Useless Trivia

A snail can sleep for three years.

The flea can jump 350 times its body length.

It is physically impossible for pigs to look up at the sky.

The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

Apples are more efficient at waking you up in the morning than caffeine.

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.

Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

Tigers have striped skin not just striped fur.

No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH."

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

All polar bears are left handed.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

"Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

In ancient Egypt, priests plucked every hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.

Owls are the only birds who can see the color blue.

Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reinade los Angeles de Porciuncula"

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

A duck's quack doesn't echo

The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead."

A crocodile can't stick its tongue out.

The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

A shrimp's heart is in its head.

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.

There was once an undersea post office in the Bahamas.

Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven.

No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half.

There are more than twice as many kangaroos as people in Australia.

Maine is the only American state whose name is just one syllable.


75% of those who read this tried to lick their elbow (am part of the 25%)

ako ay pilipino kasi...

MANNERISM AND PERSONALITY TRAITS

1. You point with your lips
2. You eat with your hand and have it down as a technique
3. Your other piece of luggage is a "Balikbayan Box"
4. You nod your head upwards to greet someone
5. You put your foot up on your chair and rest your elbows on your knees while you eat
6. You use a rock to scrub yourself in the shower
7. You kiss relatives on the cheek when you enter the room
8. You're standing next to eight big boxes at the airport
9. You collect items from hotels or restaurants as "souvenirs"
10. Your house has a distinctive aroma
11. You smile for no reason
12. You flirt by having a foolish grin on your face while raising your eyebrows repeatedly
13. You go to department stores and try bargain with the price
14. You scratch your head when you don't know the answer
15. You never eat the last morsel of food on the table
16. You go bowling
17. You play pusoy or mahjong
18. You prefer to sit in the shade instead of basking in the sun
19. You add an unwarranted 'H' to your name: Jhun, Bhoy, Rhon
20. You put your hands together in front of you as if to make a path and say "Excuse, Excuse" when you pass in between people or in front of the TV
21. Your middle name is your mom's maiden name
22. You like everything that is imported or 'stateside'
23. Your perfectly comfortable in a squatting position with your elbows resting on your knees
24. You consistently arrive 30 minutes late for events
25. You always offer food to your visitors
26. You put your arm on the other person's shoulder if he or she is a close friend of yours
27. You draw a rectangle in the air when asking for the bill, which never fails to baffle the restaurant staff
28. You don't sit on the bowl in public toilets, no matter what part of town or if your thighs ache like hell; and you flush the toilet with your feet
29. You think 'tuck out' is the opposite of 'tuck in'
30. You tell everyone you meet where you studied and the intricacies of your family tree-just to show them you come from good stock - it never occurs to you that people may not have heard of your university or your clan's last name
31. You show up late for work and your excuse is 'I forgot to on the alarm' or better yet 'traffic eh'
32. You linger over the Tonite and Balita tabloids available at the Star Ferry, but quickly buy the Asian Wall Street Journal when other Filipinos start browsing
33. Brushing your teeth after lunch in the office lavatory is an unbreakable habit, even if your colleagues can't bear touching the taps after you've drooled and spat all over them
34. Namedropping is your favorite sport when you meet up with new acquaintances from back home
35. Toni Braxton, Basia and Swing Out Sister are your idea of party music, you hardly listen to anything else
36. You sell Amway and Herbalife as sideline
37. You fight noisily with Cathay Pacific check-in staff over the size of handcarried luggage-which could be anything from oversized suitcases to major appliances
38. You underdeclare your income when you pay Phil tax, even if it's peculiar that a consultant is paid little more than a domestic helper's wages
39. At Immigration, when they call out 'Maria', you and 46 other women stand up
40. When they play 'Anak' anywhere, your chest swells with pride and say 'that's Filipino'
41. You think taking a shower and taking a bath are the same thing
42. You use shopping bags as garbage bags
43. You use laundry detergent to wash your dishes
44. You use print rags from an imported fashion magazine as cover of your textbooks and notebooks
45. You enjoy watching Pinoy action films with the same plot: Hero and villain are mortal enemies. Hero's family's killed by villain. Hero seeks revenge. Hero meets bar girl with sad tale of past love. She comes from a poor family, that's why she's working in the bar. They fall in love. Villain kidnaps girl, threatens to kill her if hero won't stop harassing him and his henchmen. Hero rescues girl, they run away. Chase goes on in a dilapidated car. Hero finally kills villain and police arrive. Hero and girl live happily ever after.

