The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Book 1 of 52 in the Mitch’s Notes Project

Positioning is the one part of marketing that a CEO cannot delegate. Positioning is the raison d’etre, it is vision, differentiation, and it cannot live outside of the CEO. Everything else in marketing flows from it. In fact, understanding and owning positioning is crucial in fundraising, sales, product development and every other discipline. So, before you start your new venture, or finalize your 2019 strategic planning, consider your positioning. And consider this positioning 101.

When I first asked Mercato’s marketing expert and resident funny man, John Yoon, where he would start educating a CEO on marketing he suggested I start HERE. The 22 Laws is a summary of the authors’ seminal book on positioning.

Category: Marketing; Positioning

Mitch’s Book Scorecard

Readability: At 132 pages of text, this book is actually closer in length to a Dr. Seuss book than I care to admit. It is an extremely quick read with good examples and plenty of marketing soundbites.

Cross Functional: Outside of strategy (in a marketing context), I don’t see a lot of cross functional application.

Inspiration: Given its size, the book is thought-provoking. It brings up the types of questions that will challenge entrepreneurs to look at their marketing positioning critically.

Tactical: There isn’t much in the book that offers tactical frameworks or tools. However, the 22 laws should be used as checklist for reviewing your competitive positioning.

Strategic: This book is about strategic marketing positioning. While I disagree with some of the 22 laws, they make up a solid checklist to assess your strategic marketing positioning. They will make you think strategically.

Foundational: As I’ve digested business books over the years, I wish I would have categorized advice by business stage. I’m trying to do that here. Books that are helpful in the early, founding phase will receive higher scores in the foundational vector. Likewise, books that are helpful in the late, growth stage will receive a higher score in the diagnostic category.

Diagnostic: Diagnostic ideas will help you assess and tweak your current performance. Just as foundational ideas can be helpful after launch, so too can diagnostic ideas be helpful in the early stages. This book has few diagnostic ideas.

Known-for positioning and messaging can be changed, but it can be a time-consuming and painful process. Carving out a well reasoned position from the outset and constantly refining that position over time is the ideal. For this reason, I believe this book is ideally applied in the foundational stages and used to re-calibrate in the diagnostic stages.

Executive Summary

What It Isn’t: This book is overly-simplistic. Like most business books, it is positioned as “law,” a silver bullet for strategic marketing positioning. It isn’t. It is written in dramatic, fatalistic terms. I would instead re-frame the laws as rules. There are exceptions, but The 22 laws also has a decided bent towards consumer brands and, in my opinion, is less applicable to enterprise-focused or technology companies. It is not current. The book was written in 1994. The fact that the book remains relevant today is, however, a testament to the accuracy of the content.

What It Is: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is a classic book on marketing positioning. Positioning is the one part of marketing that a CEO cannot delegate. Positioning is the raison d’etre, its vision, differentiation, and it cannot live outside of the CEO. Understanding and owning positioning is crucial in fundraising, sales, product development, etc. So, before you start your new venture, or finalize your strategic planning, consider your positioning. And consider this positioning 101.

Key Takeaways: As I read the book, I saw that the ‘laws’ fell into 4 broader categories: 1) Competitive Positioning; 2) Mental Real Estate / Messaging; Expansion Strategy; and 4) Winning Long-Term. I broke down and reassembled the chapters into these broader categories.

I pulled out the most compelling quote from each chapter below.

As alluded to earlier, I disagree with a few of the laws as presented. Given the publish date, length, mature and consumer market-focus, I believe the authors deserve the benefit of the doubt and also believe there is solid ground for nuanced disagreement. There are three laws that I found myself pushing back on: Line Extensions, Duality, and Singularity.

The Law of Line Extension — There’s an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand. This law seems less applicable in the modern technology environment. There are several highly successful applications of technology line extensions since 1994. The authors pointed to Microsoft as a company to watch fail because of line extensions (ouch).

MSFT Stock Performance Since 1994

According to them, IBM could never succeed either ($34B acquisitions suggest otherwise). Books to e-commerce to cloud infrastructure is a successful expansion story. Google, Adobe, and others have excelled by expanding their brand into new areas as well. It seems clear that there are limits to the Law of Line Extension.

The Law of Duality — In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race. I believe there is a hierarchy to some of these laws. I see the logical application of these principles in modern technology trends especially in cloud infrastructure, and enterprise cloud applications. However, technology is moving so quickly that the laws of Division, Leadership, Category, the Ladder are being re-written daily. Paying attention to current leaders in a category will be less and less meaningful as the fast moving categories divide themselves and new categories emerge. When growth is high, the Law of Division trumps the Law of Duality.

The Law of Singularity — In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results. I believe this is unique to positioning. In fact, I often encourage CEOs to experiment with multiple marketing channels, messages, and strategies to inform their large, strategic initiatives. Experiment, test, and make informed strategic decisions. Once you have tested and identified the right arrowhead, put all the wood behind that initiative.

