By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    superfoods to help with prostate health
    10 Healthy Foods That Can Help Protect Your Prostate
    August 29, 2022
    recover from an acl injury
    Best Exercises to Rehab a Torn ACL Without Special Equipment
    November 29, 2022
    medical practice and technology advancement
    6 Essential Strategies for Improving Your Medical Practice
    January 25, 2023
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Heart Attacks & Hospitalization in CA
    June 16, 2011
    1309953786_9781780660004-web_w185_h300
    Possibly the Best #Health Advice You Could Get!
    March 2, 2012
    Is a Government Takeover of Health Care Underway?
    August 1, 2011
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: The 23rd Immutable Law for Healthcare Marketing
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > The 23rd Immutable Law for Healthcare Marketing
Business

The 23rd Immutable Law for Healthcare Marketing

Stewart Gandolf
Stewart Gandolf
Share
5 Min Read
22 laws of marketing
SHARE

Much has changed in the couple of decades since Al Ries and Jack Trout—both highly respected marketing strategists—published The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

Much has changed in the couple of decades since Al Ries and Jack Trout—both highly respected marketing strategists—published The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. At the time, most hospitals didn’t have “branding” in their vocabulary, less than 10,000 websites existed on the still-emerging Internet, medical practices didn’t have a “marketing person,” and social media had yet to be invented.

For commercial and retail businesses, however, marketing and advertising were well-established industries with sophisticated thinking about reaching and influencing consumers.

Ries and Trout’s take on the “laws of marketing” have endured, and their influential books about marketing and branding remain recommended reading. (And just in case you can’t find your dog-eared textbook, the original 22 Laws are outlined below.)

More Read

Driving Down the Real Cost of Healthcare: Pediatric and Teen Medical Homes
When Negative Reviews are Addressed Patient Satisfaction Can Double
Kaiser: Medicare Reform Ideas
Healthcare Administrators: Lighten Your Load With These 4 Tips
Eliminating Risk with Independent Review Organizations & External Reviews

For healthcare marketing, let’s add one more…

There should, in our experience, be at least one more “Immutable Law” that always applies in health care marketing.

The Law of Happiness. People do not buy a medical procedure, service or product. What they shop for—and their reason for buying—is to achieve greater wellbeing for themselves. Call it happiness. Beneath everything else, it’s the one and only reason people buy healthcare.

Our Number 23 also applies somewhat universally to non-medical marketing also. A new car. A trip to Las Vegas. A vacuum cleaner. People don’t decide to purchase product; what they truly want to acquire is the emotional experience that follows.

Until or unless your marketing and advertising message touches this emotional experience epicenter, there is little hope of being effective. Challenge yourself: What are you selling?

The (other) 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing….

22 laws of marketingYou’ll want to read the original book and others by Ries and Trout, but here’s the quick reference list.

  1. Leadership: It’s better to be first than it is to be better.
  2. Category: If you can’t be first in a category, setup a new category you can be first in.
  3. Mind: It’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the market place.
  4. Perception: Marketing is not a battle of products; it’s a battle of perceptions.
  5. Focus: The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.
  6. Exclusivity: Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect’s mind.
  7. Ladder: The strategy to use is dependent on which rung you occupy on the ladder.
  8. Duality: In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race.
  9. Opposite: If you’re shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader.
  10. Division: Over time, a category will divide and become two or more categories.
  11. Perspective: Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time.
  12. Line Extension: There’s an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand.
  13. Sacrifice: You have to give up something in order to get something.
  14. Attributes: For every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute.
  15. Candor: When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive.
  16. Singularity: In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results.
  17. Unpredictability: Unless you write your competitors’ plans, you can’t predict the future.
  18. Success: Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure.
  19. Failure: Failure is to be expected and accepted.
  20. Hype: The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press.
  21. Acceleration: Successful programs are not built on fads, they’re built on trends.
  22. Resources: Without adequate funding an idea won’t get off the ground.

What would you add to this list? In addition to our Law of Happiness, there are a couple more concepts that we’ll propose in a future post. But let us know what you’re thinking and we’ll build out the list for the benefit of other hospital and healthcare marketing professionals.

Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

travel nurse in north carolina
Balancing Speed and Scope: Choosing the Nursing Degree That Fits Your Goals
Nursing
September 1, 2025
intimacy
How to Keep Intimacy Comfortable as You Age
Relationship and Lifestyle Senior Care
September 1, 2025
engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Lessons Learned: The Hard Way

November 9, 2011

TruTouch Technologies Receives US Patent For Non-Invasive Alcohol Detection Device

January 4, 2012
BusinesseHealth

6 Tips for Medical Companies to Improve the Patient Experience

September 29, 2020
BusinessMedical RecordsNewsPolicy & Law

Stage 2 Meaningful Use NPRM Now Available

February 24, 2012
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?