Al Ries and Jack Trout's seminal book "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" is a great and very readable book - for marketers and non-marketers alike. It's short and doesn't fall too deeply into the "Who Moved my Cheese" trap of over-simplification.
Their first immutable law is best demonstrated by the question; Who was the first person to fly the Atlantic, solo?
Most of you probably know it was Lindbergh.
So, who was the second? A chap called Bert Hinkler..... apparently. Indeed, even detailed biographies of the man fail to recall this feat, focusing on his achievement of the first solo flight from Australia to Britain.
So their law is: The Law of Leadership "It's better to be first than it is to be better".
I was reminded of this with today's announcement of O2's 3G plans in the UK. Silicon.com reports
Dave McGlade, O2 UK CEO, said in a statement: "O2 understands that in mobile it's not about being first to market but delivering on customer service promises... As an industry we have a track record of hyping technology before it is ready. Instead we should be launching it only when it has the right customer experience. At O2 we are committed to breaking this cycle."
It seems that O2's plans for now are restricted to a combined wireless offering called O2 Connection Manager. It brings together GPRS (sometimes called 2.5G), 3G and wireless LAN connectivity, through deals with The Cloud and BT Openzone.
No plans it seems to rival Vodafone's 10 handset mega-launch in November.
Actually, this announcement smacks far more of face-saving post-rationalisation for being beaten off the blocks by the rampant Vodafone - again. I think they just haven't got a product ready to launch.
Anyway, back to the guru's: "in spite of the evident superiority of the Lindbergh approach, most companies go the Hinkler route. They wait until the market develops. Then they jump in with a better product..."
Article comments
1 - geekgirl2
This is the same debate that was had in Aesop's fable of the hare & the tortise. In capitalism over the long run it is who collects the most money that wins - not sure if one strategy always works? This book is a nice little read tho'
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks Russell, very interesting. We are seeing how this plays out with entertainment, especially music, on the Internet: iTunes wasn't first, but it was the first to get the general thumbs up of having done it right, so thus far it's the name associated with online music. We'll see if that lasts.
3 - Hal Pawluk
Microsoft indisputably proves that the Leadership Law is wrong: they have never been first and never been best.
4 - Russell Buckley
Hi Hal Pawluk - I'm learning German at the moment. Every day my teacher explains the Rule. Then spends the next half hour explaining the exceptions to the rule :-)
And actually Microsoft are in danger, in my opinion, of transgressing Law 12 (extending the brand too far) and becoming seriously weakened because of it. It's better to be really strong in one area than weak in many.
They're also running into Law 18 - success leads to arrogance and arrogance leads to failure, despite Mr Gates' paranoia about this.
I'd say Microsoft are in danger of missing the next big thing - the mobile/cell phone/thin client revolution that's happening under their noses. One of the themes of my blog (www.mobile-weblog.com) is that the mobile will do to the PC what the PC did to the mainframe.
If that's right, a big beneficiary might be IBM, leading us right back to The Law of Leadership :-)
Others might be Sun and Apple (guess who owns www.iphone.org?).
5 - Hal Pawluk
Trout and Ries are extending their own brand too far, and should have stopped with Positioning.
I've been in high tech marketing/advertising for over thirty years and the world is littered with the bodies of companies who were first and best but got beaten by large companies who came in later with more muscle.
The cell phone scenario sounds like the early days of the browser wars: MS is still here and owns the field.
6 - vikk
Aw geez, it's not enough to best now I have to be first?
Sigh.
7 - Hal Pawluk
Relax, you don't have to be best - there's hardly any competitive category in which the best-selling is objectively the best.