Al Ries

Good things happen when you narrow your focus

— Al Ries

War and marketing have many similarities.

— Al Ries

The next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation.

— Al Ries

The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.

— Al Ries

“Advertising can only maintain brands that have been created by publicity.”

— Al Ries

“Mind-changing is the road to advertising disaster.”

— Al Ries

Branding is simply a more efficient way to sell things.

— Al Ries

A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.

— Al Ries

If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect's mind. A…

— Al Ries

“The essence of positioning is sacrifice. You must be willing to give up something in order to establish that unique position. Nyquil,”

— Al Ries

Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.

— Al Ries

Today, communication itself is the problem. We have become the world's first overcommunicated society. Each year we send more and receive less.

— Al Ries

Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.

— Al Ries

Positioning is how you differentiate yourself in the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of…

— Al Ries

Marketing is not selling. Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect.

— Al Ries

Your brand's power lies in dominance. It is better to have 50% of one market, instead of 10% of five markets.

— Al Ries

“The mind, as a defense against the volume of today’s communications, screens and rejects much of the information offered it. In general,…

— Al Ries

If you can build a powerful brand, you will have a powerful marketing program. If you CAN'T then all the advertising, fancy…

— Al Ries

To get into the consumer's mind, you have to sacrifice. You have to reduce the essence of your brand to a single…

— Al Ries

It's the first company to build the mental position that has the upper hand, not the first company to make the product.…

— Al Ries

A successful branding program is based on the concept of singularity. It creates in the mind of the prospect the perception that…

— Al Ries

The real barrier (to building a brand) is the human mind. It normally takes decades to build a brand because it takes…

— Al Ries

A laser is a weak source of energy. A laser takes [only] a few watts of energy and focuses them in a…

— Al Ries

It normally takes decades to build a brand... It's the forgetting of the old truth that allows a person to accept a…

— Al Ries

“Futurist Faith Popcorn goes even further. By the year 2010, she predicts, 90 percent of all consumer products will be home-delivered. “They’ll…

— Al Ries

When a really new product comes along, it's almost always a mistake to hang a well-known name on it. The reason is…

— Al Ries

“What’s called luck is usually an outgrowth of successful communication.”

— Al Ries

“Never run advertising until the major publicity possibilities have been exploited.”

— Al Ries

The Law of the Generic: One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name.

— Al Ries

Marketing is what a company is in business to do. Marketing is a company's ultimate objective.

— Al Ries

What's your brand? If you can't answer that question about your own brand in two or three words, your brand's in trouble.

— Al Ries

The essence of positioning is sacrifice. You must be willing to give up something in order to establish that unique position.

— Al Ries

What should a brand leader advertise?Brand leadership, of course. Leadership is the single most important motivating factor in consumer behavior.

— Al Ries

Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.

— Al Ries

A branding program should be designed to differentiate your cow from all the other cattle on the range. Even if all the…

— Al Ries

Successful brands get into the mind slowly. A blurb in a magazine. A mention in a newspaper. A comment from a friend.…

— Al Ries

Only brand names register in the mind... What you should generally do is take a regular word and use it out of…

— Al Ries

Changing the direction of a large company is like trying to turn an aircraft carrier. It takes a mile before anything happens.…

— Al Ries

The Internet is the ultimate in brand-centered buying.

— Al Ries

THE LAW OF THE CONTRACTION: A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.

— Al Ries