Beyond the 22 Laws of Marketing

There's something oddly comforting about marketing principles that have stood the test of time.

I've been thinking a lot about Ries and Trout's "22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" lately. 

Published in 1993, this slim volume predates social media, smartphones, and the attention economy that defines our current reality.

But here's what's interesting: the core principles still hold.

The Law of Leadership

Being first in a category is still easier than trying to convince people you're better than whoever got there before you.

Google wasn't the first search engine, but it was first in algorithmic search that actually worked. Uber wasn't the first taxi service, but it was first in "tap your phone, car arrives."

When you think about basketball, are you thinking about the NBA or CBA?

Market leaders who got there first still enjoy massive advantages. Their names become synonymous with the category itself.

The Law of Category

If you can't be first in a category, create a new one where you can be first.

HubSpot didn't try to be a better Salesforce. They created "inbound marketing" — a category they could own.

Red Bull didn't compete with Coca-Cola as another soda. They created the energy drink category.

In today's fragmented market, there are infinite opportunities to define new micro-categories. The more saturated marketing becomes, the more valuable category creation is.

The Law of the Mind

Being first in the mind is what matters, not necessarily being first to market.

People still believe Starbucks was the first coffee shop chain, Apple invented the smartphone, and Amazon was the first online bookstore. None are true, but they own the mental position.

In our over-communicated society, the mind filters and rejects much of the information offered it. It accepts only what matches its prior knowledge or experience.

The Law of Perception

Marketing isn't a battle of products; it's a battle of perceptions.

There is no objective reality. There is only what's in the consumer's mind.

The most successful growth marketers today understand they're not selling features. They're selling how they want people to feel about themselves when using the product.

Peloton doesn't sell exercise bikes. They sell membership in a community of high-achievers. Notion doesn't sell productivity software. They sell the feeling of having your digital life organized in one beautiful place.

The Law of Focus

Owning a word in the prospect's mind is still the most powerful concept in marketing.

Google owns "search." FedEx owns "overnight." ChatGPT owns "AI"

What single word do you own?

The narrower your focus, the more powerful your message. Trying to mean everything to everyone ensures you'll mean nothing to anyone.

The Law of Exclusivity

Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect's mind.

Once a competitor owns a word or position in the mind, it's almost impossible to displace them. You need to find an unoccupied space.

Stripe didn't try to out-PayPal PayPal. They focused on being the payment infrastructure for developers.

Shopify didn't try to out-Amazon Amazon. They focused on empowering merchants to build their own brands.

The Law of the Ladder

Your marketing strategy should acknowledge your position on the ladder.

If you're not number one, your entire strategy needs to relate to the company that is. Avis famously embraced their number two position with "We try harder."

If you're number three or lower, you need a completely different strategy. Not every company can be a "challenger brand." Sometimes creating a new ladder is smarter than trying to climb someone else's.

The Law of Duality

Over time, every market becomes a two-horse race.

Look around:

• Coca-Cola and Pepsi

• iOS and Android

• Nike and Adidas

• Netflix and Disney+

This doesn't mean other players can't be profitable, but their strategies need to account for the reality of the big two.

The Law of the Opposite

If you're trying to establish a foothold against a leader, don't try to be better. Try to be different.

Identifying the leader's strength and presenting the opposite approach is still surprisingly effective:

• Fiverr positioned as the cheaper “Upwork”

• Basecamp rejects busy work culture while Asana embraces it

• DuckDuckGo emphasizes privacy while Google emphasizes relevant results

In marketing, sometimes the best way to attack a mountain is to go around it.

The Law of Sacrifice

You have to give up something to get something.

The hard truth about marketing today: You can't go viral on every platform. You can't own every keyword. You can't be everything to everyone.

Effective growth marketing requires deciding what you're NOT going to do:

• Which customer segments will you ignore?

• Which features will you not build?

• Which marketing channels will you skip entirely?

These decisions are painful. They're also necessary.

What's changed since 1993?

The Law of Resources suggested marketing success requires money. While capital still matters, a single creator with the right message can now reach millions without traditional media gatekeepers.

The Law of Division predicted categories would divide into smaller ones. This has accelerated beyond what anyone in 1993 could have imagined. We don't just have software – we have AI-enabled project management tools for remote product teams working cross-timezone.

The Law of Unpredictability warned that long-range planning is impossible. In a world of constant algorithm updates, platform shifts, and attention fragmentation, this is truer than ever.

The laws that matter most now

In today's landscape, several laws deserve special attention:

The Law of Success: Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance leads to failure. The moment you believe you've figured it all out is the moment disruption begins.

The Law of Failure: Admitting mistakes quickly and correcting course is critical. Today's most successful companies build rapid experimentation into their culture.

The Law of Hype: When things are going well, you don't need hype. When you need hype, things aren't going well. Real growth speaks for itself.

The Law of Acceleration: Successful programs aren't built on fads. They're built on trends that have real staying power.

Principles that endure

The beauty of these laws is their foundation in human psychology, not technology. People still want to be first. They still want to feel like they've discovered something. They still make emotional decisions and justify them rationally.

The tools change. The platforms evolve. But the humans on the receiving end of our marketing efforts remain recognizably human.

That's why these principles, now three decades old, still offer valuable guidance as we navigate the noisy, fragmented landscape of modern marketing.

The best marketers don't just chase what's new. They study what endures.