May 2nd, 2008 | 
Author: I’ve picked up a book called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout, and I’m blogging a summary of each chapter.
Some commenters from chapter 1 were really chomping at the bit with counterexamples. There are 21 other laws, people!
Chapter 2. The Law of Category
If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
This is really just a more specific application of the first law. If you can’t be first in computers, be first in personal computers. If you can’t be the first to fly solo over the Atlantic, be the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic (Amelia Earhart).
Instead of being a “me too” or an “also ran” brand that gets lost in the shuffle, invent a new category and be first in it. Sometimes even a better product isn’t the key. The question isn’t “How is this brand better than the competition?”, but “What is the brand first in?”
That’s all there is to that law.
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Apple seems to be a good example of this. They seized first in portable music players which has since skyrocketed all of their products in other fields (or at least it seems that way to me).