The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!

I'd read the book when it was best seller. I recently found it referenced in an interesting context and decided to read it again. The re-read made me feel like a business strategy time traveler. This 13-some-year-old book for “Marketing” was written when the Sales, Marketing and Biz Strategy organization was silo'd. The ‘22 Immutable Laws of Marketing’ is once again making its way through academics and biz leaders as common wisdom for the whole modern enterprise. It's a guide book that should be titled "Never Do This!" while hinting at the remarkable strategies that bring us today's top brands. ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing’ is a quick read. The management and strategy job has evolved in interesting ways from this books timeframe. The day of the “Ad Man” fronting your enterprise’s value proposition to customers is over. The “Sale!” is made after a carefully engineered organizational effort. Marketing strategy is a discipline to be trained among everyone that answers an outside phone. Everyone now has a marketing role and here is not a bad place to start spreading the news. A hugely entertaining element is simply that the reader has been fast forwarded through corporate strategies tried, failed and successful. Lotus 1-2-3, VisiCalc, Amiga, Emery Air vs FedEx, Tandem, Wang ... all without smart phones or vast system networks ... strategy winners and losers make for a forensic business case ... if you've been around awhile, you won't believe the book was written just 15 years ago.

This book is sensational. Compact and crammed with salient philosophy. The scenarios they present make obsolete conventional marketing. Just today I read an article in WSJ that said Chevrolet truck sales are down, and they are taking shots at the leader, Ford's F-150. They used a "nifty" ad that shows concrete being dumped in each trucks bed. Silverado had barely scratched paint and a few dents, but 150 had holes punched through the floor. Conventional marketing. Completely useless! You can't change peoples minds... just about every dude I know ( and me) considers F-150 the best. It's the perception that counts. It wouldn't matter if the Silverado was better. Ford scoffed at the marketing "stunt" as well they should. 150 will stay the leader indefinitely. Why didn't Chevrolet's marketing people read this book? They could have saved a whole bunch of money by not doing this campaign. Parts of this book are so brilliant, and dense, that I found myself reading certain paragraphs several times to really grasp the concepts. I have several of the author's books, they are all excellent. The only flaw is that this book is 30 years old, so some predictions of certain businesses' prospects didn't come true. Did you ever try to change a woman's mind? Right. That's the rub. Once people think of a product or service as best, it is very difficult to change their minds down the road.

First published in 1993, "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" by Al Ries and Jack Trout has become an invaluable resource for both aspiring and established marketers. And no wonder: This little book is bursting at the spine with powerful, actionable marketing insights. Take for example Law #4: The Law of Perception. This law states that "Marketing is not a battle of products, it's a battle of perception." The treatment given to this law - complete with real world examples and strategies for implementing it in your own business - is worth the book's asking price all on its own. That Ries and Trout offer so many additional marketing "bon mots" to go along with this one only increases the book's value. Throughout "22 Laws" Ries and Trout challenge commonly held marketing beliefs. They tackle - mercilessly but with a good dose of humor - such sacred cows as line extension, leadership, and - gasp! -- admitting product negatives. You'll be engaged from one page to the next. And at just under 150 pages, "22 Laws" is a quick read. Work your way through the book over your morning cup of coffee and start implementing what you've learned after lunch. Do I have any complaints? Well, as some other readers have mentioned a fair few of the laws do seem to overlap considerably with others. This wasn't a problem for me. I felt like even those laws that were treading familiar ground offered up enough nuance to justify their inclusion. My biggest gripe isn't really even the book's fault. Like all books, "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" is a product of its time. Written nearly two decades ago this poses certain problems for today's reader. In terms of human behavior, twenty years is nothing. Folks are still looking to products to satisfy their needs for validation, excitement, security - whatever. And the savvy marketer is going to take full advantage of this. What has changed - and changed dramatically - since 1994 is our available technology. Ries and Trout couldn't have possibly envisioned the growth of the Internet and the impact it would have on the global marketplace. As a result, certain laws such as Law #22: The Law of Resources are challenged to the point of irrelevance. The Law of Resources states that "Without adequate funding an idea won't get off the ground." This is okay in so far as it applies to major companies. If I'm planning to take on Apple in the smartphone market, yes, my coffers had better be plenty deep. However, in this era of e-commerce, digital distrobution, and social media - to name but a few channels - products can be launched for relatively little. Shoestring budget? Shoestrings have never stretched so far. More bothersome is Ries and Trout's assertion that "You'll get farther with a mediocre idea and a million dollars than with a great idea." Thankfully, the advent of the Internet - and Web 2.0 in particular - ensures that this statement is now resoundingly false. Do plenty of crummy products still dominate the market thanks to big budget ad campaings? Absolutely. (I'm looking at you Justin Bieber.) But it's also never been easier for a product to command market share on its merit alone. If your product is truly special there are all sorts of ways to harness the power of blogs, social media, Amazon reviews, et al to build a receptive audience. On the other hand, if you release a turd to the market, well, prepare to have folks make a stink about it ... and that's going to cost you. We the people are the new kingmakers; not the mavens of Madison Avenue. Even with this caveat on the table, I highly recommend "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing". While I believe "immutable" is stretching it - for some laws more than others - there's more than enough insight on offer in this little book to justify a purchase and close reading. I look forward to revisiting this book throughout my sales and marketing career.

My husband loved this book, easy to read with long lasting principles that help you organize your thoughts for marketing

The author has a great writing style as he delivers the information with pure value no fluff, making it easy and satisfying to read. The laws all make sense and complement each well with no contradictions.

Dated, but still an interesting read. I found 20, the law of hype, interesting. Almost every hype that is mentioning as "never going to happen", have happened. It shows the power of engineering maturity. Some ideas are just ahead of their time. The book is an interesting snapshot in time. The repeated snide remarks about Donald Trump shows that the author never expected him to be president of the USA. There should be a 23rd law: "Things change".

Libro VITAL para los que nos dedicamos a esto. Fácil de leer, directo, con ejemplos claros y sencillos (alguno que otro anticuado, por estar escrito en los 90) pero es perfecto. Escrito en un inglés fácil de leer y además con jerga profesional en inglés que siempre va bien aprender.

Enjoyed the book. Gives you the core logic of th laws without being pedantic. Printed on normal quality paper, I hope you're not thinking to get this in a glossy finish. Didn't have any delivery issues.

Un livre plein de bon sens mais qui ne pourra pas être respecté à la lettre. L’objectif est d’ouvrir le champs des possibles aux lecteurs ! J’ai adoré !

Though may not always win by just following Laws of marketing, you will lose if you go against the Laws.

Great book to fast track marketing 101s Easy to read and full of knowledge.