This book feels like it was composed via cell phone text messages. Many of the paragraphs are a single sentence.

The main idea is that you cannot make in-roads in an existing market by attacking the top dog. The top dog, the market leader, will beat you every time. Instead, the authors argue that you have to position your product/company/person in the mind of the consumer, in relation to the market leader. And forcing your idealized position on the mind of the consumer won't work, so your position often starts with the existing public perception of your product/service/idea.

The example used numerous times throughout the book is Avis. Avis was not going to convince the public that they were the #1 auto rental agency--everyone knew that Hertz was #1. Hence the campaign: "Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder."

The authors are extremely cocksure, in sometimes amusing ways (my edition is from 1986). For example, they ridicule Arm & Hammer's attempts to sell baking soda personal hygiene products with a Phyllis Diller joke. Who is laughing now, Ries and Trout?

I read this for my marketing class, but it is an interesting book, and a quick read.