VOCABULARY

1. You say 'for take out' instead of 'to go' ('take away' for Singaporean)
2. You 'open' and 'close' the lights
3. You ask for 'Colgate' instead of toothpaste
4. You ask for 'pentel pen' instead of a ballpen or pen
5. You refer to refrigerator as 'ref', 'Frigidare', or "pridyider"
6. You say 'kodakan' instead of take a picture
7. You order 'McDonalds' instead of hamburger, which you pronounce 'ham-boor-jer'
8. You say 'Ha?' instead of 'what?'
9. You say 'Hoy!' to get someone's attention
10. You answer when someone yells 'Hoy!'
11. You turn around when you hear 'pssst'
12. You say 'Cutex' instead of nail polish
13. You say 'for a while' instead of 'Please hold' on the telephone
14. You say 'he' when you mean 'she' and vice versa
15. Your sneeze sounds like 'Ahh-ching' instead of 'Ahh-choo'
16. You say 'Aray' instead of 'ouch'
17. You make acronyms for phrases: 'OA' = overacting, 'DOM' = dirty old man, and 'TNT' for... You know
18. You say 'aircon' instead of 'A/C' or airconditioner
19. You pronounce the ff. words: 'Hippopo-TA-mus', 'com-FOR-table', 'Bro-CO-li', and 'Montgo-marry Ward'
20. You say 'brown-out' instead of 'black-out'
21. You say 'Ay' or "Uy" instead of 'oops'
22. You start with 'actually' when you're trying to explain something
23. You say 'comfort room' instead of bathroom
24. You pronounce 'fax' as the four letter word
25. Ano' and 'di ba' regularly slip out during conversations
26. You say, 'my girlfriend will fetch,' when foreigners think fetching is for dogs
27. You try hard to speak English and when you don't know what to say next, you say 'you know...'
28. You change your accent according to the person you're talking to
29. When someone's pregnant, you say 'she's on the way'
30. You say 'ayyss---!' in kolehiyala accent to show any kind of extreme emotion - 'ayyy, shheeettt, nag-split na sila? 'ayysss, shheeettt talaga?
31. When somebody gives you a compliment, instead of saying thank you, you say 'hindi naman'

HOME FURNISHINGS

1. You use 'walis tambo' and 'walis ting-ting' as opposed to a conventional broom
2. You own a karaoke machine
3. You own a piano that no one ever plays
4. You have a portrait of the Last Supper hanging on your dining room wall
5. You have a 'tabo' in your bathroom
6. You have a rose garden
7. Your house is cluttered with 'burloloys'
8. You display a big laughing Buddha for good luck
9. You have a Santo Nino shrine in your living room
10. You own a 'barrel man' (schwing!) from Baguio
11. You have 'parol' displayed during the holidays
12. You cover your living room furniture with bed sheets
13. Your lampshades still have plastic covers on them
14. You have plastic runners to cover your carpets
15. You refer to VCR as 'Betamax' even if it's a VHS
16. You own a rice dispenser
17. You own a turbo broiler
18. You own a lamp with oil that drips down to the strings
19. You have a giant wooden spoon and fork hanging in your dining room
20. You own Capiz shell chandeliers, lamps or placemats
21. You have a pair of wooden tinikling dancers on your wall
22. You have 'Weapons of Moroland' shield hanging on your living room wall
23. Your wall to wall carpeting includes the ceiling
24. You own one of those fiber-optic flower lamps
25. Your microwave, washer, TV, VCR, computer, printer, toaster and doorknobs are hidden under quilted covers
26. You have the entire Apo Hiking Society collection, plus maybe some Tito Mina and Pops Fernandez thrown in
27. There's a pail in your bathroom, just in case there's a water shortage or the toilet won't flush
28. You have fly swatter in your kitchen
29. You have multiplex tapes
30. You buy song hit mixes like "New Wave Disco Hits"

CLOTHING AND APPEARANCE

1. There's Angelique eyeliner and Johnson's Baby Powder compacts lurking in your makeup drawer
2. You use Perla soap on your face
3. You have several pairs of 'tsinelas' at your doorstep
4. You deliberately flaunt your pager and cellphone
5. You find dried-up morsels or rice stuck to your shirt
6. You check labels on clothes to see where it's made
7. You hang your clothes out to dry
8. You've had the same bobbed hairstyle since high school
9. You wear fake or original Tommy Hilfiger shirts in bold and shouting prints
10. Your next goal is to buy Polo or Burberry's bag
11. Your ponytail ribbon covers half your head
12. You wore kung fu shoes in high school
13. You use an umbrella for a shade on hot summer days
14. You play basketball in you chinellas (slippers)

