Law of First

In their famous book The 21 Immutable Laws of Marketing, gurus Jack Trout and Al Ries discusses…

The Law of first: When you are first in an industry, people will remember you best.

If I say the word Toothpaste…you say Colgate.

If I say Picture…you say Kodak

If I say Copy Machine…you say Xerox.

In other words, people remember the name of the product they encounter first.

So it’s simple, in order for you to be first, invent a new product that hasn’t come out in the market. Easy right? With hundreds of thousands of brands to choose from, yes it’s easy — it’s easy to get lost. You can swim with the sea of products out there that has a tendency to drown you from its myriad of selections.

If you’re an inventor like Thomas Edison, creating a new product is feasible. But remember how long it took him to perfect the light bulb, more than 1,000 times of trial and error. By the way, Thomas wasn’t originally the one who invented it. An Englishman by the name of J. W. Starr developed the first design, Thomas eventually bought the patent from a partner of Starr when he died.

You can invent a new product to be the first in the market, or you can choose another route to do it. In my opinion, an easier way to pioneer a product is to create a new category. (Next Blog)