MHO: Immutable law of marketing

Immutable law of marketing has in fact not immutable, and is arguable for a few laws…

The Law of Leadership can not sustain the retaliation from the leader in the market…thus it may not be applicable if you are ‘already’ in No.2 position…

Being the first isn’t always won; unless you dominated the ‘very first’ position in the market. Otherwise, you just have to keep trying. You can be the first in the market for anything within your category but if you are not the first to the market; you are not match to the leader’s retaliation. For example, assume you are No.2 in the detergent market, and you launched a newly create detergent that kills germ in a minute to target the hygienic market; you are the first to launch a laundry detergent that anti germ. However, if you are the No.2 player in the market with a huge gap versus the leader in term of market share, you either have to be very good in your marketing skills or lose out to the leader when the leader retaliates. Predominantly, as a leader of the market already enjoy a positive and significant brand equity, brand trust and also brand affinity with the target market; which all these help to double effectiveness of me-too strategy. Thus a leader’s me-too strategy is likely to drawn your ‘most’ creative product launch.

The law of category

You can win by creating a new category, but you can’t win if it can easily be copied or duplicated. Again, you can win beautifully if you are already the No.1 in the market. The first law precedes all…

The law of mind

Being the first to market is important to determine if you are the first in the mind; company fails because they are resting at their laurel when No.1 is achieved through being the first to the marketplace, yet forgetting to create the first in consumer mind, then competitors slowly creep in. To win a war, company needs to always push, push and push…never give up.

The law of perception

Win consumers perception means you win the war; yet you also have to win the perception of what you want other to perceive. You win if you manage to get consumer to perceive what you want them to see you…

The law of focus and exclusivity…

You just got to own a word; for example, Post office express mail owns the word ‘speed’, Volvo owns the words safety, but owning a word does not grant you any advantage if it is not what the consumer wants…