AUTOMOBILES & DRIVING

1. Your car chirps like a bird or plays a tune in reverse
2. You have a rosary on your car rear view mirror
3. Your car horn can make three or more different sounds
4. You have those air fresheners in a bottle
5. You own a Mercedes Benz and call it a 'Chedeng'
6. Your car has curb feelers on it
7. You have a fake banana display attached to your car window
8. You own a huge van conversion
9. You do not try to avoid pedestrians
10. A traffic cop says "your license expired eight years ago"
11. A road sign that says "Dangerous curve, Death toll 19" causes you to make another accident
12. For you a yellow light means " go paster"
13. A traffic cop is known to you as a "crocodile"
14. You refer to a female driver as a "lesbian"
15. You insist on fitting 8 people into a taxi, much to the distress of the driver, and say, 'we're making 'kandong'

FAMILY & FRIENDS

1. You were raised believing every Filipino was an aunt and uncle
2. Your dad or uncle was in the Navy
3. Your mom or sister is a Nurse
4. You get smelling kisses from your grandma
5. Your parents call each other mommy and daddy
6. You know someone with a name that repeats itself, i.e. Jon-Jon, Len-Len, Jong-Jong, or Bing-Bing
7. You have aunt & uncle named Baby, Girlie or Boy
8. You know a veteran dynamite fisherman called "Lefty"
9. You have a dog named whitie, blackie or bantay
10. Your parents call each other 'Mahal' and they call you 'Anak' or by your wonderful Filipino nickname you've had all your life (Jang, Cici, Meng, Choy-Choy, etc) ....and you KNOW they're mad at each other or at you when they use actual names


FOOD

1. You think eating chocolate rice pudding and dried fish is a great morning meal
2. You order breakfast items like tapsilog, longsilog, or tocilog at restaurants
3. You always grab a toothpick after each meal
4. You order a 'soft drink' instead of soda
5. You dip bread in your morning coffee
6. You refer to seasonings and all forms of MSG as 'Ajinomoto'
7. Your cupboard is full of corned beef hash, spam and vienna sausage
8. You appreciate a fresh pot of hot rice
9. You bring your 'baon' to work everyday
10. Your 'baon' is usually something over rice
11. Goldilocks means more to you than a fairy tale character (bakery)
12. You wash and re-use plastic utensils and styrofoam cups
13. You eat purple Yam flavored ice cream (ube)
14. You know that 'chocolate meat' isn't really made with chocolates
15. You think half-hatched duck eggs (balut) are a delicacy
16. You have an ice shaver for making 'halo-halo'
17. Your cloth tablecloths have telltale 'tuyo' circles on them
18. You have to have a bottle of Jufran handy
19. You use your fingers to measure the water when cooking rice
20. Neighbors complain about the smell of 'tuyo' on Sunday mornings
21. You fry Spam and hotdogs and eat them with rice
22. You eat rice for breakfast
23. You have a supply of frozen lumpia in the freezer
24. Your buy ketchup made from bananas and named after alien spaceships
25. You've eaten hotdogs made from worse things than lips and ass
26. You put hotdogs in your spaghetti
27. You consider dilis the Filipino equivalent to french fries
28. You know the meaning of double dead egg. double dead chicken
29. The pasalubong you want from Manila is cornik, which you snack on eight times a day in the office
30. Your idea of a diet is a diet coke with a McDonald's meal
31. You serve coffee in small glass coffee containers
32. You drink beer with ice

48 WAYS TO KNOW YOU ARE FILIPINO
1. You unwrap Christmas gifts very carefully, so you can save and reuse the wrapping (and especially those bows) next year.
2. You only buy Christmas cards after Christmas, when they are 50% off.
3. When there is a sale on toilet paper, you buy 100 rolls and store them in your closet or in the bedroom of an adult child who has moved out.
4. Your stove is covered with aluminum foil.
5. Your kitchen has a sticky film of grease over it.
6. You use the dishwasher as a dish rack.
7. You have never used your dishwasher.
8. You eat all meals in the kitchen.
9. You save grocery bags, tin foil, and tin containers.
10. You use grocery bags to hold garbage.
11. You always leave your shoes at the door.
12. You have a piano in your living room.
13. You play a musical instrument.
14. You pick your teeth at the dinner table (but you cover your mouth).
15. You twirl your pen around your fingers.
16. You hate to waste food....

