Quote

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.

Al Ries

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Al Ries
Age: 98
Born: 1926
Born: November 14
Author
Economist
Atlanta
Georgia
Nobody
Reduce
Single
Attributes
Already
Categories
Else
Brand
Thought
Brands
Owns
Mind
Consumers
Attribute
Essence
Category
Sacrifice
Consumer

More quotes by Al Ries

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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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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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Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.
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If you can build a powerful brand, you will have a powerful marketing program. If you CAN'T then all the advertising, fancy packaging, sales promotion and public relations in the world won't help you achieve your objective.
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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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Advertising is the way great brands get to be great brands.
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War and marketing have many similarities.
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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.
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The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.
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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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Marketing is not selling. Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect.
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Branding is simply a more efficient way to sell things.
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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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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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The best way to make news is to announce a new category, not a new product.
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Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.
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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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Good things happen when you narrow your focus.
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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 essence of positioning is sacrifice. You must be willing to give up something in order to establish that unique position.
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