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THE LAW OF THE CONTRACTION: A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.

Al Ries

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Al Ries
Age: 97
Born: 1926
Born: November 14
Author
Economist
Atlanta
Georgia
Brand
Brands
Stronger
Becomes
Focus
Law
Contraction
Contractions
Narrow

More quotes by Al Ries

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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 should a brand leader advertise?Brand leadership, of course. Leadership is the single most important motivating factor in consumer behavior.
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Good things happen when you narrow your focus.
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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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Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.
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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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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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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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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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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 next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation.
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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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The Law of the Generic: One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name.
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A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.
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The Internet is the ultimate in brand-centered buying.
Al Ries
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Everyone is interested in what‘s new. Few people are interested in what‘s better.
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Your brand's power lies in dominance. It is better to have 50% of one market, instead of 10% of five markets.
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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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It's better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
Al Ries