(a) Even if you're totally full, if someone says they're going to throw away the leftovers on the table, you'll finish them.
17. (b) You have Tupperware in your fridge with three bites of rice or one leftover chicken wing. You don't own any real Tupperware-only a cupboard full of used but carefully rinsed margarine tubs, takeout containers, and jam jars.
18. You have a collection of miniature shampoo bottles that you take every time you stay in a hotel.
19. The condiments in your fridge are either Price Club sized or come in plastic packets, which you save/steal every time you get take out or go to McDonald's.
20. Ditto for paper napkins.
21. You never order room service.
22. You own a rice cooker.
23. You fight over who pays the dinner bill.
24. Your dad thinks he can fix everything himself.
25. You majored in something practical like engineering, medicine or law.
26. When you go to a dance party, there are a wall of guys surrounding the dance floor trying to look cool.
27. You live with your parents and you are 30 years old (and hey they refer it that way). Or if you're married and 30 years old, you live in the apartment next door to your parents, or at least in the same neighborhood.
28. Your parents' house is always cold.
29. You reuse teabags.
30. Your mom drives her Mercedes to the Price Club.
31. You always look phone numbers up in the phone book, since calling Information costs 50 cents.
32. You only make long distance calls after 11 pm.
33. You have acquired a taste for bittermelon (ampalaya).
34. You prefer your shrimp with the heads and legs still attached-it means they're fresh.
35. You always cook too much.
36. If you don't live at home, when your parents call, they ask if you've eaten, even if it's midnight.
37. You e-mail your friends at work, even though you are only 10 feet apart.
38. Your parents send money to their relatives in the Philippines.
39. You're always late.
40. You eat every last grain of rice in your bowl, but don't eat the last piece of food on the table.
41. You know someone who can get you a good deal on jewelry or electronics.
42. You never discuss your love life with your parents.
43. Your parents are never happy with your grades.
44. You save your old Coke bottle glasses even though you're never going to use them again.
45. You keep used batteries.
46. Your toothpaste tubes are all squeezed paper-thin.
47. Your relatives either work in medicine or real estate.
48. You take this message and forward it to all your Filipino friends.

SOME MORE SIGNS
1. Most Filipino women / young women own a LOT of shoes! They will also never wear more than half of them again
2. You get punished by kneeling on rice.
3. Cokes are reserved for visitors to your house.
4. Your mother / grandmother's most precious item is her sewing machine.
5. You've been to a Buddy Poppy event.
6. you buy 25 lb. bags or rice and gallon jugs of soy sauce.
7. trying to explain to people why Philippines starts with "Ph" and Filipino starts with "F".
8. your grandparents leave the TV on even when nobody watches it.
9. the exact same artificial christmas tree with the same ornaments, year after year.
10. you know a relative in the VFW or VFW ladies auxiliary.
11. your parents try to get you to go on a date with a child of one their friends.



http://www.jeepneygang.com/bola/pinoysgn.htm

Immutable Marketing Laws

This is a summary of ideas from the book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Text in normal is my paraphrasing of what the book says. Text in italic represents my personal comments. And remember: this is just a short summary and is not meant to replace the book, nothing beats reading the real thing. The book is short, buy and read it.

Law 1 (law of leadership)

Being first in the market is better than having a better product than a competition. Examples: we all remember who first flew over Atlantic or who was the first man on the moon but almost no-one knows who was the second. Heineken was the first imported beer in USA and still is No. 1 imported beer. Same for Miller Lite, first domestic light beer. Being first doesn't matter if the idea/product is not good.

I think it's better to say that being first gives one extremely big advantage over competition but doesn't guarantee the success. It's rather obvious that it doesn't matter that you're first to market if no-one needs your product or if your product is very bad. There are many examples from computer industry that disapprove this rule (i.e. first spreadsheet isn't the dominant spreadsheet, first word processor isn't the dominant word processor) so there are (many) cases showing that n-th product can overtake early leaders. But it's very hard and usually requires the leader to make huge mistakes.

Law 2 (law of category)

Given that it's very hard to gain leadership in a category where competition already exists, it's better to create a product in new category than trying to attack existing categories. Category doesn't have to be radically different, e.g. if there's dominant player in imported beer, one can become the first to import light beer. If one can't be the first to fly over Atlantic, one can still be the first woman to fly over Atlantic.

Law 3 (law of mind)

It's not important to be the first in the market but the first in the mind of consumers.

Law 4 (law of perception)

Marketing is not about products (their features or quality) but about perceptions (how people perceive products). Reality doesn't exists, what we call "reality" is just a perception of reality that we create in our minds. Honda is a leading Japanese car manufacturer in US but only third in Japan (after Toyota and Nissan). If the quality of the car was the most important thing it should have the same position in all markets. In Japan, however, people perceive Honda as a manufacturer of motorcycles.

Therefore what's important is that marketing should be focused on changing the perception.

