First, the market leadership rule.
Excerpted from Al Ries and Jack Trout's "22 Constant Laws of Marketing"
Many people believe that the key to entering the market is to convince others that they have better products or can provide better services.
This is not right. If your market share is small and you need to compete with big companies, then your market strategy needs to be deeply thought over and adjusted. Because, you have violated the law of market leadership.
The essence of the market is to create a certain kind of market and make you the first in this kind of market. This is the leader's rule in the market: Ning is the first, not the first. This truth is obvious. When you have a product and occupy a leading position in the market, it is much easier than convincing others that you have a better product than the first one on the market at present.
We can illustrate this problem through an example:
(1) Who was the first person to fly across the Atlantic alone?
Who is the second person to fly across the Atlantic alone?
Obviously, most people know that the first person to fly across the Atlantic alone was Charles Lindbergh. But most people can't remember who is the second person. The second man is Burt Hinkler. It takes less time to fly and consumes less fuel. But how many people know about Bert Sinkler?
In today's competitive environment, there is little hope that an imitation product will become a bigger and more profitable brand in the market. In many types of markets, leading brands are usually the first companies to enter the market. For example, in the car rental market, it is Hertz; ; In the computer market, it is IBM；; In the coke market, it is Coca-Cola.
After World War II, Heineken was the first beer introduced to the United States. Who will be the first in this market in about 50 years? In fact, there were 425 brands in the American beer market at that time, some of which were definitely better than Heineken, but Heineken was still the leader of the beer market, accounting for about 30% of the market.
But not every brand that enters the market first can become a leader. For example, Frosty Paws was the first ice cream made for dogs. Although dogs like it very much, dog owners think that dogs don't need ice cream, as long as they can lick plates or chew bones, they will be happy.
The leader rule applies to any product, any brand and any market type. For example, you may not know which university was the first university in America. People often think that the leading university in this market is the first. So, which university is the most famous? It is Harvard University. In fact, Harvard University is the first university established in the United States.
Here are more examples to illustrate that the first product or company to enter a certain market will often become the leader of that market.
Jeep is the first four-wheeled off-road vehicle;
Acura is the first luxury Japanese car;
IBM was the first company to own a mainframe;
Sun Microsystems is the first company with a workstation;
Now Jeep, Acura, IBM and Sun are all leading brands in their respective markets.
And:
The first mini-car introduced to America was Chrysler. At present, Chrysler's share in the automobile market is 10%, and its share in the mini-car market is 50%.
HP introduced the first desktop laser printer. Now HP has a 5% share in the PC market and a 45% share in the laser printer market.
There are many similar examples. Gillette is the first brand of safety shaver and Tide is the first brand of clothing cleaner. Hayes is the first brand of computer modems. Now, they are all leading brands.
The first brand often becomes the leading brand, one of the reasons is that the first brand name often plays the role of seed. Xerox, for example, is the first brand of ordinary paper copier. People often stand in front of Sharp or Ricoh photocopiers and say, I want to make a copy. Similarly, in a coke shop, they will give you a coke, even though they all sell Pepsi. People often use the name of the first brand to represent the items they want, even if they are not what they say at all. For example, people will say: FedEx, this package goes to the East Coast. So when you want to create a new market type, please design a word (seed) that can play a seed role as a representative.
It can be said that the market is a war of perception first, not a war of products.
Neil armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. Who is the second person?
Roger bannister was the first person to run a mile in four minutes. Who is the second person?
George Washington was the first president of the United States. Who was the second president?
Thomas is the first British muffin brand, who is the second?
Gatorade is the first sports drink, who is the second?
If you are the second person to enter a certain market, are you destined to disappear like Buzz Aldrin, John Wen Lan, john adams, some unknown muffin brands or some unknown sports drinks? Otherwise.
Fortunately, we have other market rules. But it is important to always remember:
It is much better to be the first than to be better.
Second, the category law in the market.
Excerpted from Al Ries and Jack Trout's "22 Constant Laws of Marketing"
In the law of leadership, it is easy to tell who is the first person to fly across the Atlantic alone, but we may not know who is the second. But who was the third person to fly across the Atlantic alone?
People usually think that it is impossible to know the third person without knowing the second person. Otherwise. Many people know that the third person is Amelia Earhart. People remember her not because she is the third; But because she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
So, if you are not the first to enter a certain market, don't give up. Create a new category of market in this market and make you the first. You can do it as long as you think hard.
