In my review of
Summary: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Review and Analysis of Ries and Trout’s Book
posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the summary 4 Stars.
Here is my review.
The big picture of marketing
As a general rule, I think it’s well worth reading summary books by Trout and Ries. Books of X laws or Y tips or Z rules are particularly suitable because curiosity drives you to want to know what they are.
These laws will make you reassess your marketing and what you’re trying to do. It’s very much around the idea that brand is positioning in the mind and trying to own one word or short phrase.
The link between Volvo and safe cars is an obvious example. It seems to have become engraved on our brains.
It must be about 20 years since I read this and their classic book Positioning so this is a great refresher. I was surprised how much of it was still familiar to me, even if I’d have found it hard to outline the rules themselves.
It’s hard to disagree with what’s written in the summary but has the world moved on? The Internet has shaken up the established way of thinking. Marketing no longer needs to be a case of drilling a brand into consumers brains, available to be recalled when appropriate. All you have to do is click over to Google, type in a few words and you get access to an incredible amount of information.
Brands are still important because they provide familiarity and reassurance that you know a bit about the product or service category. There is also the assumption that brands you know are good, because they’ve either been around for a long time or they have been successful to spend large amounts of money on advertising.
The book anticipates the way categories are subdividing as niches develop but not to the extent the internet has enabled the “long tail” creating highly specialised markets by combining worldwide demand.
This is a very high level view of marketing. The rules provide broad outlines rather than specific tactics that will bring success. It is well worth reading. The summary has captured the main points and stripped out the old examples.
You can buy it at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
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