Marketing Warfare

What Hacker News says

1. a4ismsMay 2023
   The general principle is good, and can be found in literally any textbook about market segmentation and business strategy. And the idea of motivating the reader by giving an example is sound, even though in and of themselves, single examples reek to high heaven of survivorship bias.

   If it motivates someone to not give up because they don’t seem to fit the existing templates for success, that is necessary, but not sufficient by a long shot.

   What’s missing are concrete tactics for succeeding with the strategy of “make your own niche.” Lacking specific tactics for replication—at any scale, in any field—its primary value IMO is as an exhortation to go out and research how to succeed with this strategy.

   It’s only a short essay, so it really has no more weight then the preface of a book. And that’s what it reads like: An anecdote at the beginning of a book about succeeding as a niche or specialized entity…

   Only the rest of the book—with specific chapters detailing the strategy at finer levels of detail and laying out tactics to thrive—is missing. We are left to either fumble around blindly, frustrated that we are unable to “paint the target around our arrow,” or go out and do a lot more reading and learning to assemble the rest of the book by hand.

   If anyone does find this inspirational or thought-provoking, there are entire books touching on the subject that provide a lot more value. If this motivates people to go out and read such books, it’s not a complete waste of time, but it is incomplete and fails to say “Hey, this is just to whet your appetite, this is the beginning of a long journey. Bruce took decades to discover what worked by trial and error and working with others, you can read these books to get you started on the right road.”

   I’ll contribute one book recommendation: “Marketing Warfare” by Reis and Trout. It’s also lightweight and easily digestible, but it contains a simple model of competition that divides business into four different strategies (offence, defence, flanking, guerrilla) and then details specific advice for success in each one.

   What they call “guerrilla” is closest to what this essay espouses, and readers may find their advice a little more actionable. But even then, that book is not a complete how-to. You have to keep learning and keep researching.

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2. bus85Nov 2022
   Marketing Warfare by Al Ries and Jack Trout. I read the 25 year anniversary edition which revisited some of the advice these two giants of marketing gave some of the big brands of the '80s - PC vs. Mac, Coke vs. Pepsi, 7up vs. Coke, etc, etc.

   I'm not a marketer but it certainly made a lot of seemingly incomprehensible status quos click.

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3. mindcrimeSep 2022
   That would be a long list, given that I read a lot of books and would generally say that most of the books I've read were worth investing time in to some extent. But for what it's worth, here's a subset, cribbed from my previous HN comments:

   Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll

   The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo

   The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman

   The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel

   Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder

   The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg

   Hyperspace - Michio Kaku

   Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit

   The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin

   About Time - Paul Davies

   Time Reborn - Lee Smolin

   The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene

   The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene

   The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene

   Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott

   The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo

   Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin

   Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos - Seth Lloyd

   Higgs - The invention and discovery of the 'God Particle' - Jim Baggott

   Analogy Making As Perception - Melanie Mitchell

   Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky

   Engineering General Intelligence, Part 1 - Ben Goertzel

   Engineering General Intelligence, Part 2 - Ben Goertzel

   The AGI Revolution - Ben Goertzel

   Hackers & Painters by our very own Paul "pg" Graham

   Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy

   The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder

   Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Katie Hafner & John Markoff

   Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology - Steven Levy

   Ghost In The Wires - Kevin Mitnick

   The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick

   The Art of Intrusion - Kevin Mitnick

   Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

   The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

   It's Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong

   Ultramarathon Man - Dean Karnazes

   Charles Proteus Steinmetz: The Electrical Wizard of Schenectady - Robert Bly

   Report From Engine Co 82 - Dennis Smith

   Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler

   The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! - Al Ries and Jack Trout

   Re-Positioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

   The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries and Laura Ries

   Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition - Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

   Marketing High Technology - William H. Davidow

   Marketing Warfare - Al Ries

   The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema

   Crossing The Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

   How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard

   Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

   The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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4. mindcrimeDec 2018
   I'm a Seth Godin fan, and usually recommend several of his books to people who are interested in marketing. But outside of his material, my list of marketing books would include:

   1. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler

   2. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout

   3. Re-Positioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

   4. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries and Laura Ries

   5. Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

   6. Marketing High Technology by William H. Davidow

   7. Marketing Warfare by Al Ries

   8. The Discipline of Market Leaders by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema

   9. Crossing The Chasm by Geoffrey Moore

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5. cpetersoOct 2016
   I strongly recommend Al Ries and Jack Trout's classic product marketing books Marketing Warfare and Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.
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6. mindcrimeFeb 2016
   "Never be afraid of a crowded market... just be better than everybody else." ~~ Bob Parsons

   Note that "better" does not necessarily mean "better product". It could mean better marketing, better sales force, all of the above, or "other".

   I suggest that you read The Discipline of Market Leaders, Marketing Warfare, and Differentiate or Die, and give serious thought to those ideas.

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