The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

My Thoughts

The whole time I was reading The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, I was thinking that this is a book that should be easily accessible on every business person’s desk. I plan to keep it nearby as a reference tool and a way to think about my and other businesses. The 22 laws can be taken in seclusion, but have much more power when considered together. I found myself arguing with the authors about one particular law only to have the next law address my point of contention.

One point I found particularly interesting, especially in having read The Inevitable first, is this book’s insistence of keeping a close eye on trends. The authors distinguish between trends, fads, and predicting the future. They outright discourage the prediction of the future for marketing purposes within the 17th law of unpredictability. They then distinguish between a fad and trend by saying that a fad is a wave while a trend is the tide. The wave will quickly pass.

In the final law regarding resources, I thought they left out one option for funding a company. The authors discussed 4 ways in which to get funding quickly – 1. Marry it, 2. Divorce it, 3. Inherit it, or 4. Franchise it. What about bootstrapping it? What about incorporating the law of acceleration and pumping the money back into the company as it is being built? This would ensure that the company would only be growing by listening to customers and is more realistic than the four options listed above.

One item I found pretty funny in the book is the author’s clear disdain for Donald Trump. This was back in 1993 and Trump was mentioned at least 4 times in the book, all in very negative situations in relation to his businesses.