Rating: 
Summary: A Definite Five Star Book - Six if I could!
Review: I rarely give five star ratings anymore because a "paradigm shift" or excellent insights are needed to get such a review. This book deserves the five star rating. 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."
Rating:
Summary: A Definite Five Star Book - Six if I could!
Review: I rarely give five star ratings anymore because a "paradigm shift" or excellent insights are needed to get such a review. This book deserves the five star rating.
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."
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: I read this book as research for my undergraduate dissertation. It is a really good light read, easy to understand with interesting and funny examples. I particularly like the fact that it is not too academic, its more of a practical understanding of the need for differentiation and the way companies have achieved (or not) differentiation. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject area. It is a light, enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: I read this book as research for my undergraduate dissertation. It is a really good light read, easy to understand with interesting and funny examples. I particularly like the fact that it is not too academic, its more of a practical understanding of the need for differentiation and the way companies have achieved (or not) differentiation. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject area. It is a light, enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: A License to Print Money
Review: If you want to know (what you need to know) about a brand, "the why" and "the how" to build one, there's simply no better book - full-stop. It's a geneal piece o'work. Very nice.
Always I've used the word [love] sparingly. But I will say this, "I LUUUUV!! this book". If Trout & Rivkin were to ever Incorporate this book, I'd buy shares.
If I have a criticism, it would be only this one: I think the "or Die" in the title is a bit over-the-top. For me, just [Differenciate] would have said enough. But, what do I know? I'm sure these fellas know what they're doing. They've convinced me as much, anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Another great book from Jack Trout
Review: If you've read Positioning or Marketing Warfare then you'll want to read this new book from Trout. It's full of great ideas and I read it the day I got it.
Rating:
Summary: Strategy is all about differentiation.
Review: In the new global world order, you either differentiate and survive,or you die, as Mr Trout has been preaching for 30 years. I read thisbook fresh from the printer, and was happy to see, for the first time by Mr Trout, some practical advice on how to do it. How to get there - if we are here? One can just hope that enough European executives read this book before it is too late... END
Rating: 
Summary: We can survive only by using the differentiating ideas
Review: It is not a book for marketers only but also for all kinds of people in the business world.
I was first impressed by the title of this book. In the business world, there are many different brands for each product. Usually there are products with similar features and functions. In order to make consumers to be impressed by our own brands, we need to tell what are our differences. It is not easy for them to find out the differences between different brands.
Consumers will just choose one that has some special features; that is, the one has differentiated itself from others.
So in this book, it illustrated nine ways for differentiation and it tells us how to manage and maintain the differentiation.
I think the methods discussed in this book are useful and executable in our daily life, but we have to base on the nature of our own products. We can choose a combination of the differentiating methods or by focusing on one method. It will help us to gain competitive advantages.
One thing we have to bear in mind, we cannot produce everything for everyone. Especially when you are not the leader in that market. We then have to target a niche market.
Thus we have to specialize by using the methods of differentiation.
Also, we have to manage our differentiation. Look at the market from time to time and from place to place, to see whether it is really a differentiating idea.
The most important thing that I learn from reading the books is that: We have to know what our competitors are doing, even though you are the most favorable brand in the market. You have to copy from them if necessary: Don't avoid their new idea. Once you have no knowledge about them, you are going to die in the business world.
It is a great book that you cannot miss! I think I have learn a lot from it.
Rating: 
Summary: Differentiate your books - or stop writing them
Review: Jack Trout is an excellent writer and has important insights about the importance of differentiation. That being said, I especially liked this book the first two times I read it when it was titled "Positioning" and "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing." Personally I'd be a bit embarassed to use 50% of the exact same cases and examples from previous books and still charge ( ). Apparently a harvest strategy and not a good way to differentiate oneself.
That being said, if you haven't read anything by Jack Trout or Al Ries then this book, or one of the aforementioned books, is essential reading for marketing and brand managers.
