Al Ries, Jack Trout "Marketing Wars": content, reviews

It is believed that you can not build your own business without proper motivation. At the same time, her role is often played not only by the notorious dream of getting rich or asserting itself, but also concrete examples of successful people. It is these citizens that describe the book "Marketing Wars", which for more than 20 years has not lost its popularity among business representatives. What is special about this publication? What is it about? And what do readers think about it?

General information about the book

The book with a beautiful speaking name was first written in 1986, it was published under the authorship of Al Rice and Jack Trout (you can see it in the photo below). It is noteworthy that both writers were real marketers who succeeded in their business.

As a basis for their future best-selling book, the authors took the theory, which the Prussian officer and military writer Carl von Clausewitz once expressed in his scientific works On War . According to this theory, in his work "Marketing Wars" writers conducted an analogy between real fighting and imaginary financial competitions among large corporations. In their opinion, this connection is obvious, and the author of the theory they call the greatest marketing strategist in history.

What is the main purpose of the book?

The purpose of writing "Marketing Wars", including the indication of reasons, the authors describe in detail in the preface. In it, they talk about the readiness of large corporations to fight for leadership, not disdaining even the dirtiest methods of struggle.

According to them, the book "Marketing Wars" is a kind of a tool for large and small entrepreneurs who want to build their own business, are not afraid of competition and simply "want to survive."

The publication provides specific examples of doing business with all the ensuing consequences.

E. Rice and D. Trout "Marketing Wars": a summary

In the sensational edition it is a question of modern marketing. And readers are invited to look at the struggle between corporations from a completely different angle.

The book talks about the very essence of marketing, which, according to the authors, boils down not to customer service, but to using various tricks and tricks that help to circumvent and overtake competitors' companies. And marketing in this case is presented as conducting some fighting between representatives of big business for the territory, in whose role the entire client audience acts.

What marketing strategies do the authors offer?

In addition to useful advice, E. Rice and D. Trout ("Marketing Wars" - one of the most famous publications of the authors) talk about existing marketing strategies. According to their assumption, they come in the following types:

• Offensive;
• Defensive;
• Partisan;
• Flanking.

Based on the above-mentioned book on marketing, the offensive strategy is to find talented generals for two or several large competing companies. At the same time, the main tasks of the found commander are the search and skillful use of the enemy's weak side.

Defensive tactics suggest the game of a large marketing leader. It is noteworthy that the strategy is based on the attack of the opponent (the competing company) not chosen, but of himself. In addition, according to such tactics, a strong corporation should see and warn the competitor's attack in a timely manner and do everything to make it fail miserably.

Guerrilla and flank tactics

About guerrilla tactics Jack Trout and his co-author write the following: almost all players in a marketing war are obliged to conduct covert activity. The fact is that many companies that are very far away from leaders in a serious financial race will only be able to count on success if they do not openly fight. In the opinion of the authors, they will greatly succeed, leading a guerrilla war.

Flank tactics, as it turned out, directly depends on the successfully chosen moment. And it is necessary not only to determine it, but also to make corrections to it. In other words, if one company has gaps in the analysis of a segment market, they must necessarily fill in the corporation of its competitor. And of course, here, as in a real war, everything depends on the factor of surprise.

What major companies are mentioned in the book?

As the main players, Al Ries and D. Trout mention the leaders of carbonated soft drinks, fast food, beer production and sales, IT technologies and many others. For example, in the work of the authors it is a real war between such titans as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The competition of these two companies is so great that it entails a century-long confrontation.

In the book about "Marketing wars", these brands are first compared, and then the methods of their struggle with each other are described. So, according to the authors, the taste qualities of both drinks are approximately the same. But Coca-Cola keeps its composition only in secret, and Pepsi, on the contrary, writes on each label. But that's not the point.

Both firms prefer to fight on the advertising field, using for this media, bigboards, signs and other attributes. And their fight, as Jack Trout argues, is very serious. It is worth only one participant in the war to shoot the video, partially ridiculing the competitor, as the second creates his video in response.

Well, then both leaders begin to compete, creating a new bottle, working on improving the formula, as well as coming up with a variety of promotions with a lot of prizes and win-win lotteries.

