The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Authors: Al Ries, Jack Trout
ISBN: 0006383459
Publisher: HarperCollins

Marketing books ain’t my usual bedtime reading material but as the Open Source movement continues to forge ever onwards the softer skills are going to become every bit as useful as writing code or documentation. While looking for an accessible book on these dark arts I stumbled on Eric Sinks take on the The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing and just had to read the original.

The “22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” is an extremely accessible book that details, as you’d guess from the title, 22 common elements of marketing that the authors consider to be (near) immutable laws. While some of the laws are a little shaky most of them present interesting concepts and some candid real life examples.

Although some of the cases examined (BurgerKing and Pepsi come under repeated scrutiny) are great examples of where things went right (or wrong!) some of the brands mentioned were never successful or even launched in the UK so they lose some of their impact.

Summary: 7/10 Good introduction to a number of interesting ideas. The examples could do with an update and a retrospective about their judgements would warrant another point or two.