Quote

Changing the direction of a large company is like trying to turn an aircraft carrier. It takes a mile before anything happens. And if it was a wrong turn, getting back on course takes even longer.

Al Ries

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Al Ries
Age: 98
Born: 1926
Born: November 14
Author
Economist
Atlanta
Georgia
Turns
Longer
Happens
Turn
Carrier
Change
Takes
Aircraft
Anything
Courses
Mile
Back
Course
Miles
Even
Company
Direction
Trying
Getting
Changing
Like
Wrong
Large

More quotes by Al Ries

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A branding program should be designed to differentiate your cow from all the other cattle on the range. Even if all the cattle on the range look pretty much alike.
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The real barrier (to building a brand) is the human mind. It normally takes decades to build a brand because it takes decades to penetrate the gray matter in between your ears.
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Today, communication itself is the problem. We have become the world's first overcommunicated society. Each year we send more and receive less.
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Marketing is what a company is in business to do. Marketing is a company's ultimate objective.
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Only brand names register in the mind... What you should generally do is take a regular word and use it out of context to connote the primary attribute of your brand.
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Strategy should evolve out of the mud of the marketplace, not in the antiseptic environment of an ivory tower.
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Successful brands get into the mind slowly. A blurb in a magazine. A mention in a newspaper. A comment from a friend. A display in a retail store. After a slow buildup, people become convinced that they have known about the brand forever.
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Good things happen when you narrow your focus.
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What should a brand leader advertise?Brand leadership, of course. Leadership is the single most important motivating factor in consumer behavior.
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Marketing is not selling. Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect.
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If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect's mind. A word that nobody else owns.
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It's better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
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The Law of the Generic: One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name.
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What's your brand? If you can't answer that question about your own brand in two or three words, your brand's in trouble.
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Your brand's power lies in dominance. It is better to have 50% of one market, instead of 10% of five markets.
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Everyone is interested in what‘s new. Few people are interested in what‘s better.
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Advertising is the way great brands get to be great brands.
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A successful branding program is based on the concept of singularity. It creates in the mind of the prospect the perception that there is no product on the market quite like your product.
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Branding is simply a more efficient way to sell things.
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Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.
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