Al Ries
Al Ries
Al Ries is a marketing professional and author. He is also the co-founder and chairman of the Atlanta-based consulting firm Ries & Ries with his partner and daughter, Laura Ries. Along with Jack Trout, Ries is crediting with coining the term "positioning", as related to the field of marketing, and authored Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, an industry standard on the subject...
way advertising brands
Advertising is the way great brands get to be great brands.
hands mind upper-hand
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.
lying dominance brands
Your brand's power lies in dominance. It is better to have 50% of one market, instead of 10% of five markets.
war marketing similarity
War and marketing have many similarities.
business mind firsts
It's better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
enough-time needs forget
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
ivory-tower mud towers
Strategy should evolve out of the mud of the marketplace, not in the antiseptic environment of an ivory tower.
focus good-things happens
Good things happen when you narrow your focus
names mind use
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.
ingredients authenticity claims
The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.
business want scope
Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.
buying internet brands
The Internet is the ultimate in brand-centered buying.
mistake successful simple
When a really new product comes along, it's almost always a mistake to hang a well-known name on it. The reason is obvious. A well-known name got well-known because it stood for something. It occupies a position in the prospect's mind. A really well-known name sits on the top rung of a sharply defined ladder. The new product, if it's going to be successful, is going to require a new name. New ladder, new name. It's as simple as that.
law names generic-name
THE LAW OF THE GENERIC: One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name.