Wednesday, May 25, 2005
22 Immutable Laws of Branding
22 Immutable Laws of Branding
© 1998 by Al Ries
Marketing is building a brand in the mind of a prospect. A branding program should be designed to differentiate your cow from all the other cattle on the range.
A successful branding program is based on the concept of singularity. There is no product on the market quite like your product.
The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope.
In their minds, most people try to assign one brand name to each product. Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and are distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.
Good things happen when you contract your brand rather than expand it.
The best way to generate publicity is by being first. By being the first brand in a new category.
Create a new category rather than a new product in an existing category.
Leadership is the single most important motivating factor in customer behavior.
You must focus your efforts on owning a word in the prospect’s mind - a word that nobody else knows.
You have to reduce the essence of your brand to a single thought or attribute. - an attribute that nobody else already owns in your category.
Ask not what percentage of an existing market your brand can achieve; ask how large a market your brand can create by narrowing its focus and owning a word in the mind.
Never forgot leadership. Never assume that people know which brand is the leader.
The best way to build a quality perception in the mind is by following the laws of branding. You become a specialist rather than a generalist. And a specialist is perceived to know more than a generalist.
Expanding a brand and being a generalist tend to destroy your ability to select a powerful name.
High price is a benefit for customers.
A better strategy in a sea of similar products with similar prices is to deliberately start with a higher price. Then ask yourself, what can we put into our brand to justify the higher price? Combine a narrow focus with a better name and a higher price.
What happens when you narrow the focus to such a degree that there is no longer any market for the brand? There is an opportunity to introduce a brand-new category.
You have to promote the new category. Customers don’t really care about new brands they care about new categories.
By first preempting the category and then aggressively promoting the category, you create both a powerful brand and a rapidly escalating market.
Promote the benefits of the category, not the brand.
You need to put your branding dollars behind the concept itself, so the concept will take off pulling the brand along with it. The rightful share of a leading brand is never more than 50%. There’s always room for a second brand.
Big brands always put pressure on small brands.
The dominant brand should welcome competitors.
Choice stimulates demand. Competition increases the noise level and tends to increase sales in the category.
Brands should avoid generic names like the plague. The vast majority of brand communication takes place verbally, not visually.
The mind does not deal in letters, it deals in SOUNDS.
When customers feel they have to use both your company name and brand name together, you usually have a branding problem.
The key to a family approach is to make each sibling a unique individual brand with its own identity. Resist the urge to give the brands a family look or a family identity.
Most managers are too internally focused to see the power of a separate identity. They want to “take advantage of the equity” their brand already owns in the mind in order to successfully launch a new brand.
Focus on a common product area. Select a single attribute to segment. Set up rigid distinctions among brands. Create different, not similar sounding brand names.
Launch a new sibling only when you can create a new category.
Logos should be 2 and 1/4 units wide and 1 unit high. Avis is almost the perfect shape. Logotype should be like a windshield.
A brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitors.
There are five colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue.
A brand cannot get into the mind unless it stands for something. But once a brand occupies a position in the mind, the manufacturer often thinks of reason to change. Markets may change, but brands shouldn’t - ever!
Brand building is boring work. What works best is absolute consistency over an extended period of time. When people do boring work, they get bored. You should limit your brand. That is the essence of branding. Limitation combined with consistency is what builds a brand.
A brand is a proper noun that can be used in place of a common word. A brand is a singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887309372
© 1998 by Al Ries
Marketing is building a brand in the mind of a prospect. A branding program should be designed to differentiate your cow from all the other cattle on the range.
A successful branding program is based on the concept of singularity. There is no product on the market quite like your product.
The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope.
In their minds, most people try to assign one brand name to each product. Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and are distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.
Good things happen when you contract your brand rather than expand it.
The best way to generate publicity is by being first. By being the first brand in a new category.
Create a new category rather than a new product in an existing category.
Leadership is the single most important motivating factor in customer behavior.
You must focus your efforts on owning a word in the prospect’s mind - a word that nobody else knows.
You have to reduce the essence of your brand to a single thought or attribute. - an attribute that nobody else already owns in your category.
Ask not what percentage of an existing market your brand can achieve; ask how large a market your brand can create by narrowing its focus and owning a word in the mind.
Never forgot leadership. Never assume that people know which brand is the leader.
The best way to build a quality perception in the mind is by following the laws of branding. You become a specialist rather than a generalist. And a specialist is perceived to know more than a generalist.
Expanding a brand and being a generalist tend to destroy your ability to select a powerful name.
High price is a benefit for customers.
A better strategy in a sea of similar products with similar prices is to deliberately start with a higher price. Then ask yourself, what can we put into our brand to justify the higher price? Combine a narrow focus with a better name and a higher price.
What happens when you narrow the focus to such a degree that there is no longer any market for the brand? There is an opportunity to introduce a brand-new category.
You have to promote the new category. Customers don’t really care about new brands they care about new categories.
By first preempting the category and then aggressively promoting the category, you create both a powerful brand and a rapidly escalating market.
Promote the benefits of the category, not the brand.
You need to put your branding dollars behind the concept itself, so the concept will take off pulling the brand along with it. The rightful share of a leading brand is never more than 50%. There’s always room for a second brand.
Big brands always put pressure on small brands.
The dominant brand should welcome competitors.
Choice stimulates demand. Competition increases the noise level and tends to increase sales in the category.
Brands should avoid generic names like the plague. The vast majority of brand communication takes place verbally, not visually.
The mind does not deal in letters, it deals in SOUNDS.
When customers feel they have to use both your company name and brand name together, you usually have a branding problem.
The key to a family approach is to make each sibling a unique individual brand with its own identity. Resist the urge to give the brands a family look or a family identity.
Most managers are too internally focused to see the power of a separate identity. They want to “take advantage of the equity” their brand already owns in the mind in order to successfully launch a new brand.
Focus on a common product area. Select a single attribute to segment. Set up rigid distinctions among brands. Create different, not similar sounding brand names.
Launch a new sibling only when you can create a new category.
Logos should be 2 and 1/4 units wide and 1 unit high. Avis is almost the perfect shape. Logotype should be like a windshield.
A brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitors.
There are five colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue.
A brand cannot get into the mind unless it stands for something. But once a brand occupies a position in the mind, the manufacturer often thinks of reason to change. Markets may change, but brands shouldn’t - ever!
Brand building is boring work. What works best is absolute consistency over an extended period of time. When people do boring work, they get bored. You should limit your brand. That is the essence of branding. Limitation combined with consistency is what builds a brand.
A brand is a proper noun that can be used in place of a common word. A brand is a singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887309372
