Differentiate or Die by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin is an excellent read for those learning how and why businesses succeed in the LONG-TERM. This book is another excellent marketing book by one of the authors. Jack Trout first came to popularity with his seminal book "Positioning," which he co-wrote with Al Ries. For those interested in marketing books The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout is another truly great book by one of the authors.
Differentiation is the key element to long-term success and profits; furthermore, it is an essential area of discussion in any corporate strategy discussions and is frankly the biggest and most important thing I learned while getting my MBA a few years ago.
Some excellent tidbits from the book include:
? It's not simply about what you or your product can do; it's about what you do differently from everyone else. Very similar to concepts introduced in Positioning, one of the co-authors other books
? In today's global marketplace there are more products than ever. Products compete globally rather than locally or nationally as they did in the past.
? In today's lightning-fast rate of change it is critical to be first to market with an invention but it is MORE IMPORTANT to be first to market to position yourself in the marketplace via advertising / marketing to capture customer MINDSHARE.
? It is tougher than ever to get customer's to change their minds as they increasingly have less time to shop on discretionary products or plan vacations due to the increasing reliance on double income households.
? Trout concentrates on illustrating ideas that will differente you from the pack: Being first (and staying there), owning a discernible attribute, having a heritage, becoming the preference of a particular consumer group, or even being the most recent arrival in a product arena are just some of these useful differentiates he presents.
Conclusion: Buy the book. It is well worth the time and money. Most of my reviews are in business / economics and I encourage people to read them, whether here on ... or at my personal website. If you are interested in economic history book I would encourage everyone to read The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner since it is more international in scope and deals with the lives and times of the most famous economists in history. If you are interested in economic development / evolution of U.S. property history I would encourage you to read Hernando DeSoto's Mystery of Capital but note his lack of focus on corruption in certain countries. A great general business book is by the management guru Peter Drucker entitled "The Essential Drucker."