If you’re looking for ways to accelerate growth so you’ll surpass your competition, 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is your ideal guide.
22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service into a World-Class Brand
In his classic on branding, Al Ries simply states, “the most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness.”
So if you or your marketing team ever says, “Why should we limit ourselves?”
Remember, this is a red flag question.
Pause and immediately return to the fundamentals of building a brand, “the most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness.”
Focus and single-mindedness require discipline, especially when you see your competition broadening their approach.
But a narrow focus is the key to success in branding.
Ries shares fundamentals to help business owners avoid common branding mistakes:
- “Today most products and services are bought, not sold. Branding ‘pre-sells’ the product or service to the user. Branding is simply a more efficient way to sell things.”
- “Nothing happens until somebody brands something.”
- “Your brand is the single idea or concept that you own inside the mind of your customer.”
- “What you think your brand is doesn’t really matter. It’s only what your customer thinks your brand is that matters.”
- “You should limit your brand. That’s the essence of branding. Your brand has to stand for something both simple and narrow in the mind. The limitation is the essential part of the branding process.”
- “Limitation combined with consistency (over decades, not years) is what builds a brand.”
Remember, the core of a failed product is usually a no-brand strategy issue not a no-good product issue.
A few famous examples of branding strategy missteps:
- Little Caesars leaving their buy one, get one “Pizza. Pizza” take out focused business.
- KFC trying to distance itself from fried chicken.
- Holiday Inn trying to get into the upscale hotel segment.
- Atari walking away from gaming and attempting to become a computer.
When you read The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service Into a World Class Brand you’ll discover:
- How the power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope. (Law of Expansion)
- Why a brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus. (Law of Contraction)
- How the birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising and why so many businesses get this wrong. (Law of Publicity)
- Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy. (Law of Advertising)
- The truth about why a brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer. (Law of the Word)
- How the crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity. (Law of Credential)
- Why quality is important, but brands are not built on quality alone. (Law of Quality)
- How a leading brand should promote the category, not the brand. (Law of Category)
- Why in the long run a brand is nothing more than a name. (Law of the Name)
- How the easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything. (Law of Extensions)
- Discover the counterintuitive truth that in order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands. (Law of Fellowship)
- Uncover the simple fact that one of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name. (Law of the Generic)
- Identity the very real difference between brands and companies. (Law of the Company)
- Understand how sub-branding can destroy your brand. (Law of Sub Brands)
- How to know the time and the place to launch a second brand. (Law of Siblings)
- Why a brand’s logotype should be designed to fit the eyes. Both eyes. (Law of Shape)
- How this simple fact proves a brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitors. (Law of Color)
- If there are no barriers to global branding, then a brand should know no borders. (Law of Borders)
- Why a brand is not built overnight, how success is measured. (Law of Consistency)
- What if brands can be changed. (Law of Change)
- Uncover if euthanasia is the best solution. (Law of Mortality)
- How to embrace the most important aspect of a brand. (Law of Singularity)
Three ways to overcome branding mistakes and create unity with your strategy and your messaging are to:
- read 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.
- attend a StoryBrand workshop (create a StoryBrand BrandScript).
- hire a StoryBrand guide, which you can conveniently do at HopeSchaefer.com
