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
Essence
Category
Sacrifice
Consumer
Nobody
Reduce
Single
Attributes
Already
Categories
Else
Brand
Thought
Brands
Owns
Mind
Consumers
Attribute

More quotes by Al Ries

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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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It's better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
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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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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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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 best way to make news is to announce a new category, not a new product.
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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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Good things happen when you narrow your focus.
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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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Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.
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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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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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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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Branding is simply a more efficient way to sell things.
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Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.
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The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.
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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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THE LAW OF THE CONTRACTION: A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.
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The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospects mind.
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The next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation.
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