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.

Positioning - The battle of your mind

"Al Ries and Jack Trout on Positioning:
The Battle for Your Mind", the book that launched the concept of positioning and caused a major paradigm shift in marketing thinking, define positioning as how you differentiate your product or service in the mind of your customer or prospect. It is where your product or service fits into the marketplace in relation to your competition based on the perception of your customers and prospects.

In this book, Al Ries and Jack Trout describe how positioning is used as a communication tool to reach target customers in a crowded marketplace. Jack Trout published an article on positioning in 1969, and regular use of the term dates back to 1972 when Ries and Trout published a series of articles in Advertising Age called “The Positioning Era”. Not long after, Madison Avenue advertising executives began to develop positioning slogans for their clients and positioning became a key aspect of marketing communications.

Book Description

Positioning, a concept developed by the authors, has changed the way people advertise. The reason? It's the first concept to deal with the problems of communicating in an over communicated society. With this approach, a company creates a 'position' in the prospect's mind, one that reflects the company's own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of its competitors. Witty and fast-paced, this book spells out how to position a leader so that it gets into the mind and stays there, position a follower in a way that finds a 'hole' not occupied by the leader, and avoid the pitfalls of letting a second product ride on the coattails of an established one. Revised to reflect significant developments in the five years since its original publication, Positioning reveals the fascinating case histories and anecdotes behind the campaigns of many stunning successes and failures in the world of advertising.

Introduction

The average American consumer is exposed to $376 worth of advertising per day over 365 days. With this enormous volume of communication, the only way to score big is to be selective and concentrate on narrow targets through Positioning. It’s about how you position a product in the mind of your prospect.

Do you know how your product or service is positioned in the minds of your customers or prospects?

Your company's position in the market place evolves from the defining characteristics of its product or service; namely, pricing, quality, service, distribution and packaging. It is critical for you to define their market position. If you do not, your competitors will do it for you. Through the initial strategy process or a stand-alone market analysis, at Image Perspective, we seek to discover your unique positioning. Once it is defined, we exploit it to secure a memorable position in the mind of your customers or prospects.

When positioning your company, it is important to consider the following elements: the attributes that differentiate your product or service in the market place, your competition and the demographics of your target market.

The first book to deal with the problems of communicating to a skeptical, media-blitzed public, Positioning describes a revolutionary approach to creating a "position" in a prospective customer's mind-one that reflects a company's own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of its competitors. Writing in their trademark witty, fast-paced style, advertising gurus Ries and Trout explain how to:

- Make and position an industry leader
- Position a follower so that it can occupy a niche not claimed by the leader
- Avoid letting a second product ride on the coattails of an established one.
- Positioning also shows you how to:
- Use leading ad agency techniques to capture the biggest market share
- Build your strategy around your competition's weaknesses
- Reposition a strong competitor and create a weak spot
- Use your present position to its best advantage
- Choose the best name for your product
- Determine when-and why-less is more
- Analyze recent trends that affect your positioning.

Ries and Trout provide many valuable case histories and penetrating analyses of some of the most phenomenal successes and failures in advertising history. Revised to reflect significant developments in the five years since its original publication, Positioning is required reading for anyone in business today.

The Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid

Author: C K Prahlad

Publisher: The Wharton Press

A real Paradigm Shift about, what Market Is? Shows you how the Poor People, People at the Bottom Of the Pyramid (BOP), who were earlier neglected by the Big Corporate, are now considering them for future growth. It makes you believe, with practical case studies, how you can generate demand with sustainable profits by tapping into BOP. It’s no Philanthropy serving the BOP, its serious Business now and future growth will come from those sections only.
The BOP market is much more challenging and demanding than the high end markets, since the adversities there are much more. Companies have to clearly understand BOP requirements and bridge all the gaps between them by innovation. This could be by micro financing, improving distribution, cutting overheads, Introduction of low volume packs, generating awareness. Author shows how the solutions to BOP markets can be scaleable across geographies and thus generates sustainable markets.Author backs up his claims with proof of success, through real time case studies, and that’s the book's strongest point. Though the other day I had a talk with one of the ITC guy according to him e-choupal is still not in profits till now and ITC is not bullish on it, but otherwise claimed by the author. But this doesn’t affects, since the logical coherence shown by the author makes anybody believe it is possible.

The Origin of Brands By Al & Laura Ries.

I did like to start with the preface. Without it I don't think I will do justice to the review. They take origin of species as their basis for the book. The most important line they emphasize "Divergence the least understood , the most powerful force of the world." This is what they are trying to convey throughout the book. The opposite convergence had always been the buzz word for the market, hence the concept is neglected through n through. As the evolution does not explains for the unusual and diverse species of the world. So do the term strong exsisting brand does not explains for the emergence of new brands and new categories in market. They explain the process throughout the book. For the starting of a brand name, appeal and acceptance of consumers is very important. A brand is not created in exsisting market. We have to define new markets. The rule of divergence says that dont mix different things ( convergence) like the one in all computer TV, a major failure despite the money spent on it. To create a new brand the company should not divegre from the main theme. This means Coca Cola is a cola drink and it can't be a fruit drink later on. The Swiss Army Knife concept which still rules millions of hearts usually ends at drawers which never open. To create a new brand diverge from an exsisting brand just like Ford did from 1908 model T Ford to 2004 model Tauras. Its still a car with its wide range of ten models and a common ancestor . Definately not a sports car. To bring divergence at its best divide categories and conquer. Do what Coca Cola ( The cola drink), Microsoft (The computer operating system)and companies like IBM, Disney , McDonald, etc. did.

Despite of their failures the bad ideas return so companies have to be concious. To build a brand create something whose market is zero and not in millions. Like Rolex the high priced watch and Maxima the low priced watch. There are always two phases in brand building the innovative product and the mature one. The middle one never survive. The first to enter a market will always be the first despite the second is better. So its better to be no one then NO. 2 , 3 , 4. The best strategy to beat the leader is always do the opposite and not be a copy cat. Be Red Bull in energy drink market and not KMX a late entry. The better is not a gurantee of success but the first entry is always first. Finally to launch a brand bring enough excitement about it through advertising and leaking the product news also. Build enough anxiety among the consumers. Then launch it. Always be opposite of wat your competitors do if you are second. If you are the first remain what you are because your image will not change over time. All in all a book covering every aspect of creating a brand. Though may be sometimes slow but still a must read.