The Law of Division
I recently read The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, a book written in 1993 by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Much of this book holds as true today as it was when written nearly three decades ago. One law in particular caught my attention — Law #10: The Law of Division. This law observes that over time, a product category tends to divide and become two or more categories. For example, the automobile began as a single category and then with time divided into luxury, mid-priced, and inexpensive. These categories then divided again into sports cars, SUVs, compacts, etc.
Since the writing of this book, the law of division has continued to affect every market category. Take beer for example. At one point, we had domestics and imports. These days within the category of IPA alone, there are over nine sub-categories including English IPA, West Coast IPA, Double IPA, Session IPA…
I began to realize, it’s not just product categories that have been affected by this law. Nearly everything in our world has been.
I listen to a lot of electronic music- I specifically like the sub-genre of house music. Within the sub genre of house there are dozens of yet more granular sub-genres…deep house, tech house, future house, acid house…
I am also a runner. I was recently looking into local running meetups in Austin. I imagine that when the sport of running first began to get traction in the 70s, there was a single runners group in this city. Looking through groups on meetup.com, one can now find the Austin Running Meetup Group, the Austin Beer Run Club, the Austin Trail Running Club, the Austin Informal Running Club, Jews for Jogging, The Austin Fast Running Club…
At one point in time, everyone got their news from the same handful of newspapers and TV stations. We are now each served highly tailored information by a specific selection of individuals that we choose to invite into our minds through social media, podcasts, etc.
While the law of division is “immutable,” it has been accelerated by the internet. When geographic constraints are removed from communication, like minded people are empowered to connect with one another around shared interests and values of increasing specificity. They then express these interests and values through the brands that they purchase, the forms of content that they consume, and the hobbies that they pursue.
I wonder…where does this end? Will the law of division continue to break everything around us down into categories of increased specificity? What will that world look like?
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