Hi Paul,
I have a ton of respect for Alex and been through his Teleseminar Secrets program and have to admit that I'm surprised at what I would consider VERY bad marketing advice on some of the points provided here. And while I'm not familiar with your work, I believe it's safe to assume that since you and Alex are clearly partnered together, Alex fully endorses the content here.

Al Ries & Jack Trout were first introduced to me at Altitude by Eben Pagan and I know that Eben bases much of his 8-figure business model directly off much of their work (et al). This further surprises me, given that Alex and Eben are friends and much of the advice here directly contradicts what Eben teaches, while Eben has stated that he basically endorses anything Alex says (or, at least he has in the past). I have learned extensive marketing from Eben's work (and his reference to the work of others) and he has demonstrated his own success (and that of others) with what he teaches.

There appears to be a lot of what Eben Pagan refers to as "emotional estimation and only seeing validation" here.

In Ries & Trout's book, "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing," despite being over 15 years old, not only are these laws not outdated, they are now more important in marketing than ever.

1.) The law of leadership & law of the mind: It's better to be first than it is to be better, and it's better to be first in the mind. Eben has actually said this many times and explained why it's important and how he has used it for his success model. Ironically, the very reason why the Star Trek niche is so huge is BECAUSE it was the first in the mind of audiences. Even Alex's own success is directly because he was the first to come up with the whole "teleseminar" training program (like Eben and his 'dating' category). Other people teach this now, too, but Alex is clearly the king in this niche …and ALWAYS will be. This movie isn't a success because it's "better" or "improved." It's certainly the first "FIRST" Star Trek. (Marketing Law #2) "Another" Star Trek movie wouldn't have been nearly as successful. Also, if a whole series of 'beginnings" Star Trek movies appear, none will be as successful as this one. It's the reason why we continue to purchase Microsoft software with each new release, even though there are better, cheaper options. Despite being one of the biggest failures in Microsoft history, Windows Vista alone still holds more than double the marketshare of every Apple and Linux OS combined.

So, with as much love and respect as I can muster, I sincerely have no intention of being a hater or flaming anyone, but there is so much bad advice on the Internet and it would be different if this were the blog of someone unknown. It is so disappointing and frustrating to have this bad information connected with such a well-known and respected marketing leader as Alex, someone I've respected for years. I genuinely cannot sit back and read this without informing others of factual truth. So, it must be said, Paul, that your point #1 is very, very bad marketing advice to anyone and there is no scenario that can validate your statement.

ESPECIALLY the "never invent" concept. New ideas and concepts are what make the world go around and make people successful. Google? YouTube? iPod? CFL lights? We, as business people, leaders, and coaches should be nurturing people to absolutely "invent" and be confident to put forth their new ideas and inventions no matter how obscure. Yes, repackaging ideas/products is fine and is a common, effective model. But, the mere thought of telling anyone to outright "never invent" is highly disturbing.

The "me too" or "we're better than the other guy" messages are the pure opposite of positioning techniques. Everybody says it and consumers EXPECT others to say 'were better,' so consumers automatically don't believe it anymore. Positioning is the most powerful and effective marketing technique.

As far as the 'new talent' concept, I agree with the idea, as new blood is always beneficial, but these aren't exactly new characters -only new "sides" we haven't seen before. We're already fans of Kirk, Spock, etc because we already know a lot about them. We couldn't exactly have Leonard Nimoy play his younger self in this movie for obvious reasons, but the kid who played him was a representation of him (Spock), he was not a newly created character. We're not really seeing the new actor, just the old character we already know and love. There really wasn't any other option but to bring in new talent.

'Tap into existing markets' is subjective. For example, Paris Hilton is a huge brand -everyone knows who she is. She's a marketing and P.R. genius (like or hate her). She sells jeans (she's tapped into an existing marketing.) So, how many pairs of Paris Hilton jeans do the women in your life own? This movie was only the same niche for the same niche. Stargate and FireFly tried desperately to tap into the Star Trek market …and have done reasonably well. But, because of Marketing Law #1, Star Trek will always be king.

On the note of marketing partners, yes, they can certainly make or break you -no secret here, but there's a caveat: Many of us FireFly/Serenity fans were upset because the studios wouldn't release any real marketing funds to incorporate marketing partners (Law #22). Why? Simply because it didn't have a 'big star' in it. (Apparently your 'new talent' theory doesn't stand on its own without strong marketing partners.) The success they did have was because of the demands of their followers. Even I only heard about FireFly through word of mouth, not big marketing $. Many of us believe FireFly/Serenity would have been huge if it had a comparable marketing budget. I believe it could've gone far. Guess we'll never know.

Bottom line, yes the writers/producers did a great job and it's a great movie.

I believe the only real (and most important) marketing lessons to be learned from Star Trek are the demonstration and validation of Immutable Laws, #1, #3, and #22:
The Laws of Leadership, the Mind, and Resources.

Honestly not trying to flame, but giving proven bad information that leads to people making bad business decisions, ultimately harming well-intentioned people is a sore spot. This stuff isn't secret, too many just choose to not research it.

Thanks for allowing me to share.

Sincerely,
Mike Lewitz
Phoenix, AZ USA

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