Jack Trout on Strategy: Capturing Mindshare, Conquering Markets Book

If You Don't Have the Right Strategy, You're Toast

And when you really need that perfect strategy there's only one place to turn—marketing strategy guru and bestselling author Jack Trout. For over twenty years, Trout's trailblazing insights have helped business people around the globe capture mindshare, conquer markets, and become market leaders. His bestselling books like Positioning, The New Positioning, Marketing Warfare and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing have solidified his reputation and in a business market where only the strong survive, we need Jack Trout’s wisdom now more than ever. Strategy is all about winning and Jack Trout is all about strategy. Trout on Strategy presents the latest thinking on the topic:

• Strategy is All About Survival
• Strategy is All About Perceptions
• Strategy is All About Being Different
• Strategy is All About Competition
• Strategy is All About Specialization
• Strategy is All About Simplicity
• Strategy is All About Leadership
• Strategy is All About Reality

Competition is more brutal than ever before and companies aren't just fighting to win, they are fighting to survive. Business people in all industries are looking for proven strategies to capture mindshare and conquer markets. Time and time again, they turn to Jack Trout. Trout's experience covers many years and many companies, in many parts of the world. He is recognized as one of the world's leading marketing strategists. Trout on Strategy is a one-stop manual of his groundbreaking marketing insights, featuring his best advice from his many books in the context of what's happening in today's business environment."

Here's what people market leaders say about Jack Trout:

"His strategy of 'better ingredients, better pizza' turned out to be a better way to position Papa John's Pizza."-John Schnatter, Papa John's Pizza

"We spent countless hours and dollars trying to come up with a branding strategy for our company. Finally we found Jack and he outlined a fabulous strategy in two hours. Then he helped us implement the strategy and it is working like a charm."-Leslie Monsky, Decorative Things

"After working with Jack in three different categories, it still amazes me how quickly he provides specific, actionable advice to drive success."-Bob Waldron, General Mills

"Jack's insights are simple and brilliant. Most important, they work as I've discovered in analyzing tech companies."-Steve Milunovich, Merrill Lynch

"We've worked with hundreds of marketing "experts" over the years, but no one comes close to Jack's approach."-Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys, Inc.

"He gave us a strategy to use against some very big competitors in a crowded market."- Sanjeev Gupta, Realization Technologies

"If your competition is listening to Jack and you're not, you're in big trouble. His advice gave us the edge we needed to compete successfully."- Mark Gonsalves, DirectBuy, Inc.

"Jack Trout's ideas provide an uncanny guide to who will succeed and who will

fail."- George James, Private Investor

"I worked with Jack on Xerox' positioning 20 years ago. His insights and foresights have proven remarkable.- Vince Vaccarelli, Xerox Corporation

Jack Trout is the president of Trout & Partners, a marketing firm with offices in 14 countries. The author or coauthor of numerous bestselling books, Jack Trout is responsible for the freshest ideas in marketing in the last 20 years. His concept of "positioning" has become the world's number-one business strategy.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Capturing Mindshare And Conquering Markets
According to Jack Trout, president of a marketing firm with offices in 13 countries, success is not about having the right people, the right tools, the right attitude, the right role models, or the right organization, although all these things help. He explains that having the right strategy is what puts an organization over the top. Strategy, he writes, sets the competitive direction, dictates product planning, tells you how to communicate internally and externally, and tells you on what to focus.

Trout also explains that "a great business strategy without proper marketing will often fail in a highly competitive world."

'Killer Competition'
Strategy is what makes you unique and it is the best way to put that difference into the minds of your customers and prospects, according to Trout. In a world of "killer competition," using good strategy is the best way to survive what Trout calls, "the tyranny of choice." Whether the consumer is choosing between 260 choices of car models, 38 choices of tire makers, or even 50 brands of bottled water, there are so many good alternatives for customers that companies pay dearly for their mistakes. Competitors get your business and you don't get it back very easily. Companies that do not understand this will not survive.

Trout points out that strategy, as defined in Webster's New World Dictionary, is all about "maneuvering into the most advantageous position prior to actual engagement with the enemy." To do this, an organization must first study, understand and maneuver around the battleground - a battleground that is in the minds of consumers and prospects. "Positioning is how you differentiate yourself in the mind of your prospect," he writes.

The Positioning Process
A business strategy's success or failure, Trout explains, depends on how well a company understands these five elements of the positioning process:

1. Minds Are Limited. The mind rejects new information that does not compute. It accepts only new information that matches its current state of mind. The mind has no room for what is new and different unless it is related to the old. One way to overcome the mind's limitations is to present a message as important news.
2. Minds Hate Confusion. People resist that which is confusing, and cherish that which is simple. They want to push a button and watch it work.
3. Minds Are Insecure. Minds tend to be emotional, not rational. When people are uncertain, they often look to others to help them make a decision about how to act. Testimonials and the "bandwagon effect" show that others obviously think a product is good.
4. Minds Don't Change. We are more impressed by what we already know (or buy) than by what's "new." And, according to The Handbook of Social Psychology, "procedures that are effective in changing some attitudes have little effect on others."
5. Minds Can Lose Focus. The more variations you attach to a brand, the more the mind loses focus. The more you lose focus, the more vulnerable you become. In toilet tissue, corn oil, or shortening, the specialist or the well-focused competitor is the winner.

Being Different
Trout on Strategy also tackles many difficult marketing questions that have plagued marketers for years, such as "What is the reason to buy your brand instead of another?" "Where are competitors weak?" and "Why is a core competency so important?" After providing numerous examples of companies that succeeded by putting superior strategies to work, and outlining the failures of those who did not, Trout sums up his advice in simple statements that cut to the chase. Once he has described the benefits of specialization, Trout explains, "It's better to be exceptional at one thing than good at many things."

Trout knows when to borrow the wisdom of others when discussing his topics, and quotes organizational experts such as Peter Drucker and Laurence Peter, business leaders such as Apple's John Sculley and Lotus' Jim Manzi, and industry experts such as Fortune's Carol Loomis and consumer psychologist Dr. Carol Moog. As he quotes the experts and compiles the lessons he has learned throughout his distinguished career as a marketing guru, Trout espouses the value of differentiation, simplicity, leadership and reality.

Why We Like This Book
Trout on Strategy is more than a sampler of the work Trout has compiled in his groundbreaking books. It is also a brief overview and concise collection of crucial lessons about strategy, marketing and branding. As he describes how they have been applied in many successful organizations, Trout reveals the benefits they have had for those who have used them. Copyright © 2004 Soundview Executive Book Summaries