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Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.

Al Ries

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Al Ries
Age: 98
Born: 1926
Born: November 14
Author
Economist
Atlanta
Georgia
Customers
Single
Word
Business
Distinguishable
Better
Shorter
Scope
Narrow
Brands

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It normally takes decades to build a brand... It's the forgetting of the old truth that allows a person to accept a new truth. You need to allow enough time for this forgetting to take place
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War and marketing have many similarities.
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A laser is a weak source of energy. A laser takes [only] a few watts of energy and focuses them in a coherent stream of light. But with a laser, you can drill a hole in a diamond or wipe out cancer.
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The next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation.
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The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.
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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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To get into the consumer's mind, you have to sacrifice. 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.
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THE LAW OF THE CONTRACTION: A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.
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The essence of positioning is sacrifice. You must be willing to give up something in order to establish that unique position.
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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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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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The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospects mind.
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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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It's the first company to build the mental position that has the upper hand, not the first company to make the product. IBM didn't invent the computer Sperry Rand did. But IBM was the first to build the computer position in the prospect's mind.
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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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It's better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
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Advertising is the way great brands get to be great brands.
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Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.
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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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