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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.

Al Ries

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Al Ries
Age: 98
Born: 1926
Born: November 14
Author
Economist
Atlanta
Georgia
Humans
Brands
Matter
Gray
Real
Decades
Mind
Ears
Barrier
Build
Penetrate
Building
Normally
Takes
Brand
Human
Barriers

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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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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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 next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation.
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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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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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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 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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Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.
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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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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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Good things happen when you narrow your focus.
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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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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 most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospects mind.
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Advertising is the way great brands get to be great brands.
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Everyone is interested in what‘s new. Few people are interested in what‘s better.
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Positioning is how you differentiate yourself in the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect.
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