MHJ
Literature reviews, by category
Jack Trout with Steve Rivkin:
Differentiate or Die. How to survive in our era of killer competition.

Rating: * * * *
Reviewed: 17.6.2002

Jack Trout is a marketing guru who, with Al Ries, coined the notion of positioning in the late 1960’s. He is an aggressive advocate of differentiation and positioning and has authored and co-authored 9 books on the matter.
First of all, Trout uses very simple language and a minimum of buzzwords, matrices or flowcharts – none, actually. He writes in short sentences and uses common words, which in part differentiates him from the majority of business authors, especially from the field of management consulting. Trout’s style will appeal to the hands-in-the-dirt manager who doesn’t care about fancy concepts and who wants proof and supporting cases to the business advice he is given.
Talking about proof, I’m bothered by the lack of references in Trout’s books. I am accustomed to seeing those little numbers in the ends of paragraphs or the parenthesis’s indicating who said what and when. Even if I don’t check the source, endnotes and a comprehensive notes list add to the credibility greatly. Yes, Trout’s notions are credible and his examples simple ones and about many large, well-know companies – but still, it’s the image.
Differentiate or Die once again underlines the importance of 1) having a unique offering and 2) positioning that uniqueness into the mind. Only then are you on a sound basis for your marketing efforts. Trout lists 10 routes to differentiation, which can be used by anybody and which work in positioning the product or the service into the mind so that it will be remembered and preferred end finally paid for. He also gives examples of losing one’s differentiation and falling victim to the line-extension trap or other mistakes that confuse the customer and deteriorate the positioning. Minds hate confusion, as Trout puts it.
Even as the book’s main theme is underlining the importance of differentiation, underlining it again and then underlining it once more, the notion of differentiation becomes compelling and credible. The rating of four stars represents the effectiveness of the book – the one missing star the presentation style.

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