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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2014
The authors wanted this books main objectives to be straight forward. They wanted to clearly list the twenty-two laws that they have come up with to help people avoid making marketing mistakes in the first place. They wanted to open up peoples minds to these marketing laws by being straight forward to their audience and relating and using examples that everyday people know. The authors clearly label each step that is used in marketing with each chapter being each law. The chapters are clear and to the point, with examples and brands that most people know. Ries and Trout may straight forward list these “22 Immutable Laws of Marketing,” but in the entire book they don’t tell you how to apply these to your own business really. This makes me think that they are just trying to market their own book, and the brands that are talked about in it. To quote the book itself, “There us no objective reality. There are no facts. There are no best products. All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the minds of customers or prospect. The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion (“Chapter 4”).” The authors may list all of the laws they believe cannot be ignored in marketing, like the laws of leadership, exclusivity, sacrifice, hype and resources to name a few. They then break down each section naming successful and unsuccessful brands and companies that have done each of these ‘laws’ that are unchangeable. They provide a range of topics and ideas to support their reasoning. The book is clearly written for people just starting out in marketing and it goes back to the basics. It is very easy and a fast read. The book may have been written in 1993, but it still has relevant knowledge that can sometimes be over looked by marketers who repeated do the same things. The authors took something that might normally only be broken down into what is known as the “Six P’s of Marketing” and broke Marketing down into twenty-two steps. Some may say this is not needed and drug out, but I think it gives a different outlook on the topic. A quote from the book might explain the either possible love or hate of this book, “When you try to be all things to all people, you inevitably wind up in trouble (“Chapter 12”).” This book, The 22 Immutable laws of Marketing, was a simple read. I enjoyed it and I can take away several things that I did not know before about marketing. The laws might not be ground breaking, but they can be simply overlooked at times.
