Every marketing professional is fascinated by a marketing guru. In my case, the list is long but I would name three of my most favorite marketing gurus – Philip Kotler, Al Ries and Seth Godin. In this post, I will be focusing on learning from a well-known book “22 Immutable laws of Marketing” by AL Ries & Jack Trout.
Al Ries and Jack Trout coined the 22 laws that act like guidelines in any industry. This will be a series post, covering brands from India and GCC region. My aim in this blog post is to check if the laws still stand the test of time.
Law: Law of Leadership
The law of leadership states it is better to be first than to be simply better.
There is always a thin line between good companies and great companies. Good companies fulfill the met needs of the customers whereas great companies fulfill the met and unmet needs of the customers. Example, Microsoft, Apple, Flipkart, Souq.com
In the United Arab Emirates, the e-commerce industry is a fairly new sector. In a country where physical retail stores dominate, the current market leader in the e-commerce space is SOUQ.com with respect to revenues and market share. SOUQ.com leveraged the first mover advantage and fulfilled the unmet needs of the customers i.e convenience and variety.
Currently, in India, the fastest growing industry is the eCommerce. But it has also become the most crowded one. The industry got noticed when Flipkart.com extended its categories from just books to electronics and lifestyles products. Even before Flipkart began its operations, India had eCommerce companies like http://www.Rediff.com that use to sell online. But it was only after Flipkart raising rounds of funding the industry got the limelight.
It’s human behavior to remember the FIRST and forget the rest. If I ask you who was the first man to step on the moon? Most probably, you will answer Niel Armstrong. And who was the second? Probably no clue. The law of leadership explains that if your product/brand gets the first mover place in the minds of the customers you become the market leader.
Being first gets the advantage over the competition but doesn’t guarantee success.
Both the players have gained the first mover advantage and have become success stories. Recently, SOUQ got acquired by Amazon for over $1 billion and Flipkart was trying to acquire Snapdeal.com at a lesser valuation.
Do share your examples for Law of leadership in other industries.
This is the first installment of series “Testing the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing in current times”. Do watch this space for next post.
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