I have mixed feelings about this law. I fully accept the premise (that perceptions is our reality). However our perception is mostly grounded in objective reality. After all if it's raining not many people will maintain the perception that it's wonderfully sunny day. Therefore one way of changing the perception is to change the reality (e.g. improve the quality of your cars). Maybe having the desired reality is not enough to achieve desired perception but it's hard to argue that you can create any perception you want regardless of reality. If your car breaks down every 10 miles no amount of marketing will convince people that it has high quality.

Law 5 (law of focus)

"The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect's mind". Owning in this context means that if people hear or see this word they usually connect it with a company that "owns" this word. IBM owns "computer". FedEx owns "overnight". You can't take somebody else's word

I can't help but to think that this book has overly simplified thinking. Being simple is good but not when the reality is more complex. First this law seems to be derived from mega-corporation. The problem is that there aren't that many companies that are big enough to own a word in people's consciousness. Therefore the advice is only possibly relevant to a few people who design marketing campaigns for those behemoths but useless for all small business. There aren't even enough words to own to satisfy 10% of business in US.

Law 6 (law of exclusivity)

It's fruitless to try to take over a word that is already owned by a competitor. Burger King tried to own word "fast" which was already owned by McDonald; and failed miserably. FedEx tried to take over "worldwide" from DHL.

This talk about "owning" words is a bit silly. The book doesn't say anything about how to actually own the word. I guess you're supposed to use it in your marketing/advertisement material but such statement is not very helpful for a marketer (I think; I'm not one).

Law 7 (law of the ladder)

Marketing strategy depends on your position in the market. If you're No. 2 you use different strategy than when you're No. 1 or 3. Avis was No. 2 in car rental and when they advertised as "finest in rent-a-cars" the had losses because their marketing wasn't credible (you can't be "finest" being No. 2). That had profit when they switched to "Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars. So why go with us? We try harder". Then they had another disastrous campaign when they started claiming "Avis is going to be No. 1".

I agree with the premise (kind of marketing depends on your position in the market). However the book says very little about what kind of strategy one should use in a given position (except for a few examples). Additionally their examples feel like they oversimplify complex reality. Even assuming that the data about e.g. Avis is fully correct (i.e. that there is strong correlation between Avis profits and the kind of marketing campaign) I find it hardly unlikely that there's a causality relationship. I don't think that good or bad marketing campaign can make or break a company. I can see how this point of view can be attractive for marketing people but I would think that success depends on more factors. Marketing might be an important factor but certainly not dominant.

Law 8 (law of duality)

In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race. McDonald & Burger King. Coca-Cola & Pepsi. Nike & Reebok. Crest & Colgate.

Even if that was universally true, how does it help a marketing person? There's little a marketing person can do about the position of his company in the market. The only conclusion I can make is that if I were a marketing person and worked for No. 3 company, I should just quit and apply for a job in No. 2 or 1.

The other problem is that it isn't universally true and the book again makes a big simplification of reality and it tries to support this simplified picture with selectively chosen examples. There are market where 2 brands can't fulfill all the demand (there are more than 2 well-known car manufacturers). There are markets that tend to fall into monopoly (e.g. Microsoft has 95% of operating system and office software markets). I'm sure there are many markets that are two-horse race, but then again there are also three-horse race markets as well as highly fragmented markets. This "law" is nothing but a sometimes true observation and it's not true frequently enough to be worth anything.

Law 9 (law of opposite)

If you're shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader. Leverage the leader's strength into a weakness. Don't try to be better than the leader, try to be different. E.g. Pepsi marketed itself as a "choice for the new generation" when faced with Coca-cola's "old and established" brand.

Sounds correct although doesn't apply to those who do have ambitions to overtake the leader in exactly the same category (which happens e.g. Excel took over Lotus 1-2-3 by being a better spreadsheet, not a different spreadsheet).

Law 10 (law of division)

Over time a category will divide and become two or more categories. E.g. computers started as a single category but broke up into mainframes, workstations, personal computers, laptops etc. Cars started as a single category but divided into luxury cars, sport cars, RVs, minivans etc. Companies often don't understand that and instead think that categories are combining, believe in synergy. Leader can maintain dominance by addressing emerging categories with new brand names instead of using brand name successful in one category in a new category. E.g. when Honda wanted to go up-market it created a new brand, Acura.

Law 11 (law of perspective)

Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time. It's a mistake to sacrifice long-term planning with actions to improve short-term balance sheet. E.g. sales increase short-term profits but in long-term educates people not to buy for regular price, therefore decreasing long-term profits.

Law 12 (law of extension)

There's an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand and it's a mistake. Instead one should create new brands to address new markets/products.

