Immutable Laws: Are you kidding?

Have you read this book? Don't waste your money. In this blog I'm going to tell you why a lot of what they write is nonsense. I can open this almost at random and find something truly idiotic.

But let's start with chapter 1: The Law of Leadership. They maintain that the first mover in the market becomes the market leader. Examples? Heineken, Miller Lite, Gatorade. They really should stick to drinks, because when they stray far from that category they really get out on thin ice:

• "USA Today is the first national newspaper but it is unlikely to succeed... In a television era, it may be too late for a national newspaper."
• "Jeep was the first in four-wheel-drive off-the-road vehicles. Acura was first in luxury Japanese cars. IBM was first in mainframe computers. Sun Microsystems was first in workstations. Jeep, Acura, IBM, and Sun are all leading brands." [ Well, IBM still leads in mainframes, not that anybody's buying them anymore.]
• "...until it positioned the Amiga as the first multimedia computer. Today the Commodore Amiga is a big success, with more than $500 million sold annually." [I had to jump to chapter two for that one.]

The so-called "first mover advantage" has been exploded time and time again. Who had the first PC? Altair. Where are they now? Gone. Who had the first DOS-based PC? IBM. Who owns the category now? Dell, a copy-cat clone.

Oh, but wait. Chapter 3 makes it all clear. They even start with the Altair example--if first to market = success, then where is Altair now? True true. Their answer? It's not first to market, it's really first in the mind that counts. So now it's out: that famous marketing bugaboo "mindshare." As in "mindshare equals marketshare." I'll take that idea apart later...

Chapter 3 can be summed up as follows:

1. Market leadership requires mind leadership.
2. You can't buy your way into mind leadership.
3. Once a mind is made up, it can't be changed.
4. You have to "blast" your way into people's minds. How do you do that?
5. You need a clever name. Proof: Apple had a simpler name than all it's competition so the Apple II beat all the other little goofy CP/M machines. Because people who can master CP/M are so lacking in brains that they can't remember the name "TRS-80" they flocked to the stores and Apple IIs flew off the shelves. Hmmm, sounds highly probable to me.

And all this time you thought it was about features and benefits? Silly you!