The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing [Review]

May 21, 2012

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout is a timeless short book on the common pitfalls of marketing. At just 132 pages, this book can be read in just a couple of hours, but will give you a firm foundation to build your next marketing campaign.

The book focuses on the specifics of marketing and not any single technique or tactic. This is what separates this book from the countless other marketing books that are available today. By not jumping on the latest bandwagon, it has remained as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1993.

Since discovering The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing a couple of years ago, I’ve read it a number of times, usually whenever I’m looking to launch a new product or website. For me, this book strips away a lot of the Marketing hype that clouds the industry and sends companies down the wrong path. Ries and Trout provide a clear and realistic foundation for marketing just about any product or service and provide real insights into what actually works and what you should be concentrating on and what you should be ignoring.

Each chapter is just a few pages long which makes reading this book a breeze. It also allows you to take in the message with a clear actionable objective to improve your marketing campaigns. I think books that follow this short chapter format are usually far more practical than books with 30+ page chapters.

The book focuses on areas such as getting into the consumers mind first, creating a category rather than joining one and why line extension is so bad for a brand despite the mass adoption of it within the corporate world, to name just a few.

If you are looking for a marketing book that focuses on the real idea of marketing and not the specific or latest tactic, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is for you. Throughout the book, the Authors mention various companies and campaigns that have now long since ended. Although in many timely books, this would be a negative, in this book it is easy to see exactly how in hindsight the Author’s message was exactly right and that there are companies in a similar position today that should follow the same advice as those 20 years ago. I think valuable business books like The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing don’t go out of date. Many of the hottest business books that are being published today will be out of date in just a few years time.

Buy The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing on Amazon (Affiliate link).