Chapter 18 – The Law of Success
The law: Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure.
Ries and Trout state that success can lead to being less objective and less in tune with the market. They believe line extensions are very often the result of this law. Companies believe their brand is the reason for success when it was their strategic marketing moves. Domino’s Pizza’s Tom Monaghan admitted that ego can get in the way of success. Monaghan said you can start to believe “you can do anything.” The authors assert that the larger the company is, the greater the possibility of its executive to “lose touch with the front lines.” They recommend arriving unannounced to the point of transaction “to get honest opinions of what’s happening.”
Related quotes:
- Brilliant marketers have the ability to think like a prospect thinks. They put themselves in the shoes of their customers.
- But the larger company gives up some of that advantage if it cannot keep itself focused on the marketing battle that takes place in the mind of the customer.
Chapter 19 – The Law of Failure
The law: Failure is to be expected and accepted.
The authors stress cutting losses early instead of trying to fix a negative situation. They say the Japanese excel at this because, in terms of management, many Japanese workers have small roles in deciding. Ries and Trout believe this lessens the amount of ego involved. According to the authors, personal agendas can get in the way of corporate agendas. They believe a lot of marketing potential never gets realized because it does not benefit a specific person in the company. Combatting this, 3M has used a “champion” approach identifying the employee that will benefit from the product or service.
A couple of related quotes:
- In other words, it’s a lot easier to live with “We were all wrong” than the devastating “I was wrong.”
- While the 3M system works, in theory the ideal environment would allow managers to judge a concept on its merits, not on whom the concept would benefit.
Chapter 20 – The Law of Hype
The law: The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press.
The essence of this chapter is that a company does not need hype when the product speaks for itself. At one-point, personal helicopters were touted as being the next big thing. There was going to be a personal helicopter in every garage and roads would become obsolete. Of course, this didn’t pan out. Ries and Trout admit that there is truth in some hype, but that most of the time “hype is hype.”
Quotes from the chapter:
- When things are going well, a company doesn’t need the hype. When you need the hype, it usually means you’re in trouble.
- The only revolutions you can predict are the ones that have already started.
Chapter 21 – The Law of Acceleration
The law: Successful programs are not built on fads, they’re built on trends.
Ries and Trout warn companies that are trying to capitalize on fads. They say fads are like waves in the ocean while trends are like the tide. If a company finds itself trying to capitalize on a fad, the best thing to do is try to “dampen” or limit it. Any effort to “dampen” it might make it more like a trend. For example, Elvis Presley’s manager was wise to limit his appearances and records. This made every appearance “an event of enormous impact.”
Related quote:
- Forget fads. And when they appear, try to dampen them. One way to maintain a long-term demand for your product is to never totally satisfy the demand.
Chapter 22 – The Law of Resources
The law: Without adequate funding an idea won’t get off the ground.
The authors note that an idea without money is worthless, and reiterate marketing is conducted in the minds of prospects. They stress that it takes money to get into prospects’ minds and more money to stay there.
A couple of related quotes:
- You’ll get further with a mediocre idea and a million dollars than with a great idea alone.
- First get the idea, then go get the money to exploit it.
Andrew T. Daniel 