Sublime

If you try to be all things to all people, you wind up with nothing. Better to narrow the focus of your expertise.

You need simplicity Only an obvious idea will work today. The overwhelming volume of communication prevents anything else from succeeding. But the obvious isn’t always so obvious.

If you want to be successful today, you can’t ignore the competitor’s position. Nor can you walk away from your own. In the immortal words of Joan Didion, “Play it as it lays.”

What position do you want to own?

marketing plans based on what will happen in the future are usually wrong.

When you take the long view of marketing, you find the battle usually winds up as a titanic struggle between two major players—usually the old reliable brand and the upstart.

You look for the solution to your problem not inside the product, not even inside your own mind. You look for the solution to your problem inside the prospect’s mind.

Equally important is the courage you will need to keep hammering at the same theme, year after year.

Result: early success and long-term failure as illustrated by the failure of Donald Trump.