Bonus Topic:the Donald

The authors lambasted the Donald when he was still just the Donald [nostalgic distant stare]. Enjoy

At first, the Donald was successful. Then he branched out and put his name on anything the banks would lend him money for. Fortune magazine called Trump “an investor with a keen eye for cash flow and asset values, a smart marketer, a cunning wheeler-dealer.” Time and Newsweek put the Donald on their covers. Today Trump is $1.4B in debt. What made him successful in the short term is exactly what caused him to fail in the long term. Line extension.

Mr. Trump’s strategy was to put his name on everything, committing the cardinal sin of line extension. Denial seems to go hand in hand with a big ego. When we first met the Donald, his opening remarks were about how people accuse him of having a big ego. He went on to state that it was totally untrue, he did not have a big ego. All the while, it was hard to avoid noticing a three-foot-high brass “T” sitting on the floor next to his desk.

Selected Chapter Quotes:

1. The Law of Leadership — It is better to be first than it is to be better. The first brand in any category is almost always the first brand into the category. Everyone remembers Charles Lindberg. Almost no one remembers Bert Hinkler.
2. The Law of the Category — If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in. The first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean was Amelia Earhart. Everyone is interested in what’s new. Few people are interested in what’s better. When you’re the first in new category, promote the category.
3. The Law of the Mind — It’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace. Once a mind is made up, it rarely, if ever, changes. You have to blast your way into the mind. People don’t like to change their minds. Once they perceive you one way, that’s it.
4. The Law of Perception — Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions. There is no objective reality. There are no facts. There are no best products. All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the minds of the customer or prospect. Perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion. Only by studying how perceptions are formed in the mind and focusing your marketing programs on those perceptions can you overcome your basically incorrect marketing instincts.
5. The Law of Focus — The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind. You “burn” your way into the mind by narrowing the focus to a single word or concept. The leader owns the word that stands for the category. If you’re not a leader, then your word has to have a narrow focus. Even more important, however, your word has to be “available” in your category. They can be benefit related (cavity prevention), service related (home delivery), audience related (younger people), or sales related (preferred brand). The essence of marketing is narrowing the focus. You can’t stand for something if you chase after everything.
6. The Law of Exclusivity — Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect’s mind. When a competitor owns a word or position in the prospect’s mind, it is futile to attempt to own the same word. Research tells you what customers want, but if a competitor owns “fast” [McDonalds] don’t tell people you are fast. Customers already have in mind who is fast.
7. The Law of the Ladder — The strategy to use depends on which rung you occupy on the ladder. If you lose first to market, there are strategies to use. There’s a hierarchy in the mind that prospects use in making decisions. Your marketing strategy should depend on how soon you got into the mind and consequently which rung of the ladder you occupy. How many rungs are there on your ladder? It depends on whether your product is a high-interest or a low-interest product. Products you use every day tend to be high-interest products with many rungs on their ladders. You tend to have twice the market share of the brand below you and half the market share of the brand above you. There tends to be a rule of seven in the prospect’s mind. Ask someone to name all the brands he or she remembers in a given category. Rarely will anyone name more than seven. Its sometimes better to be №3 on a big ladder than №1 on a small ladder.
8. The Law of Duality — In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race. Early on, a new category is a ladder of many rungs. Gradually, the ladder becomes a two-rung affair. Early on, in a developing market, the №3 or №4 positions look attractive. Sales are increasing. New, relatively unsophisticated customers are coming into the market. These customers don’t always know which brands are the leaders, so they pick ones that look interesting or attractive. Quite often, these turn out to be the №3. Or №4 brands. As time goes on, however, these customers get educated. They want the leading brand, based on the naive assumption that the leading brand must be better. The customer believes that marketing is a battle of products. It’s this kind of thinking that keeps the two brands on top: “They must be the best, they’re the leaders.”
9. The Law of the Opposite — If you’re shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader. Much like a wrestler uses his opponent’s strength against him, a company should leverage the leader’s strength into a weakness. Don’t try to be better, try to be different. There are those that want to buy from the leader and there are those who don’t. There has to be a ring of truth about the negative if it is to be effective. Marketing is often a battle for legitimacy. The first brand that captures the concept is often able to portray its competitors as illegitimate pretenders.
10. The Law of Division — Over time, a category will divide and become two or more categories. Each segment is a separate, distinct entity. Each segment has its own reason for existence. And each segment has its own leader, which is rarely the same as the leader of the original category. Timing is also important. It’s better to be early than late. You can’t get into the prospects mind first unless you’re prepared to spend some time waiting for things to develop.
11. The Law of Perspective — Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time. Any sort of couponing, discounts, or sales tends to educate consumers to buy only when they can get a deal. Spending money, taking drugs, and having sex have long-term effects that are often the opposite of the short-term effects. Why then is it so hard to comprehend that marketing effects take place over an extended period of time? Unless you know what to look for, it’s hard to see the effects of line extension, especially for managers focused on their next quarterly report.
