing decisions.
For example, Coca-Cola unfolded its attack fighting a double front with Classic and New Coke. What did Coca-Cola do? Get rid of New Coke because it blocked the company in the only weapon it had, the concept or idea of "Authentic." Thus, Coca-Cola was able to resort to the Law of Focus and use it against Pepsi-Cola.
This idea is not only simple and powerful, it is also the only possible move for Coca-Cola. Take advantage of the only words that Coca-Cola has in the minds of its potential customers: The Authentic.
LESSON
Unless you write down your competitors' plans, you won't be able to predict the future
Marketing plans based on what will happen in the future are often wrong. The problems of many companies are not related to the short-term marketing approach, but to the short-term financial approach.
CFOs live from quarterly report to quarterly report. Companies that live by the numbers die by the numbers. The result is excellent accounting, but bad marketing, as the problem is that they focus more on numbers than brands.
If the future cannot be predicted, what can be done? Observe trends and know how to take advantage of changes, that is, have the will to change, and change quickly, if you want to survive in the long term. For example, one trend is the growing orientation towards health, which opens the doors to new products (healthier foods, energy products, products low in sodium and fat, etc.).
The danger of working with trends is extrapolation, that is, drawing too many hasty conclusions. It is also dangerous to assume that the future will be a repeat of the present.
A tool widely used by marketing managers is market research. This is very useful when studying and measuring the past, but not for new ideas and concepts, since people do not know how they will react until they are faced with a real decision.
LESSON
Success often precedes arrogance and arrogance failure
Success is in objectivity. When people succeed they tend to be less objective, applying their own judgment rather than what the market wants. Serious mistake.
When a brand is successful, the company assumes that the name is the basic reason for that success. Therefore, quickly search for other products to label them with the same name.
The more a company identifies with its brand or corporate name, the more likely it is to fall into the line extension trap.
One factor that can limit a company's growth is the CEO's loss of contact with the front lines. Marketing is a war and the first principle of war is the principle of force. The largest military or the largest company has the upper hand, which has to be focused on the marketing battle that takes place in the mind of the consumer.
How do you collect objective information about what is happening in the market? How do you get the bad news as well as the good news? The solution is to go incognito (this is very useful at the retail level), whose reason is to get honest opinions of what is going on. Managers have to cut their meetings to buy time and allocate it to go to the front lines and see them for yourself. It is better to see once than to hear a hundred times.
LESSON
Failure must be expected and accepted
When things are not working it is better to abandon them, rather than fix them. Curiously, exactly the opposite happens in companies.
For example, IBM should have abandoned photocopiers for many years before finally acknowledging its mistake.
The Japanese management style is to quickly recognize mistakes and make necessary changes. They have an “egoless” approach, that is, it is easier to live with the “We were all wrong” than the devastating “I was wrong”.
When a top manager has a significant salary and is short on retirement, it is highly unlikely that they will make a bold decision. On the other hand, young executives tend to make “safe” decisions so as not to harm their rise through the corporate ladder. All this substantially limits the potential marketing actions of a company. Ideas are rejected, not because they are uninteresting, but because no one in top management will potentially benefit from their success.
One way to solve the problem in the previous paragraph is to publicly highlight and identify the person who will benefit from the success of a new product or project. The problem we can find is that managers can judge a concept on its merits and not on who it benefits.
LESSON
Often the situation is the opposite of how it is published in the press
When things are going well, a company doesn't need the hype. When you need it, it usually means you are in trouble. By hype is defined cheating, defrauding with hype.
For example, the New Coke soft drink had impressive hype, hundreds of millions of dollars spent launching the brand. The new soda was a disaster, and Coca-Cola was forced to revert to the original formula, which is now called Coca-Cola Classic.
The biggest hype have been the ones that promised to change an entire industry:
- The videophone was going to change the travel industry. The personal helicopter was going to change the automobile industry. The prefab was going to revolutionize the construction industry. Etc.
All these hype may have a grain of truth in these exaggerated stories. For example, the videophone could revolutionize the erotic phone industry, there is a considerable market for mobile homes manufactured on assembly lines, etc.
However, in most cases, the hype is just hype.
LESSON
Successful programs are not built on novelties, but on trends
A novelty is a wave in the ocean and the trend is the tide. A novelty has a lot of hype and a very little trend.
A novelty can be profitable in the short term, but it does not benefit the company, since its effects do not last long.
It is a very serious mistake to confuse a novelty with a trend, since this makes the company use many resources in a very short period of time, the recovery of which is in danger. When the novelty wears off, the company can be in deep financial shock.
A "trick" to get more juice out of a novelty is to cushion it, since we manage to lengthen it more and turn it into something more like a trend.
For example, the most successful artists are those who control their appearances. They are not oversold. They are not everywhere. They don't exhaust their fans.
Elvis Presley restricted his number of performances and records. Which it was the result? Each appearance of Elvis was an event of enormous impact (good things always wait).
LESSON
Without the right funds, an idea won't get off the ground.
Not even the best idea in the world will get very far without the money to get it off the ground. It is wrongly believed that the only thing a good idea needs is professional marketing advice.
For example, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (co-founders of Apple Computer) had an excellent idea, but it was Mike Markkula's $ 91,000 that brought Apple Computer into the world.
Generally, the rich get richer because they have the resources to bring their ideas to mind. Always use The Law of Focus, and separate the good ideas from the bad, to avoid wasting money on too many products and too many programs.
Industrial products require less money for marketing, because the customer list is shorter and the media cheaper.
LESSON
Digital Equipment Corporation.
Download the original file
