Jack Trout

Jack Trout (1935) is among the world’s most famous marketing gurus. Over the 40 years of marketing consultancy work, Jack Trout has engaged in hundreds of assignments all over the globe. Among companies whose strategy was influenced by Jack Trout are Microsoft, AT&T, Southwest Airlines, Burger King, Holiday Inn, Iberia, Master Card, Intel, IBM, Procter & Gamble and many others all over the world. He has also acted as consultant to the US department of State on the “USA” brand.

Jack Trout is the originator of “positioning” – the key concept of strategic marketing. It is now among the basics of any marketing course taught at business schools worldwide. The laws of influencing the human mind written about by Jack Trout are often compared to Newton’s laws of physics. No matter how badly we may wish otherwise, the apple will fall on the ground driven by the universal force of gravity. The human mind will inevitably reject one concept and give in to another driven by the marketing laws outlined by Jack Trout.

Mr. Trout’s works are found in his marketing classics published in many languages worldwide: “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind”, “Marketing Warfare”, “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing”, “Differentiate of Die”, “Big Brands – Big Trouble”, “Genie’s Wisdom” and “Trout on Strategy”, “In Search of the Obvious. The Antidote for Today’s Marketing Mess”, “Repositioning. Marketing in an era of competition, change and crisis” and other publications.

Jack Trout is an owner of Trout & Partners, a consulting firm. He is one of the founders and pioneers of positioning theory, and also marketing warfare theory.

He spoke at the 2008 World Knowledge Forum, 2008.10.16, Seoul.

Working Experience

Trout started his business career in the advertising department of General Electric. From there he went on to become a divisional advertising manager at Uniroyal. Then he joined Al Ries in the advertising agency and marketing strategy firm where they worked together for over twenty-six years.

Jack Trout is the founder and president of the international marketing strategy firm “Trout and Partners”. The firm is represented in offices in many countries worldwide including emerging markets. The territory of the former Soviet Union is served by representative offices in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Jack Trout established uniform professional standards throughout the company worldwide. Every local office is headed by the lead partner, head of the local consultancy. Local teams provide marketing services under Jack Trout’s methodology and supervision, and fine-tune them to local markets. The list of Jack Trout’s lead partners worldwide and their contact information are available at the corporate website.

Bibliography

• Jack Trout
  • In Search of the Obvious: The Antidote for Today's Marketing Mess — New Jersey. John Wiley & Sons. Oct 2008.
  • Jack Trout on Strategy — New York. McGraw-Hill. March 2004.
  • A Genie's Wisdom: A Fable of How a CEO Learned to Be a Marketing Genius — New York. John Wiley & Sons. Nov 2002.
  • Big Brands. Big Trouble: Lessons Learned the Hard Way — New York. John Wiley & Sons. 2001.
• Jack Trout with Steve Rivkin
  • Repositioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis — New Jersey. John Wiley & Sons. Oct 2009.
  • Differentiate or Die — New York. John Wiley & Sons. 2000.
  • The New Positioning — New York. McGraw-Hill. 1996.
  • The Power of Simplicity — New York. McGraw-Hill. Nov. 1998.
  • Repositioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change, and Crisis — New York. McGraw-Hill. 2010.
• Jack Trout with Al Ries
  • Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind — New York. McGraw-Hill. 1981.
  • Marketing Warfare — New York. McGraw-Hill. 1986.
  • Bottom-Up Marketing — New York. McGraw-Hill. 1989.
  • The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing — New York. Harper Collins. 1993.