Sander’s Book Club: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

This book from 1993 should still be a must-read for every marketer, manager and founder.

I first heard about this book written by Al Ries and Jack Trout in 2013, thinking what could I learn from a 20+-year-old book on marketing.

After all, we’ve all heard how everything in marketing changes almost every year and 50% never works anyway.

However, I kept on hearing good things about it, and thus bought it once I accidentally saw the book at the store. But then I just left it in the box, until a friend praised it to heaven, saying he gets a point of wisdom out of it every time it’s opened.

So one morning, I decided to give it a go — only to keep on reading until I finished it a few hours later…

It was just so good!

Simple. Practical. Timeless.

And the best part — it is not a book on marketing but one on business. Listing 22 rules/laws/ideas on how businesses should or shouldn’t be built.

The laws are as follows:

• The Law of Leadership: It’s better to be first than it is to be better.
• 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 Law of the Mind: It’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
• The Law of Perception: Marketing is not a battle product, it’s a battle of perceptions.
• The Law of Focus: The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.
• The Law of Exclusivity: Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect’s mind.
• The Law of the Ladder: The strategy to use depends on which rung you occupy on the ladder.
• The Law of Duality: In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race.
• The Law of the Opposite: If you’re shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader.
• The Law of Division: Over time, a category will divide and become two or more categories.
• The Law of Perspective: Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time.
• The Law of Line Extension: There’s an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand.
• The Law of Sacrifice: You have to give up something in order to get something.
• The Law of Attributes: For every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute.
• The Law of Candor: When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive.
• The Law of Singularity: In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results.
• The Law of Unpredictability: Unless you write your competitors’ plans, you can’t predict the future.
• The Law of Success: Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure.
• The Law of Failure: Failure is to be expected and accepted.
• The Law of Hype: The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press.
• The Law of Acceleration: Successful programs are not built on fads, they’re built on trends.
• The Law of Resources: Without adequate funding, an idea won’t get off the ground.

Yes, some of the examples under those laws could be outdated but this doesn’t mean one could not insert up-to-date examples by themselves, only by analysing the companies around us. Circumstances change but laws persist.

For me, the biggest Aha-moment came from the Law of Line Extension together with the Law of Sacrifice that made me realise why companies should keep their line of products as small as possible.

In short, when you try to be all things to all people, you inevitably wind up in trouble. 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.

Another point that I totally agree with comes from the section on the Law of Success, saying: “The last thing a chief executive should delegate is marketing.”

— I totally agree with this point because the chief executive’s the one with the vision for the company (hopefully) and thus he feels the bullshit-free reasons why anyone should identify themselves with the company.

This does not mean the chief executive knows the best. Nor should the executive (in most cases) lead the whole marketing team. But the executive should care about the strategy and what the team is working on, using insights from the team to change procedures in the company so that marketing would work the best.

Do delegate, but for the right reasons…

And finally it’s good to know that if one fucks up in marketing, there’s always a chance to get back on top — but only once someone else fucks up. Or as put by Ries and Trout: “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 the situation.”

Tl;dr

9.5/10 — I loved the book and believe it should be a must-read for every marketer, manager and founder. If anything, the examples are not from the 21st century but the laws still persist.

Sander’s book club is an initiative to record my thoughts just after finishing reading any book. Hope these encourage you to read more!

If you could recommend me just one book to read, then which one will it be? Let me know via my Newsletter, Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.