Book recap: The 22 immutable laws of marketing

My notes taken while reading this book about marketing. I really suggest you read the complete book as it contains lots of great examples. My views on how to build a product are represented in other articles.

It is more important to be first than to be better

If your competition is already running on the market they can easily overpower your marketing efforts. You can’t reach as many people if you are not among the first brands addressing the users need. When you are building a new product you should also create a new category.

Most broad categories are already taken, but you can split existing category in two or more categories. Example: Green tea already exists on the market, but you could be the first selling domestic green tea.

When you create a new category, you should promote the category and with that you will also promote the brand. When others join your category they will make the category itself more important.

Changing a mind is not worth the effort and money

You want to be the brand a user first thinks of when he has a specific need or a problem. If some other brand already has this position, it is better to create a new category and become first in the mind of most users in that category. Trying to change users mind is a waste of money.

Small amount of money can do big things when you have an open mind to work with (and you don’t have to be first on the marketplace to do that).

P.S.: Having an easy name to remember will help you get to the top.

You can’t win over the mind of people just by having a better product

There is no objective opinion. Each person has their subjective opinion influenced by assumptions, society and exposure that can’t be changed easily. Marketing is a battle of perception.

Example: Coca Cola made a blind test research proving their new formula for Coca Cola tastes the best. Second place was Pepsi and the last place took their old formula Coca Cola classic. On the market in terms of sales the Coca Cola Classic is winning despite gigantic marketing effort of the other two.

Product would have to be tremendously better and with that fit into a new category in order to overcome the market leader.

Own a word or a sentence in a prospects mind

Narrow your focus. Find available (existing) word that describes what you represent and what your user needs. Try to own the best attribute describing your category. If it is taken, go to a lesser one. Two companies can not own the same words.

Example: What words Come up when you think Tesla? Leading electric car brand.

Refocusing and changing the word you as a brand already own is hard. Someone could steal your word during the time span you are shifting focus. It is better to build a separate brand with a new focus.

If you own words others are trying to get as well, the words will become more important and the first company in the mind of the users will become more important on the market.

Marketing strategy should depend on how soon you got in the mind of the users

Are you first, second, third… in the mind of the market? Every person has an established hierarchy of brands in their mind.

• To get higher it helps to admit your position in the hierarchy. Communication has to be consistent with hierarchy perception of the market. Before starting marketing efforts ask yourself: “Where are we in the perception of target audience?”
• If you are positioned as second by positioning yourself against the market leader you take the business away from the rest of the competitors.
• In a maturing industry third place is hard to hold on to. You can try and reposition your competition on the market by presenting yourself in comparison to them.
• You can use competitor’s negative side to elevate yourself, but the negative parameter has to be widely known in order to be effective. Example: Listerin has bad taste. Competitor used this generally known truth to get ahead. Listerin then got back by admitting the bad taste, but emphasising its effectiveness.
• You can also use competitors bad publicity to position yourself better. Marketing is a battle for legitimacy.
• Admit your negative and user will add you a positive. Negative statements about you don’t have to be proved while positive ones have to be. The negative you will use to promote yourself should be widely known, otherwise user will be confused. Then after establishing the negative you have to turn to positive quickly.

P.S.: There can be maximum of 7 hierarchy levels in a person’s mind for a certain category (I think it is based on amount of information we can remember). Only three are worth mentioning.

Marketing activity that increases short term sales will lower sales in the long term

That is why discounts don’t work — users will start expecting discounts.

Same danger is also attached to extending your product line. To have multiple products in different categories you need to create a new brand. You can’t reuse brand name to extend product spectrum. If you do, you will loose focus and with that your audience.

To gain something you have to give up something (product line, target audience, constant change).

Keep in touch with reality

The bigger the company, the more likely it is that the head executive has lost touch with reality. People and companies get blinded by success and start to think they know what the users want. Loss of touch with reality is one of the corporation’s downsides and among other things causes loss of focus.

Best way to keep the connection is to come unannounced or go under cover and observe the operational action in person. Seeing the problems is thousand times better than hearing about them on the meetings. Replace some meetings with hands on observations. Head executives tend to not get honest opinions anyway as there is too much at stake for the employees.

Note for me: Marketing (positioning) should be owned by the ceo? I need to better understand this.

Failure is to be expected and accepted

Best marketers know how to put themselves into the prospects shoes but marketing and research can’t predict the future. You can only test assumptions by confronting users with real decisions — to buy or not to buy?

Good strategy is to drop failed project and cut your loses. Don’t punish mistakes, leverage on learning and avoid same mistake twice.

P.S.: Ego should be kept away from the marketing (or product development).

Look beyond quarterly reports

Companies measure finances on quarterly reports. These short term measurements can doom the company once it gets bigger. It stops the innovation and bold moves. Why? Every person in top management looks for personal benefit (career progress and money). No one got fired for not doing a bold move. That is why bold moves don’t happen.

Follow trends, extend fads

Fads are short term trends (fidget spinners were a recent fad). They can be dangerous for a company because of a sudden drop in demand. If you are working on a fad, dampen it so it extends. If everyone has a ninja turtle, no one wants a ninja turtle. Never totally satisfy the demand.

Final advice for the beginers

Companies doing good don’t need press conferences. To take idea off the ground you need money in order to get into the heads of people and stay there.