It is interesting that the offensive struggle is led by Pepsi. Coca-Cola most often ignores such attacks, choosing a wait-and-see attitude. But if the company answers, it does it in a big way.

Confrontation between the leaders of fast food

Another vivid example of military operations, mentioned in the book "Marketing Wars", is the longstanding confrontation between fast food restaurants McDonald's and Burger King.

In this case, competitions between organizations also occur due to advertising. For example, there is a case where the restaurant Burger King has placed its banner near the entrance to McDonald's. And on it was a big hamburger with the inscription "Feel the taste, not the aftertaste" and there was a pointer to the restaurant Burger King. Thus, the company managed to ridicule the competitor and attract the attention of customers.

Somewhere in the 1980s, marketing wars between leaders reached their climax. At this time, Burger King made a real blow to the breath of its eternal rival, removing the frankly provocative movie. In it, the young actress Sarah Michelle Gellar ate a burger and said that Burger King products had 20% more meat than McDonald's.

In response to such a daring move, representatives of the competitor sued not only the company itself, but also the actress, as well as an advertising agency that developed the script for the video.

The war between Apple and Samsung

Given the examples from the book on marketing, you can not fail to mention and such big players of IT-technologies, like Samsung and Apple. Both companies chose flank tactics. For example, after the release of the iPhone 4, Apple began to get a lot of indignation and criticism about the communication failure.

Learning about this failure of an age-old rival, Samsung immediately created a whole line of Galaxy S. At the same time she sent the novelty to the most famous English bloggers, who wrote about the shortcomings of Apple.

Simultaneously, Samsung launched advertising support for Galaxy S, using instead of the letters LL in the word Hello icons of communication. Thus, the company promoted its products and mockingly countered the firm-competitor.

The struggle between car leaders

The publication "Marketing Wars" also tells about automobile giants, who often compete among themselves. A vivid example of this is the confrontation between Audi, Porshe and Nissan.

As a weapon, these manufacturers, like previous competitors, use advertising. For example, the most successful is the marketing move of Nissan, which, as a strategy, chose an alternative comparison with its competitors. To this end, she drove through the cities of England cars Audi and Porshe, accompanied by their inscriptions: "More expensive, slower and not as powerful as the Nissan 370Z" and "I want to be as fast as the Nissan 370Z".

What was the response to this advertising trick in Audi and Porshe, in the best-selling "Marketing Wars" (reviews and discussion about this work still do not die out) is not said. But, most likely, the companies did not leave this move without attention.

This sensation produced a spectacular advertisement of BMW in 2003. According to the idea of marketers, was a vivid photo shoot, during which the BMW X5 in the guise of a predatory jaguar chased the Mercedes ML in the form of a fast-moving zebra.

Examples from the life of domestic brands

Looking at large foreign representatives, domestic marketing is gradually developing (this uncomplicated science is very popular among students of different countries today). At the same time, employees of Russian companies and their representative offices do not lag behind their foreign colleagues. For example, recently a fight has taken place between the company "Unilever Rus" and Nestle. And it was a truly culinary duel. So, the first of the players released a promotional video of chicken broths TM "Knorr", which twice mentioned that it is necessary to cook without magic. And at the end of the video sounded a slogan: "This soup. No magic. "

What are users' opinions about the book?

Despite the fact that a lot of time has passed since the publication and translation of the book into Russian, it is still being talked about. For example, one of the employees of the marketing department writes that he is impressed by the publication. In his opinion, the book talks about the really working methods that are used today by many large and small companies. And the user expresses his regret that he did not read the publication earlier.

Another user also describes his first acquaintance with the book. From his words it becomes clear that the publication is positioned as a textbook, on the basis of which he managed to complete a full marketing-training.

The third states that the book is written in clear language and contains a number of specific examples with colorful illustrations. The fourth person liked the non-standard approach of the authors, using comparisons of real fighting and live competition between companies. Some readers who have studied the book from cover to cover consider the marketing methods used by the authors to be irrelevant.

In a word, a book about "Marketing Wars" impressed someone, and who did not. Someone has found in it a lot of useful advice, and another considers it inappropriate and outdated. Whatever it was, the publication is worthy of attention. Having studied it, you will find in it something that will interest you.