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The Law of the Generic: One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name.

Al Ries

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Al Ries
Age: 97
Born: 1926
Born: November 14
Author
Economist
Atlanta
Georgia
Failure
Name
Names
Law
Generic
Giving
Fastest
Routes
Brand
Brands

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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 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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The best way to make news is to announce a new category, not a new product.
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The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.
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War and marketing have many similarities.
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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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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 better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
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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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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 most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospects mind.
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THE LAW OF THE CONTRACTION: A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.
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Good things happen when you narrow your focus.
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A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.
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Advertising is the way great brands get to be great brands.
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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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Branding is simply a more efficient way to sell things.
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The next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation.
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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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