In the next few blog posts we’ll review some of the lessons from the book kicking off here with the laws of resources and of perception. So are the laws relevant in 2018? Yes, it’s hard to fault any of them. Released in 1994 by Al Ries, Jack Trout, it offered a no nonsense sort of dog-eat-dog world understand of marketing, and as the saying goes: Violate them at your own risk. This is a good question as undeniably this book has been a top seller for many years. PS Most of their other so-called laws are just quaint platitudes, patronising their readers and padding out this short book with lame advice like “things are unpredictable” (‘law’ 17), “success can lead to arrogance” (‘law’ 18), “it’s good to learn from your failures” (‘law’ 19) “things are often different than how they appear in the press” (‘law’ 20) “it’s better to build on a trend than a fad” (‘law’ 21) and “without adequate funding an idea won’t get off the ground” (‘law’ 22).How relevant is the 22 immutable laws of marketing in 2018? Clearly the world isn’t as simple as they make out, but still it’s an interesting proposition that deserves some research. It’s for this reason that Al (and daughter Laura) Ries incorrectly predicted the flop of the iPhone (they argued that categories splinter while the iPhone combines categories). They also argue that categories split, becoming more specialist over time, and that it is useful to use this fragmentation (‘law’ 10). Clearly the ‘law’ isn’t absolute, as they used it as basis for previously criticizing Microsoft while praising focused competitors like Lotus and Harvard Graphics (and we all know where these brands are now).
Hence they argue for focus on being known for one thing (‘laws’ 5,6,13,14) so they argue against brand extension (‘law’ 12). They argue that this is easier if you are the first to be associated with a category benefit and if you retain this leadership (‘laws’ 1,2,3,4). And this is really what the book, and their others, are about – that marketing is a battle to gain some mindshare.
Very many brand leaders were not the first into their category, but then Ries and Trout contradict themselves anyway with their third law (the law of the mind) - “it’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace”. This idea of pioneering advantage has been well researched in the academic literature, with the recent definitive articles showing that the advantage is over-rated (Golder, 1993 Tellis, 1996). The first, and presumably most important of the 22 ‘laws’ is the “law of leadership - it’s better to be first than it is to be best. In spite of all these weaknesses there is an underlying theoretical proposition that is interesting and worth some discussion and research.
A number are just repeats of each other, while some are tautological statements.
Even the best of the 22 immutable laws are vague, none are quantified, nowhere are the conditions described where the laws hold and where they do not, and none are based on systematic collection of evidence (just anecdotes). Unfortunately Ries and Trout’s understanding of what is a scientific law is pretty patchy, so many of the ‘laws’ they present are more like speculative propositions. They admirably write “There are laws of nature, so why shouldn’t there be laws of marketing ? You can build a great-looking airplane but it isn’t going to get off the ground unless it adheres to the laws of physics, especially the law of gravity…So it follows that you can build a brilliant marketing program only to have one of the immutable laws knock you flat if you don’t know what they are.” So each book then needs a new angle and here they take the slant of presenting their views as natural (i.e. Ries and Trout say much the same things over and over in all their books, speeches, and videos. Hypotheses - but not empirically supported laws. It’s easy to criticise this book and yet there are still a few interesting hypotheses here.