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: 97
Born: 1926
Born: November 14
Author
Economist
Atlanta
Georgia
Thought
Brands
Owns
Mind
Consumers
Attribute
Essence
Category
Sacrifice
Consumer
Nobody
Reduce
Single
Attributes
Already
Categories
Else
Brand

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The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.
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It's better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
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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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The best way to make news is to announce a new category, not a new product.
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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 most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospects mind.
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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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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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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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A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.
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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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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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The Internet is the ultimate in brand-centered buying.
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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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Advertising is the way great brands get to be great brands.
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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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Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.
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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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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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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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