Here authors predict (in 1993) that Microsoft will fail because the they use this unhealthy strategy of extending their brand to new products. 9 years later and Microsoft is still going strong. Looks like the law doesn't hold universally.

Law 13 (law of sacrifice)

You have to give up something in order to get something. There are three things to sacrifice:

* product line
* target market
* constant change



Law 14 (law of attributes)

For every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute. You can own the same word as the competition. You have to find another word to own, another attribute.

Law 15 (law of candor)

When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive. Candor is disarming. It's ok to admit, as Avis did, that "Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars".

Law 16 (law of singularity)

In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results. People tend to think that success is the result of a lot of small efforts well executed, that working harder is a way to success. In marketing only thing that works is a single, bold stroke.

Law 17 (law of predictability)

Unless you write your competitors' plans, you can't predict the future. You don't know the future, you don't know what your competition will do so you have to build your company and marketing strategies to be flexible, to be able to quickly respond to changing situation.

Law 18 (law of success)

Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure. Don't be arrogant, drop the ego, be objective.

Law 19 (law of failure)

Failure is to be expected and accepted. Drop things that don't work instead of trying to fix them. Don't punish for failures (if you do people will stop taking risks).

Law 20 (law of hype)

The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press. The amount of hype isn't proportional to success, often failed products are heavily hyped.

Law 21 (law of acceleration)

Successful programs are not built on fads but on trends.

Law 22 (law of resources)

Without adequate funding an idea won't get off the ground. You need a lot of money to market your ideas.

One one hand you can read it as a "don't fool yourself" advice. On the other hand authors promote indiscriminate spending of money of advertising without any mention of the fact that sometimes advertisement doesn't pay. It seems obvious that you should never spend more on marketing that you can hope to get out of it in later revenues, yet the books never says that. It just asserts that you need to spend a lot on marketing which is a suspicious advice coming from people who do marketing.

Summary

How one should judge a book on marketing? If the book gives information that allows you to do better marketing, then it's a good marketing book.

In my opinion "The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing" fails in that respect. Their examples that illustrate the laws are taken from the relatively small pool of the biggest companies in the world. It's not evident that the same rules apply to small (or medium) businesses.

The advice is frequently not helpful, e.g. "make sure your program deals realistically with your position on the ladder". Well, thanks guys, but how exactly?

A very frequent flaw of this book is its use of selected examples to illustrate their laws. If I can choose my examples I can make any laws I want - there will always be an example that support my "law" (the problem is that there might be 100 counter-examples that I won't mention). I can understand that providing counter-examples isn't something that authors were interested in, that a rule that is only correct in 80% of the cases is still a very useful rule, that not talking about every possibility can improve the clarity of exposition ("A little inaccuracy can save tons of explanation") but I got the impression that author's way of choosing examples was based on "whatever seems to confirm what we say" principle.

And never forget:

Marketing is the science of convincing us that What You Get Is What You Want. -- John Carter



Source:

blog.kowalczyk.info/articles/22-marketing-laws.html

ImmutableMarketing Laws

This is a summary of ideas from the book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Text in normal is my paraphrasing of what the book says. Text in italic represents my personal comments. And remember: this is just a short summary and is not meant to replace the book, nothing beats reading the real thing. The book is short, buy and read it.

Law 1 (law of leadership)

Being first in the market is better than having a better product than a competition. Examples: we all remember who first flew over Atlantic or who was the first man on the moon but almost no-one knows who was the second. Heineken was the first imported beer in USA and still is No. 1 imported beer. Same for Miller Lite, first domestic light beer. Being first doesn't matter if the idea/product is not good.

I think it's better to say that being first gives one extremely big advantage over competition but doesn't guarantee the success. It's rather obvious that it doesn't matter that you're first to market if no-one needs your product or if your product is very bad. There are many examples from computer industry that disapprove this rule (i.e. first spreadsheet isn't the dominant spreadsheet, first word processor isn't the dominant word processor) so there are (many) cases showing that n-th product can overtake early leaders. But it's very hard and usually requires the leader to make huge mistakes.

Law 2 (law of category)

Given that it's very hard to gain leadership in a category where competition already exists, it's better to create a product in new category than trying to attack existing categories. Category doesn't have to be radically different, e.g. if there's dominant player in imported beer, one can become the first to import light beer. If one can't be the first to fly over Atlantic, one can still be the first woman to fly over Atlantic.

Law 3 (law of mind)

It's not important to be the first in the market but the first in the mind of consumers.

Law 4 (law of perception)

Marketing is not about products (their features or quality) but about perceptions (how people perceive products). Reality doesn't exists, what we call "reality" is just a perception of reality that we create in our minds. Honda is a leading Japanese car manufacturer in US but only third in Japan (after Toyota and Nissan). If the quality of the car was the most important thing it should have the same position in all markets. In Japan, however, people perceive Honda as a manufacturer of motorcycles.

