Marketing principles - The law of leadership

The law of leadership

It's better to be first than it is to be better

Reis and Trout state that the basic issue in marketing is not about offering a better product, it is about creating a category in which your business can be in first place. Maybe that's true and maybe it's an exaggeration, but either way Reis and Trout have been good at challenging conventional thinking. I'm inclined to think that the basic issue of marketing is to generate business profits.  Whether that is short term profits or long term profits, large scale profits or small scale profits, the issue of market position ought be secondary to return on investment, however that is measured. Maybe I'm a closet bean counter.

There is no reason to believe that the second largest company cannot be more profitable than the company with the largest market share.

Reis and Trout make the point by reference to memorable historical events, as in, "Who remembers the second person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean solo?" But the flip side to that is, "What good does it do Charles Lindbergh for me to remember him?" Just as what good is it that I can remember the words to the Oscar Mayer wiener song from decades ago? You say "wiener" and I say "Oscar Mayer," but it's not the brand I buy when it comes down to it.

Memorable is not enough.