12. The Law of Line Extension — There’s an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand. By far the most violated law in our book is the law of line extension. In a narrow sense, line extension involves taking the brand name of a successful product and putting it on a new product you plan to introduce. In the long run and in the presence of serious competition, line extensions almost never work. It can be a winner in the short term. “We want to leverage our basic core brand and trade on our brand names to extend into new categories.” More is less and less is more. If you want to be successful today you have to narrow the focus in order to build a position in the prospect’s mind. For a new brand to succeed, it ought to be first in a new category; or be positioned as an alternative to the leader.
13. The Law of Sacrifice — You have to give up something in order to get something. There are three things to sacrifice: product line, target market, and constant change. If you want to be successful, you have to reduce your product line, not expand it. The world of business is populated by big, highly diversified generalists and small, narrowly focused specialists. If line extension and diversification were effective marketing strategies, you’d expect to see the generalists riding high. But they’re not. Most of them are in trouble. The generalist is weak. The target is not the market. That is, the apparent target of your marketing is not the same as the people who will actually buy your product.
14. The Law of Attributes — For every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute. A company that never laughs at new attributes that are exactly the opposite of their current products is Gillette, the world’s №1 razor blade maker. [Mitch’s note: and then…Dollar Shave Club]
15. The Law of Candor — When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive. Admitting a problem is something that very few companies do. When a company starts a message by admitting a problem, people tend to, almost instinctively, open their minds. The law of candor must be used carefully and with great skill. First, your “negative” must be widely perceived as a negative. It has to trigger an instant agreement with your prospect’s mind. If it doesn’t they will wonder what that’s all about. Next, you have to shift quickly to the positive. The purpose of candor isn’t to apologize. The purpose of candor is to set up a benefit that will convince your prospect.
16. The Law of Singularity — In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results. They think they can pick and choose from a number of different strategies and still be successful as long as they put enough effort into the program. Most often there is only one place where a competitor is vulnerable. And that place should be the focus of the entire invading force. What works in marketing is the same as what works in the military: the unexpected. Because of the high cost of mistakes, management can’t afford to delegate important marketing decisions. It’s hard to find that single move if you’re hanging around headquarters and not involved in the process.
17. The Law of Unpredictability — Unless you write your competitors’ plans, you can’t predict the future. Good short-term planning is coming up with that angle or word that differentiates your product or company. Then you set up a coherent long-term marketing direction that builds a program to maximize that idea or angle. It’s not a long-term plan, it’s a long-term direction. While you can’t predict the future, you can get a handle on trends, which is a way to take advantage of change. There is a difference between predicting the future and taking a chance on the future. No one can predict the future with any degree of certainty. Nor should marketing plans try to.
18. The Law of Success — Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure. Ego is the enemy of successful marketing. When a brand is successful, the company assumes the name is the primary reason for the brand’s success. You got into the mind first. You narrowed the focus. You preempted a powerful attribute.
19. The Law of Failure — Failure is to be expected and accepted. Admitting a mistake and not doing anything about it is bad for your career. A better strategy is to recognize failure early and cut your losses. If you learn something and you’re trying something, then you probably get credit for it. But woe to the person who makes the same mistake twice. It’s hard to be first in a new category without sticking your neck out. When the senior executive has a high salary and a short time to retirement, a bold move is highly unlikely. Same for juniors. Nobody has been fired for a bold move they didn’t make. If a company is going to operate in an ideal way, it will take teamwork, espirit de corps, and a self-sacrificing leader.
20. The Law of Hype — The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press. When things are going well, a company doesn’t need the hype. When you need the hype, it usually means you’re in trouble. Not that there isn’t a grain of truth in every over hyped story, but for the most part hype is hype.
21. The Law of Acceleration — Successful programs are not built on fads, they’re built on trends. A fad is a wave in the ocean, and a trend is the tide. The most successful entertainers are the ones who control their appearances. They don’t overextend themselves. They’re not all over the the place. They don’t wear out their welcome. Forget fads. And when they appear, try to dampen them. One way to maintain a long-term demand for your product is to never totally satisfy the demand. But the best, most profitable thing to ride in marketing is a long-term trend.
22. The Law of Resources — Without adequate funding an idea won’t get off the ground. Even the best idea in the world won’t go very far without the money to get it off the ground. People think that all their good ideas need is professional marketing help. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Marketing is a game fought in the mind of the prospect. You need money to get into a mind. And you need money to stay in the mind once you get there. Money makes the marketing world go round. If you want to be successful today, you’ll have to find the money you need to spin those marketing wheels.