Jack Trout (1935–2017)

I like this book a lot, and would have given it another star, if it were not for another reviewer who pointed out some of the factual fallacies in the book.

The concept of simplicity is great. Over the years I have become a great believer in this, as I find that many people tend to complicate things, just because they think it is more impressive to be complicated. This, as most people should know, is balderdash. Simplicity is critical and it is very difficult to be simple. This is one reason show more why I loved the Apple products. I found the user interface to be simple and uncluttered. So is the Google landing page.

However, simplicity itself does not mean that there is no room for complex thinking. Anyone familiar with the products listed above, or any great piece of corporate strategy or, a a great speech ("I Have A Dream"), will know that there is often a lot of deep and complex thinking that goes on behind this. The trick is then to be able to cut through the complexity, and to produce a product,a piece of communication, that is simple. This is the part that the authors gloss over, and is one more reason why I did not give the book another star. show less

This audio is packed full of interesting branding concepts. One downside is that these concepts are stated as facts. Many times they say if a company had listened to them they would not have gone bankrupt, however there may have been other factors and they fail to mention the companies who didn’t listen to them that did fine. Also, the audio was relased in 2002 so some of their facts turned out to be incorrect like how convergence never works. That said one idea that really made sense to show more me was to sacrifice by holding back in order to differentiate. He suggests sacrificing in three ways: by staying focused on one kind of product, product attribute and target segment in a category.
"When companies are told they have to sacrifice, they often get very upset with the idea. After all, no one really wants to give up anything or get locked into what they feel is a limited market." Good news is "What you advertise, what you sell, and what you make money on can be three different things."
"Let's take Burger King as an example. They should advertise "Broiling, not frying," because that makes them different from McDonald's. Once people arrive, they can sell them chicken or fries or whatever. Who cares? And as for making money, that comes from selling soft drinks, which certainly doesn't need advertising." show less

Extremely useful book, reads almost like a psychology book as much as a marketing one.

It underlines principles that underline anything related to persuasion and communication between people. Indispensable read for marketing, still enjoyable even for anyone else.

Great use of real life challenges and how leaders made changes or adjustments to their strategy or business plan/model for the better of their companies.