Therefore what's important is that marketing should be focused on changing the perception.

I have mixed feelings about this law. I fully accept the premise (that perceptions is our reality). However our perception is mostly grounded in objective reality. After all if it's raining not many people will maintain the perception that it's wonderfully sunny day. Therefore one way of changing the perception is to change the reality (e.g. improve the quality of your cars). Maybe having the desired reality is not enough to achieve desired perception but it's hard to argue that you can create any perception you want regardless of reality. If your car breaks down every 10 miles no amount of marketing will convince people that it has high quality.

Law 5 (law of focus)

"The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect's mind". Owning in this context means that if people hear or see this word they usually connect it with a company that "owns" this word. IBM owns "computer". FedEx owns "overnight". You can't take somebody else's word

I can't help but to think that this book has overly simplified thinking. Being simple is good but not when the reality is more complex. First this law seems to be derived from mega-corporation. The problem is that there aren't that many companies that are big enough to own a word in people's consciousness. Therefore the advice is only possibly relevant to a few people who design marketing campaigns for those behemoths but useless for all small business. There aren't even enough words to own to satisfy 10% of business in US.

Law 6 (law of exclusivity)

It's fruitless to try to take over a word that is already owned by a competitor. Burger King tried to own word "fast" which was already owned by McDonald; and failed miserably. FedEx tried to take over "worldwide" from DHL.

This talk about "owning" words is a bit silly. The book doesn't say anything about how to actually own the word. I guess you're supposed to use it in your marketing/advertisement material but such statement is not very helpful for a marketer (I think; I'm not one).

Law 7 (law of the ladder)

Marketing strategy depends on your position in the market. If you're No. 2 you use different strategy than when you're No. 1 or 3. Avis was No. 2 in car rental and when they advertised as "finest in rent-a-cars" the had losses because their marketing wasn't credible (you can't be "finest" being No. 2). That had profit when they switched to "Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars. So why go with us? We try harder". Then they had another disastrous campaign when they started claiming "Avis is going to be No. 1".

I agree with the premise (kind of marketing depends on your position in the market). However the book says very little about what kind of strategy one should use in a given position (except for a few examples). Additionally their examples feel like they oversimplify complex reality. Even assuming that the data about e.g. Avis is fully correct (i.e. that there is strong correlation between Avis profits and the kind of marketing campaign) I find it hardly unlikely that there's a causality relationship. I don't think that good or bad marketing campaign can make or break a company. I can see how this point of view can be attractive for marketing people but I would think that success depends on more factors. Marketing might be an important factor but certainly not dominant.

Law 8 (law of duality)

In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race. McDonald & Burger King. Coca-Cola & Pepsi. Nike & Reebok. Crest & Colgate.

Even if that was universally true, how does it help a marketing person? There's little a marketing person can do about the position of his company in the market. The only conclusion I can make is that if I were a marketing person and worked for No. 3 company, I should just quit and apply for a job in No. 2 or 1.

The other problem is that it isn't universally true and the book again makes a big simplification of reality and it tries to support this simplified picture with selectively chosen examples. There are market where 2 brands can't fulfill all the demand (there are more than 2 well-known car manufacturers). There are markets that tend to fall into monopoly (e.g. Microsoft has 95% of operating system and office software markets). I'm sure there are many markets that are two-horse race, but then again there are also three-horse race markets as well as highly fragmented markets. This "law" is nothing but a sometimes true observation and it's not true frequently enough to be worth anything.

Law 9 (law of opposite)

If you're shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader. Leverage the leader's strength into a weakness. Don't try to be better than the leader, try to be different. E.g. Pepsi marketed itself as a "choice for the new generation" when faced with Coca-cola's "old and established" brand.

Sounds correct although doesn't apply to those who do have ambitions to overtake the leader in exactly the same category (which happens e.g. Excel took over Lotus 1-2-3 by being a better spreadsheet, not a different spreadsheet).

Law 10 (law of division)

Over time a category will divide and become two or more categories. E.g. computers started as a single category but broke up into mainframes, workstations, personal computers, laptops etc. Cars started as a single category but divided into luxury cars, sport cars, RVs, minivans etc. Companies often don't understand that and instead think that categories are combining, believe in synergy. Leader can maintain dominance by addressing emerging categories with new brand names instead of using brand name successful in one category in a new category. E.g. when Honda wanted to go up-market it created a new brand, Acura.

