Need to quickly learn the time-tested marketing principles? Read the summary of the book “Marketing Warfare”

I consider the bestseller “Marketing Warfare” written by Al Ries and Jack Trout as one of the best books about marketing I have ever read. Despite of the fact that it was written in 1986 basic principals which was stated in the book haven’t lost their actuality. Simplicity and excitement of presentation supported by iron logic of the authors help you to feel and understand what common sense in marketing is.

Al Ries and Jack Trout compared marketing with the warfare against competitors. They state that the application of the war principles is highly effective in business. And of course there are plenty of examples in the book which proof their theory.  

The main idea is the following:

it is vital to focus more on the competitors rather than on customers. And it seems pretty fair to me: if you have no competitors or people perceive the
competitor’s offers as worse than yours then they have no other choice but to accept yours.  

Ries and Trout apply the principles of Karl von Clausewitz to marketing. Carl von Clausewitz (1780 –1831) was a German-Prussian soldier and military theorist who wrote one of the world’s most notable books about war strategy – “On War”. Military strategists in each country of the world even nowadays study his works at their academies because war strategy principles haven’t been changed since then.

The very neat summary of the principles of marketing wars you can find here