Marketing is not a battle of products, it's a battle of perceptions. (2025‑05‑25 12:21 UTC)
Perceptions win over facts. (2025‑05‑25 12:21 UTC)
Audi has created a perception in my mind. (2025‑05‑25 12:21 UTC)
I decided to prioritize perception over facts and to use a “blast” approach rather than a slow “worm” because it secures top‑of‑mind placement faster.
I call this the “Law of Leadership” in marketing: the first brand to occupy a category or a consumer’s mind tends to retain a lasting advantage because the brand name becomes a mental shortcut or even a verb.
Sula was the first homegrown brand in India to make wines. It still is the market leader.
People tend to stick with what they've got.
One reason the first brand tends to maintain its leadership is that the name often becomes a verb. Google it, Xerox it, etc.
I use lunar‑mission trivia as a rhetorical device to illustrate how people easily recall the first but struggle with the second: “Who was the first person to walk on the Moon? Everyone knows the answer to it. But who was the 2nd one? Or which country was the 2nd to go to the Moon? Hardly a few remember.”
Beyond first‑to‑market, I formulated a “Law of the Category” – if I cannot be the first in an existing category, I should create a new category where I can be first.
If you can't be the first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
This is counter to classic marketing thinking: How do I get people to prefer my brand? Forget the brand. Think categories.
Everyone's interested in what's new, fewer are interested in what's better.
It's better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
Being first in the market is important only to the extent that it allows you to get in the mind first.
The single most wasteful thing you can do in marketing is try to change a mind.
If you want to make a big impression on an audience, you can't worm your way into it slowly. You have to blast your way into the mind.
The reason you blast instead of worm is that people don't like to change their minds. Once they perceive you one way, that's it.