22 Immutable Laws of Branding

By Al Ries & Laura Ries

Smart and accessible, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is the definitive text on branding, pairing anecdotes about some of the best brands in the world, like Rolex, Volvo, and Heineken, with the signature savvy of marketing gurus Al and Laura Ries. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding proclaims that the only way to stand out in today's marketplace is to build your product or service into a “brand” — and provides the step-by-step instructions you need to do so. The Rieses divulge the controversial and “rational” strategies and secrets that both small and large companies have used to establish brands. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is the essential primer on building a category-dominating, world-class brand. So, one of the world's authorities on branding turns his attention to some of the best -- and worst -- decisions made by America's top companies in regard to branding.

“The 22 Immutable laws of Branding “is very similar in presentation, format and even writing style to the "Laws of Marketing". It's an accessible, easy read in which each law is broken down in to a very short chapter that makes it as enjoyable to dip in to while on the go as it does to read cover to cover. The book also covers examples cited of different companies and what were the
circumstances that could have revamped their current positions .Every example is unique and represents one of the 22 laws that the author wants to convey.

This book focuses on branding. Using brands that were current at the time, it presents the authors thoughts on how a brand should be maintained, why tightening your focus is always better than line extension and why a number of the less successful brands suffer their fates. Using a number of (mostly) anecdotal examples the essential points of what not to do with your brand are conveyed in an easy to following and occasionally light-hearted tone. Although the "The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding" contains nothing as profound as the "Laws of Marketing" it does provide some valuable insights on how the big players of the time, some smart and some not so, approached their brands and tried to exploit them.

According to Al and Laura Ries, a brand name is a name in the mind of the consumer that conveys a single proposition about a particular product or service. The power in a brand name lies in its ability to positively influence purchasing behavior. In an increasingly cluttered information society, a powerful brand image can act as a guidepost for the consumer in making a purchase decision.

What is accelerating this trend is the decline of selling. As a profession and as a function, selling is slowly sinking like the Titanic. Today, most products and services are bought, not sold. And branding greatly facilitates this process.

Branding "pre-sells" the product or service to the user. Branding is simply an efficient way to sell things. A successful branding program, therefore, should differentiate your product or service from all the similar products or services out there. 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.

The concept of singularity makes certain that no one brand can possibly have a universal appeal. In this book, the authors discuss 'laws' of branding that they have found to hold true across innumerable product and service offerings. A major problem for companies is the temptation to extend a successful brand into other, sometimes only peripherally-related, areas. Such brand extensions only serve to confuse the consumer and dilute the single message strength of the core brand.

The 22 laws defined by authors are:

1) Law of expansion
2) Law of publicity
3) Law of contraction.
4) Law of advertising
5) Law of words
6) Law of credentials
7) Law of category
8) Law of name
9) Law of extension
10) Law of generic
11) Law of name
12) Law of sub-brands
13) Law of siblings
14) Law of clour
15) Law of borders
16) Law of consitency
17) Law of change
18) Law of mortality
19) Law of singularity
20) Law of shape
21) Law of fellowship
22) Law of quality

A very nice books to know about brands and how each law is applicable in different fields.