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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: 97
Born: 1926
Born: November 14
Author
Economist
Atlanta
Georgia
Mind
Ears
Barrier
Build
Penetrate
Building
Normally
Takes
Brand
Human
Barriers
Humans
Brands
Matter
Gray
Real
Decades

More quotes by Al Ries

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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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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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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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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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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 crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.
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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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Good things happen when you narrow your focus.
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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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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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Strategy should evolve out of the mud of the marketplace, not in the antiseptic environment of an ivory tower.
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THE LAW OF THE CONTRACTION: A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.
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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's better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
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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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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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Advertising is the way great brands get to be great brands.
Al Ries