Law 11 (law of perspective)

Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time. It's a mistake to sacrifice long-term planning with actions to improve short-term balance sheet. E.g. sales increase short-term profits but in long-term educates people not to buy for regular price, therefore decreasing long-term profits.

Law 12 (law of extension)

There's an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand and it's a mistake. Instead one should create new brands to address new markets/products.

Here authors predict (in 1993) that Microsoft will fail because the they use this unhealthy strategy of extending their brand to new products. 9 years later and Microsoft is still going strong. Looks like the law doesn't hold universally.

Law 13 (law of sacrifice)

You have to give up something in order to get something. There are three things to sacrifice:

* product line
* target market
* constant change



Law 14 (law of attributes)

For every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute. You can own the same word as the competition. You have to find another word to own, another attribute.

Law 15 (law of candor)

When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive. Candor is disarming. It's ok to admit, as Avis did, that "Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars".

Law 16 (law of singularity)

In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results. People tend to think that success is the result of a lot of small efforts well executed, that working harder is a way to success. In marketing only thing that works is a single, bold stroke.

Law 17 (law of predictability)

Unless you write your competitors' plans, you can't predict the future. You don't know the future, you don't know what your competition will do so you have to build your company and marketing strategies to be flexible, to be able to quickly respond to changing situation.

Law 18 (law of success)

Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure. Don't be arrogant, drop the ego, be objective.

Law 19 (law of failure)

Failure is to be expected and accepted. Drop things that don't work instead of trying to fix them. Don't punish for failures (if you do people will stop taking risks).

Law 20 (law of hype)

The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press. The amount of hype isn't proportional to success, often failed products are heavily hyped.

Law 21 (law of acceleration)

Successful programs are not built on fads but on trends.

Law 22 (law of resources)

Without adequate funding an idea won't get off the ground. You need a lot of money to market your ideas.

One one hand you can read it as a "don't fool yourself" advice. On the other hand authors promote indiscriminate spending of money of advertising without any mention of the fact that sometimes advertisement doesn't pay. It seems obvious that you should never spend more on marketing that you can hope to get out of it in later revenues, yet the books never says that. It just asserts that you need to spend a lot on marketing which is a suspicious advice coming from people who do marketing.

Summary

How one should judge a book on marketing? If the book gives information that allows you to do better marketing, then it's a good marketing book.

In my opinion "The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing" fails in that respect. Their examples that illustrate the laws are taken from the relatively small pool of the biggest companies in the world. It's not evident that the same rules apply to small (or medium) businesses.

The advice is frequently not helpful, e.g. "make sure your program deals realistically with your position on the ladder". Well, thanks guys, but how exactly?

A very frequent flaw of this book is its use of selected examples to illustrate their laws. If I can choose my examples I can make any laws I want - there will always be an example that support my "law" (the problem is that there might be 100 counter-examples that I won't mention). I can understand that providing counter-examples isn't something that authors were interested in, that a rule that is only correct in 80% of the cases is still a very useful rule, that not talking about every possibility can improve the clarity of exposition ("A little inaccuracy can save tons of explanation") but I got the impression that author's way of choosing examples was based on "whatever seems to confirm what we say" principle.

And never forget:

Marketing is the science of convincing us that What You Get Is What You Want. -- John Carter




blog.kowalczyk.info/articles/22-marketing-laws.html

How to Know When It's Time to Go

The Magic is Gone

So you've been at your job a couple years and now you're bored. Or frustrated. Or disgruntled. Sound familiar? It's possible you've just fallen into the age-old workplace habit of griping for griping's sake, says Cynthia Shapiro, author of "Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn't Want You to Know -- And What to Do About Them."


"I Hate My Boss" Syndrome

Sure, a lot of bosses are crummy managers, but many are manageable. "If your boss looks like he's terrible, it's probably just that you're terrible at managing up," says Penelope Trunk, author of "Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success."

"I Think My Boss Hates Me" Syndrome

But what if you are doing a heckuva job, only to be snubbed when your boss hands out the plum projects, pay raises, and promotions? Maybe you're constantly getting the difficult clients dumped in your lap. Or you just received a poor performance review, seemingly out of the blue.

The Titanic Is Sinking

When the company's in trouble, your job is, too. If you haven't been paid in three weeks or the CEO is starting to blog about how the company is willing to do anything to boost profitability (translation: layoffs ahead), make like the Lutz family in "The Amityville Horror" and get out now.

Your Health Is Failing

"If you tell someone you're in an abusive relationship with a guy and he's making you physically ill, they're like, 'Get out, get out,'" says Trunk. "But, if you tell them your job's making you sick, they say, 'I know, I hate my job, too.'"


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