The Meta: The past months I’ve been studying Al Ries 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, and his previous work, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. It’s absolutely awesome, and here’s why:

First there was the Word

Marketing is a battle for the mind of the consumer, or rather positioning in the mind of the consumer. Each Brand we relate to in our lives, equals an attribute or category that we equate with the brand. Let’s say I’m a consumer looking for a car, and my primary concern is that it is safe. Which car brand is the leading safe car? I would say, Volvo is the leading safe car. Let’s say prestige is my main concern, then I would probably opt for a Mercedes, the leading prestigious car. The task of branding is to become the leader in a niche preferably so narrow you could replace your brand with a single word. Volvo = Safe. Mercedes = Prestigious. What is the word or attribute that could be replaced with your brand? If you are starting a business, this question should be a main concern. Another good question: how do you communicate this one word?

“Forget the brand. Think categories. Prospects are on the defensive when it comes to brands. Everyone talks about why their brand is better. But prospects have an open mind when it comes to categories. Everyone is interested in what’s new. Few people are interested in what’s better”. -Al Ries

I’ve got my mind made up

Going up against an established word is a big no-no. If Mercedes launched a multi-million dollar ad-campaign championing how safe the Mercedes is, it would be wasted money, because once we as consumers have made up our minds, our perception is irreversible. We like to categorize and label the world to stay in control, so we know, Volvo is a safe car, and that a Mercedes is prestigious. Anything running contrary to established perceptions is ignored, because it threatens our established world-view and our sense of being in control. Example from the book: Xerox tried to establish itself in the computer business. 25 years and 2 billion dollars later, our minds still haven’t accepted Xerox to be anything but a copier. If you doubt any of this, just imagine if Harley-Davidson launched a car brand. Would you buy it?

“The single most wasteful thing you can do in marketing is try to change a mind”. -Al Ries

Just imagine meeting old friends whom you haven’t seen in a long time. Maybe you changed a lot, maybe you went through life-changing experiences, saw the world, got married, etc. But they still relate to you as the same ol’ you, because people don’t like to change their minds. If it goes for personal relationship, it also goes for brands.

The marketing and branding laws proposed by Al Ries are as potent as gravity and example after example in his books shows in a convincing fashion how companies breaking them suffered the consequences. Violate them at your own risk!

Once a brand attains leadership in a category in the mind of a consumer, it works like magic; it’s almost impossible to lose that position. Ries cites a widely publicized study of 25 leading brands in 25 different product categories starting from 1923 up until the late 1990s. Amazingly, 20 of the 25 brands were still leaders, 75 years later. So entrenched are our perceptions of the world.

Leadership matters

The challenge for a brand is to become the leader, or the alternative to the leader, in a specific category. You should not launch a product into a market that already has an established leader and an established alternative to that leader. If that’s the case, change the product to fit another niche where you can become a leader. Ries cites Beer a lot, (since he worked with marketing beer) and show how one category can be divided into many by adding attributes:

“The leading microbrew The leading ice beer The leading high-priced beer The leading Mexican beer The Leading German Beer The leading German beer The leading Canadian beer The leading Japanese beer. For almost all of the hundreds of companies we have worked with around the world, we have found some credentials that could be exploited. If not, we created the credentials by inventing a new category”.

More is less

“If you want to build a powerful brand you need to contract your brand, not expand it”. -Al Ries

Most important of all is to narrow the focus. The generalists, who try to be everything at once, are in trouble, while the narrowly focused specialists are prospering. Remember that a consumer should easily be able to equate your brand with a single word. Narrow it down until you can launch into a category where you can dominate. Launching anything into the market place can seem daunting – it’s all so saturated, but it is possible if you become an expert in a narrow niche.

Subway and Starbucks, examples of thriving specialists.

The insights offered by Ries in 22 Immutable Laws of marketing and the 22 immutable laws of branding are so valuable, I hail this as the best book on the market for branding and positioning your product or service. It’s worth reading, and re-reading again and again until you have a clear understanding of the laws of marketing and branding so that you don’t waste time and money breaking them. You can read Al Ries column on adage here.