For example, after IBM occupied the first position in the computer market, a large number of companies entered the market, such as Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, sperry, Snow White, Seven Dwarfs and so on. However, many companies are not striving to become "the second largest computer company in the world", but have created some new categories in the computer market, so as to become the first in the new category market. For example, although IBM is the number one computer, DEC is the number one computer market. Tandem is the first in the fault-tolerant computer market; Stratus became the first fault-tolerant microcomputer company. Cray research put forward the concept of supercomputer and produced products at high end for the first time. Convex combines high-end and micro, and produces micro-supercomputer products for the first time.
There are other ways to create a new market category. For example, Dell was the first computer company to use telephone sales in the computer market. Lear is not the first female magazine, but the first mature female magazine.
Therefore, when you are ready to develop or put a new product on the market, you should first ask yourself: If this product is the first, what kind of market should it be, not whether it is better than similar products. In other words, in which market category the product is the first, not the second.
When you are sure that your product is the first in the market category you have created, then promote this market. DEC tells people that they should buy a microcomputer instead of directly telling people that they should buy a DEC microcomputer. Similarly, Hertz sells car rental services and Coca-Cola sells drinks, but it has never been said that we sell car rental services at Hertz or Coca-Cola drinks.
In fact, you have no competitors in this market, because you are the first in this market.
If you can't be the first in a certain category, then create a new category where you can be the first.
Third, the law of market mentality.
Excerpted from Al Ries and Jack Trout's "22 Constant Laws of Marketing"
The first personal computer in the world was MITS Altair8800. According to the market leading rule, MITS Altair8800 should be the first brand in the personal computer market, but this is not the case.
Dumont invented the world's first commercial television. Hurley introduced the first washing machine, but none of them became leaders.
Is there a mistake in the leadership rule of the market before? No, it's just because the law of thinking has changed it. Being the first in people's minds is much more effective than being the first in the market. Being the first in your mind can be the first in the market, but being the first in the market can only make you more likely to be the first in people's minds than others.
For example, IBM is not the first in the mainframe market, and Remington Rand is the first mainframe, but IBM is the first in people's minds, so it also won the competition.
The law of perception in the market will be introduced later. If the market is a war of perception, not a war of products, then winning the mind first is more important than winning the market first.
Maybe some people have some ideas or concepts that they believe can bring about great changes, or they do. The problem is how to get these ideas or concepts recognized by everyone, that is, let them enter and occupy people's minds.
The traditional solution is money. It is to use money to set up an organization for product production and service, or to hold a press conference, attend an exhibition or advertise. Unfortunately, this will give people a deeper impression that money is the only way to solve this problem.
Xerox is the leader in the copier market, but it wants to enter the computer market. But unfortunately, 25 years later, Xerox spent $2 billion, but got nothing. Wang was the first person in word processing, but although it spent millions of dollars to promote its own computer and microcomputer market, in people's minds, Wang is still a word processing company.
If you want to change some aspects of the computer, just take it apart and make changes. But if you want to change something in people's minds, forget it. Once an impression is formed in people's minds, it is difficult to change it. One of the most expensive things in the market is trying to change people's impression.
You can't change people's impressions by going deeper and deeper. You need a way to destroy decay and autumn wind to sweep away leaves. To change, we must completely overthrow the old impression and establish a new impression in people's minds. Why are you doing this? Because once people form an impression on you, then you are one kind of person in people's minds, not another. This impression is hard to change.
Apple's impression in people's minds benefits from the short and easy-to-remember company name. The names of other competitors are relatively complicated and lengthy. The five early PC brands were Apple II, Commodore Pet, IMSAI 8080, MITS Altair 8800 and Radio Shack TRS-80. Obviously, Apple II is the simplest and easiest to remember.
It is better to be ahead in thought than in the market.
Fourth, the law of perception in the market.
Excerpted from Al Ries and Jack Trout's "22 Constant Laws of Marketing"
The market is not a war of products, but a war of perception.
Many people believe that the market is a product war, and the best quality products will eventually win the market. In fact, this is just a fable, without any factual basis. Obviously, there is no optimal product, and the quality is relative, not absolute. Most marketers believe that the truth is on their side. They think their products are the best, and strive to win the market by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of their products. As we all know, better products are also called better products because of people's perception.
We use an example to illustrate that the market is a war of perception, not a product.
In the United States, the three best-selling Japanese cars are Honda, Toyota and Nissan. Many people think that the competition between these three brands is based on quality, model, price or other factors. Wrong. What determines which brand will win the market is people's cognition of Honda, Toyota and Nissan. The market is a war of perception.
Japanese automakers sell the same cars in the United States and Japan. If the market is a product war, then the ranking of different brands should be the same in both Japanese and American markets. After all, the quality, models, relative prices and even all aspects of cars sold in Japan and the United States are similar. But in Japan, Honda is not the first, Toyota is the first, and Honda is only the third. Toyota's sales in Japan are four times that of Honda.
So what is the reason? Whether Honda, Toyota or Nissan, the cars are the same, but the market sales are different? Is it the product? Obviously not, but the reason of perception.
If you tell your friends that you bought a Honda in new york, they will ask, "What kind of Honda did you buy, Civic, Accord or a prelude?" But if you tell your friends that you bought a Honda in Japan, they will ask, "What motorcycle did you buy?" Because, in Japan, people think that Honda produces motorcycles. Obviously, people don't want to buy cars from companies that produce motorcycles.
The heads of some beverage manufacturers think that the market is a war of tastes. Everyone knows that the new cola tastes first. The Coca-Cola Company once conducted a survey of 200,000 people, tasted Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola and New Coke, and found that New Coke had the best taste, followed by Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola. But who won the market? The new coke, which was rated as the best taste, ranked third, while Coca-Cola, which was rated as the worst taste among the three, was the first brand in the market. Why?
People will believe what they want to believe, and people want to drink what they want to drink. The market is a war of perception, not a war of taste.
To make this situation more complicated, people usually make purchases based on second-hand perceived information. This is the rule of "everyone else does".
As we all know, Lenovo Home Computer is an excellent brand in China with first-class service. Therefore, when people buy computers, they often make a decision to buy Lenovo computers based on "Everyone knows that Lenovo's service is first-class". However, when people who buy Lenovo computers are asked how they feel about Lenovo's first-class service, the answer is often "no". Their decision to buy Lenovo computers is based on other people's opinions.
If you just bought a Lenovo computer, but you can't get satisfactory service, then you are out of luck. Because as we all know, Lenovo's computer service is first-class. If you buy other brands of computers and get satisfactory service, then you are lucky, because other brands of computer services are not first-class in the eyes of others.
If someone buys a bottle of fresh milk from two milk beverage stores, but finds a small piece of glass in the milk bought from the second store, it will be made public through the media and prosecution. It is conceivable that what will happen to the marketing of stores A and B in the future? Although store B can prove that there will be no glass in its milk drink through large-scale sampling, expert evaluation and on-site investigation, who will believe it? Is it important to do so? How much impact will it have?
No, because people's perception has thought that there may be glass fragments in the milk drink in store B, but this has never happened in store A, and many people around us think so. People's cognition will not change because of advertisements and sampling surveys in glass shops.
Therefore, the market is a war of perception, not a war of products.
Marketing is not a product war, but a cognitive war.
Five, the Law of Focus (law of focus)
Excerpted from Al Ries and Jack Trout's "22 Constant Laws of Marketing"
If a company can find a way to make a word representing its own company deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, then the company may be very successful. This vocabulary can be very simple and does not need special creation. Simple words found directly from the dictionary work best.
This is the law of concentration. A company condenses its business or scope into a word and takes root in people's minds. Vocabulary is the key.
FedEx can use the word overnight to represent itself, omitting many businesses such as product lines and focusing on overnight parcel delivery.
Leaders in the market have their own emphasis in their own market types-vocabulary. For example, IBM owns computers. Usually people will say, I want to buy an IBM machine. He doesn't need to say, I want to buy an IBM computer. It is generally believed that what he needs is an IBM computer, not other goods. This is the power of concentration.
We can also pass a test to prove the importance of concentration to the market. When we talk about computers, photocopiers, chocolate bars and coke, we usually associate them with IBM, Xerox, Hershey and Coke.
The most effective words are often simple and related to business interests. No matter how complex the company's products are, no matter how complex the market demand is, it is often much more effective to focus your business or market on one vocabulary than to locate two or more words.
Of course, the focus often brings a chain effect. For example, safer often means better design and technology, and thicker often means better quality and concentration. Many famous and successful companies are often able to root their concerns in people's minds. Here are some examples:
Top tooth.
Mercedes-craft
BMW-Driving
Volvo-Safety
Domino's-Delivery to Home
Pepsi-Cola-Youth
Nord stron Service Company
Vocabulary can be targeted at many aspects, such as target customers (Pepsi is aimed at young people), service (delivery or home delivery), interest-related (prevention of tooth loss), sales-related (preferred brand) and so on.
Once a word takes root in people's minds, it will be very difficult to change it. The manager of Lotus Development Company can illustrate this point.
For a long time, Lotus had the word spreadsheet. Actually, Lotus is a spreadsheet and 1-2-3. However, with the increasingly fierce competition, the room for profit growth is also very limited, and Lotus hopes to further develop.
Later, Lotus purchased Ami Pro word processing software and introduced a large number of new software products by expanding its product line. Then Lotus repositioned the product and put forward the focus vocabulary of groupware. It can be said that Lotus is the first company to develop groupware products, and it is successful. Lotus has successfully transformed its focus spreadsheet into groupware. But it has also experienced considerable time and financial resources.
The key to the market is to make your business more and more flat. Once you compress your business, you will be stronger within the scope represented by Focus. If you want to fully reflect your business, in fact, you can't represent anything, and you can't reflect anything you want.
When choosing the focus, you can't choose the words "quality, taste". When you choose a word, you need to cultivate your competitors. Obviously, no company is willing to produce goods with poor quality, and no company is willing to produce drinks with bad taste. As a leader, you need followers. For Lotus, if another company enters the groupware market later, it will be intentional for Lotus. It will make the market type of Lotus more important, and of course it will be more conducive to consolidating Lotus' leading position in this market.
So:
The most powerful concept in marketing is to have a word in the mind of potential customers.
Six, the law of exclusivity in the market (Law of exclusions)
Excerpted from Al Ries and Jack Trout's "22 Constant Laws of Marketing"
When your competitors already have a vocabulary, trying to have the same vocabulary as their focus will eventually lead to failure.
As we said before, Volvo is safe. Many other automakers, including Mercedes-Benz and General Motors, had hoped to make their own marketing strategies on the basis of safety. However, only Volvo makes safety occupy people's minds.
Once an idea is formed in people's minds, it is difficult to change it. In fact, if we continue to do this, we will only continue to strengthen the position of our competitors.
In order to seize the market from DHL Global Express, FedEx tried to change from overnight to global. As a result, the "overnight letter" on FedEx's previous package became a "FedEx letter", and its advertisement changed from "absolutely and definitely staying there for the night" to a slogan full of "the whole world".
This raises a very important question: does FedEx have this word on a global scale? No. Because this word has been owned by DHL Global Express Company. The concept of DHL propaganda is: to reach more places in the world faster. Therefore, FedEx can only fight against DHL by flattening the world, and cannot try to have a global center of gravity.
A few years ago, market research showed that the most important feature of fast food was fast. Therefore, Burger King decided to focus on fast food industry. Its advertising slogan is: If the world wants to be fast, our advertisements should tell them that we are fast.
However, the market survey did not explain that the word Fast is actually owned by McDonald's. Fast belongs to McDonald's, McDonald's is fast. Nevertheless, Burger King launched a marketing campaign with the slogan of "the best food in the fast food era". This is almost a disaster. The following consequences: the advertising company was fired, the management team was fired, and the company was sold.
Many people are paying the price for breaking the exclusive law of the market.
In the eyes of potential customers, it is impossible for two companies to have the same word.
Seven, the Law of Ladder in the market (law of ladder)
Excerpted from Al Ries and Jack Trout's "22 Constant Laws of Marketing"
If you can't occupy the first position in the market, it doesn't mean the ultimate failure. Because there are ladder rules to solve the second or third problem.
Any product produced is not equal. When people make a purchase decision, there is always a product order in mind. For every type of market, there is always a ladder in people's minds to sort the products in the market, and each ladder has a brand. In terms of car rental service, Hertz ranks first, Avis ranks second and the country ranks third.
Your product strategy needs to match your position in this kind of market. Let's look at the example of Avis. For a long time, the advertising theme of Avis was high-quality service, such as "car rental fine". But when people see this advertisement, they will wonder why Avis has the best car rental service. The car rental company is not 1.
Then, Avis changed its marketing strategy, and it admitted its position. The slogan became "Avis is only the second in the car rental industry, why should you go with us?" We worked harder. 13 Avis lost a lot of money. But when it realized its position, it began to make money and made a lot of money. But soon Avis was sold to ITT, and the advertising strategy became "Avis will become the first 1".
But people say, no, it's not. Hertz is. Even many people call Hertz directly. Obviously, this is a disaster for Avis.
Many market analysts attribute the success of Avis to its hard work. This is not true. Avis's success is mainly due to the correlation between its market strategy and market position.
In people's minds, what is the ladder of the market where your product is located? How many steps does this ladder have? It depends on whether your product is high density or low density. The products people use every day are high-density products, such as cigarettes, cola, beer, toothpaste, food and so on. There are many steps in the market ladder of this kind of products; Products purchased infrequently belong to low-density products, such as furniture and bags. And this kind of product has fewer corresponding steps.
Products that can bring people satisfaction belong to high-density products, such as cars, watches, cameras, balls and so on. And the market corresponding to such products is often more echelon, although it is not often purchased.
Products that are not often purchased and may cause unhappiness generally have fewer market steps, such as automobile batteries, tires, life insurance, etc.
Market share has a lot to do with the ladder. Generally speaking, if products X, Y and Z correspond to the first, second and third steps of the same type of market, the market share ratio of X, Y and Z is usually around 4:2: 1.
Then, how many steps are there on the market ladder in a type of market? It is almost seven o'clock. If people are asked to list a top brand in the product market they are familiar with, few people can count to seven. Dr George a miller, a professor of psychology at Harvard university, once said that human intelligence usually can't handle more than seven things at the same time. At the same time, 7 is also an iconic number, such as the telephone number is usually 7 digits, the seven wonders of the world, Snow White and the seven dwarfs, and the seven dangerous signs of cancer.
Sometimes, although you can dominate the market ladder corresponding to your product, this ladder is too small. It is better to be a small fish in a big pond than to be a big fish in a small pond. In other words, being third in a big market may be better than being first in a small market.
The ladder rule is simple, but useful. Before starting a marketing plan, ask yourself a few questions: where are we in people's minds? Is it first, second, third, or not at all on this market ladder?
Then make sure your marketing plan fits your ladder in the market. This is the ladder rule.
The strategy to use depends on your position on the ladder.
Eight, the Law of Duality in the market (law of duality)
Excerpted from Al Ries and Jack Trout's "22 Constant Laws of Marketing"
At the beginning of a new market category, there may be many steps on the corresponding ladder, that is, there are many brands. In the long run, there will only be two steps on the ladder.
In the battery market, there are Yongbei and Duracell; ; The film market includes Kodak and Fuji. ; In the car rental market, there are Hertz and Avis; ; In the mouthwash market, Stirling and Scope； are favorable; In the Hamburg market, there are McDonald's and Burger King; ; Sports shoes market, including Nike and Reebok; ; In the toothpaste market, there are Crest and Colgate.
1969, there were three brands in the coke market, namely Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola and Crown Cola, accounting for 60%, 25% and 6% respectively. The remaining share is occupied by products of other brands. The law of duality shows that only two brands will dominate the market in the future, and the market share of the first brand will decrease, while the market share of the second brand will increase. Twenty years later, that is, 199 1 year, the market share of the first brand dropped to 45%, the market share of the second brand rose to 40%, and the third-ranked Crown Cola dropped to 3%.
Understanding that the market is a dual market in the long run is very beneficial for you to formulate short-term or medium-term market strategies. When you are the third brand in a certain market, you need to seriously consider your marketing strategy. Appropriate marketing strategy plays a key role in your sales situation.
Often the position of the second step is more than one brand. Take notebook computers as an example, Toshiba is the first brand, accounting for 2 1% of the market. But five companies ranked second, including Zenith, Compaq, NEC, Tandy and Sharp, each with a market share of about 8- 10%. Although there are about 130 brands in the notebook computer market now, according to the binary law, only a few brands will exist in the future. We will wait and see.
Let's look at the automobile market again. 1904, there were about 6 1 car companies in the United States. 10 increased to 53 1 car companies, but 346 closed down; By 1923, only 108 families continued to exist; To 1927, 44 left. Now, Ford and General Motors dominate the whole automobile market.
Successful market experts will pay attention to the first and second steps. Jack, CEO of General Electric.