Title The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

Author Al Ries & Laura Ries

Year Published 2002

Kind of Book How to/Sales & Marketing

How strongly I recommend it 7/10 

My Impressions This book is similar to The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, but has a few unique chapters dedicated to brands. It asks questions like, "What things make a good brand?" "Why do some brands fail?" and "Is it better to sell to everyone or a small niche?"

Date Read April 2020

Practical Takeaways

  • Consider yourself a brand and act accordingly

  • Aim high

  • Create the perception that there is no other product quite like your product

  • Make sure your brand doesn't have universal appeal

  • Don't put your brand name on everything your company makes (only the things that occupy the same word in the customers head)

  • Contract your brand. Don't extend it

  • Resist the urge to add more things to sell when things are going well

  • Do what rich people did before they got rich (not after)

  • Do what successful people did before they were successful (not after)

  • Announce a new category you've created, not a new product

  • Only advertise once you are number 1 to keep your market share (not from the start)

  • If you are #1 in your market, advertise that you are #1 (people will assume you are the best and trust your brand more) (don't assume they know. Tell them)

  • Create credentials for yourself or your brand by narrowing the category (eg. #1 chiropractor in Kings county. Even if there are only 2 chiropractors in Kings county)

  • Create a new category by narrowing your focus (eg. First frozen pizza place)

  • To get into your customer's mind, sacrifice. Reduce the essence of your brand to a single thought or attribute

  • (to add prestige to your brand) charge more than the competition

  • (to add prestige to your brand) use a code word for prestige (eg. Exclusive, private, members only, premier, executive)

  • Claim that your brand is authentic

  • Be a specialist with your brand not a generalist (you will be perceived to by more of an authority and to know more about your area)

  • Deliberately start with a higher price than the competition. Then ask yourself "what can we put into our brand to justify the higher price?" (eg. Haagen-Dazs added more butter fat)

  • Build in as much quality to your brand as it can afford

  • Don't count on quality alone to build your brand

  • Think long and hard about what you name your brand (this is the single most important decision)

  • Before you launch your line extension ask yourself how it will make your current customers think of you current brand (eg. Will "fat free"X make your customers think that the regular is bad for them?)

  • Only line extend if the market is moving away from you. Otherwise, stay where you are

  • Welcome healthy competition (it often brings more customers into the category)

  • Build your store next to your competitor's stores 1)similar businesses attract more customers to an area 2) customers can easily comparison shop 3) you can keep an eye on what your competition is doing

  • Never give a brand a generic name (eg. Blockbuster=yes video rental place=no)

  • Find a regular word taken out of context and used to connote the primary attribute of your brand (eg. Tinder, bumble, spanx, hinge)

  • Make your brand name as short and memorable as possible

  • Promote your brand name, not your company name on the product (customers only care about brands not companies)

  • Use the company name as the brand name unless there are compelling reasons not to do so

  • Think like a customer

  • Make each sub brand a unique individual brand with its own identity (eg. Time magazine launched sports illustrated, not Time for sports)

  • Make each brand as different and distinct as possible

  • Resist the urge to give brands a family look

  • Make each one of your brands different prices

  • Only launch a new brand when you can create a new category

  • Make your logo the same shape as a windshield and fill the entire rectangular area (2 and 1/4 units wide and 1 unit high

  • Make the brand front Legible! Not fancy. Clearly read > trendy writing

  • Don't worry about a trademark or visual symbol. Focus on the single word

  • If you are first in the category choose the best color for your product

  • If you are not first in the category choose the color that is opposite to your major competitor's color (eg. If coke is red, pick blue)

  • Stick to the 5 primary colors rather than intermediate or mixed colors

  • Don't just pick your colors based on the mood you want to establish for your brand (think about what you competitor's colors are)

  • Your brand name doesn't have to be an English word, but it should sound like one

  • Take care when translating your brand slogan into other languages (you could end up with an embarrassing translation)

  • You can change your marketing, but never change your brand name

  • Run up a red flag when someone says "why should we limit ourselves?"

  • Limit your brand

  • Start your prices high (it is always possible to permanently lower your brands price, but nearly impossible to raise it) (eg. Holiday in suite no one wanted to pay for because holiday inns were supposed to be cheap)

  • If there is no longer a market for your brand, Save the money spent to prolong your old brand's life and invest it in a new brand with a future

Big Ideas

  • You can never achieve more than you aspire to

  • In the long term, expanding your brand will diminish your power and weaken your image

  • Advertising helps you from losing market share, but doesn't help to grow your market share

  • What you name your brand is the single most important decision you will make as a company

  • Competition among competitors brings more customers into the category

  • Customers only care about brands not companies

  • It is always possible to permanently lower your brands price, but nearly impossible to raise it once people are used to it being low

 

Surprising Facts

  • There is almost no correlation between success in the marketplace and success in comparative testing of brands

  • The color blue appears to move away from you. This is why it is relaxing

  • The color red appears to move toward you. This is why it is an in-your face color and the color of energy and excitement

 

Unknown Terms

Brand: 1)a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers 2) a word in the mind 3) Any proper noun 4)an identifying mark burned on livestock or (especially formerly) criminals or slaves with a branding iron.

Cornucopia: 1)In classical antiquity it was also called the horn of plenty, a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, or nuts. 2) an abundant supply of good things of a specified kind.

Rebus: a puzzle device that combines the use of illustrated pictures with individual letters to depict words and/or phrases. For example: the word "been" might be depicted by showing an illustrated bumblebee next to a plus sign (+) and the letter "n". It was a favorite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames.