Being first in any category is going to give you the edge. Being second might get you some profits. After that, it’s a struggle for survival. Look at Coke and Pepsi. Globally, Coke (the first) outsells Pepsi substantially, but who comes after Pepsi? No one worth bothering about.

Gillette was the first safety razor. Tide was the first laundry detergent. Hewlett-Packard introduced the first desktop laser printer. All are leaders.

How many people have asked for Pampers instead of diapers? This is the success of Procter & Gamble’s development of the disposable diaper that revolutionized the diapering habits of consumers worldwide and virtually created the category.

Pampers originated from a P&G researcher who was a grandfather. While caring for his newborn grandchild, he developed a distinct dislike for changing diapers, which perhaps is not really surprising. Research among mothers confirmed that there was a need for something better than cloth diapers. To meet this need, P&G scientists develop a unique three-piece construction to absorb the moisture, distribute it uniformly and transmit fluid to the absorbent core without passing it back to the skin. Additional product innovations have continued to make Pampers a leader and innovator in the category.

P&G’s technology in the diaper category has given convenience, comfort and health benefits to parents and children; not to mention huge contributions to P&G’s worldwide profits. Pampers is P&G’s biggest global brand, generating about US$5 billion or 13% of P&G’s US$39 billion in worldwide sales.

Of course, many other players, including Huggies, Drypers, Luvs and Fitti, are now in the marketplace but none has had the success of Pampers worldwide.

It’s the same in all walks of life. Talking of which; who was the first man to walk on the moon? Neil Armstrong. Who was the second? You’re not so sure. Who was the third? Again, you’re not so sure you know, and you probably don’t care either.

Yet many companies ignore this rule and wait until a market develops. Then they jump in with a similar or enhanced product, sometimes ignoring another rule (see Chapter 7: The Law of Line Extension). The leading brand in any category is almost always the first brand into the prospect’s mind. Coca-Cola in cola. Kellogg’s in cereals. IBM in computers. Amazon in Internet book sales. Sun Microsystems in workstations.

Japanese video-game company Nintendo Co has made its fortune by pioneering not-so-violent games for kids. Super Mario, a character now 21 years old, has US$7 billion in sales around the world. Pokemon seems to be on track for similar results.

In Asia, Colgate has been around for decades, being the first into the market. It has kept abreast of innovations and still maintains a 60% to 80% market share in some countries. And, however hard the competition tries, it’s difficult to dislodge that grip. Heineken was the first imported beer in many foreign markets and still dominates the top end of the beer category in Thailand, for example.

In 1979, something happened that changed the way people listen to music. Market research said it would never work. Retailers were sceptical about sales, and consumers thought that a tape player that could not record would never catch on. So much for market research.

Sony went ahead anyway and introduced the Sony Walkman. The Walkman created a totally new market for portable stereo systems, and, by 1995, over 150 million units have been sold. Lots of other companies have followed suit, of course, but mention the word “Walkman” and Sony owns the category. Sony has built its business on the relentless pursuit of innovative technology, excellence and quality, driving fashion trends. So successful was the Walkman that it has been praised as one of the most popular fashion products of the 20th century, together with roller skates and digital watches.

Being first can actually be better than being better, if you know what we mean. Improvements are always made to product inventions and innovations but the first in has a head start. Naturally, if you are first in to the market and you don’t keep ahead then your position will erode over time, but being the leader comes from being first. Sony’s Walkman has kept its market leadership by introducing over 300 different models since the launch of the first TPS-L2.

Another reason why the Law of Leadership brings success is that once you are first and get the consumers to buy your brand, often they won’t bother to switch. People tend to stick with what they’ve got. If you meet someone who is apparently a bit better than your wife, husband or partner, most think it’s not worth the stress and hassle making the switch, assuming this was possible.

Motorola mobile phones are still holding their own against the mighty Nokia in China because they were first in, not because they have the best products. Carrefour has a commanding share of the hypermarket business because it came in Asia before the rest, whilst ordinary supermarkets thought they were invincible.

There’s another success factor associated with the Law of Leadership. The first in to the market has the opportunity to have its brand name adopted as the generic category name. So successful is its leadership position that people still use Colgate as the generic name for toothpaste. The first paracetamol-based painkiller product in Asia was Panadol. There are lots of others now, but people stick to Panadol, and again this has become the generic name for the category. Headache? Take some Panadol.

People may buy lots of Canon and other brands of photocopiers but they still want to Xerox their documents (although “zap” is fast replacing that as a word in Singapore). In 1986, the word “Walkman” was included in the Oxford English Dictionary. The founder of Sony, Ako Morita, said that nothing made him happier than the fact that “Walkman” had been accepted around the world as an English word.

So once you are the leader, a position mostly gained by being first, it is pretty hard for competition to dislodge you, as long as you keep your products up to date and of comparable quality. But if the secret of success is getting into the consumers’ minds first, what do most companies do? They pursue the better product strategy. They “benchmark”, they employ “total quality management”, and they “re-engineer” in the desperate pursuit of operational efficiency and product quality. But marketing is a battle of perceptions not products, as you will see as you read through this book.