The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service Into a World-Class Brand

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is a book that teaches why companies like Apple rise and why companies like GM falls. Economics facts show us there is no certainty in markets and crisis eventually come periodically. Your Brand is the safe heaven for your business to survive. Do you want to know how to have your own BRAND? Read this book.

Below please find the 22 Laws of Branding (and short elaboration)for your quick reference:- 1. Expansion: The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope 2. Contraction: A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus 3. Publicity: The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising 4. Advertising: Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy 5.The Word: A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer 6.Credentials: The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity 7. Quality: Quality is important, but brands are not built on quality alone 8. The Category: A leading brand should promote the cateogry, not the brand 9. The Name: In the long run a brand is nothing more htan a name. 10. Extensions: The easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything 11. Fellowship: In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands 12. The Generic: One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name 13. The Company: Brands are brands. Companies are companies. There is a difference 14. Subbrands: What branding builds, subbranding can destroy 15. Siblings: There is a time and a place to launch a second brand 16. Shape: A brand's logotype should be designed to fit the eyes. Both eyes. 17. Color: A brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitor's 18. Borders: There are no barriers to global branding. A brand should know no borders. 19. Consistency: A brand is not built overnight. Success is measured in decades, not years. 20. Change: Brands can be changed, but only infrequently and only very carefully 21. Mortality: No brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution 22. Singularity: The most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness If you feel fine with the above statements, I assure you that you will enjoy the book much with its smooth writing style and plenty of real life examples/graphs (and that trigger you to think of many counter examples, too, as stated by many reviewers already). If not, please give it a pass. p.s. The additional 11 Laws of Internet Branding is definitely an A+.

I have read a few books written by Ries and there are two ideas that are emphasized again and again, that is, to focus and to place a word in the prospect mind. This book is no exception. The laws of branding built in this book are based on these two concepts."Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect". I totally agree. People are exposed to an over-communicated environment, to place a word in the prospect mind can surely lead your company to success. In fact, in customers' mind, there is no difference between your products and your competitors'. Only by building a brand can you differentiate your company from its competitors.I also agree that brand building is not just for marketing department but for the entire company, as a brand is not only composed of its name but also of its product, service, environment, communication and behavior of the company. Everything a company does is related to brand building. Therefore, apart from the name that includes the logotypes and the color, this book also provides us with a lot of ways to do with the brand. For examples, to focus in its scope, to achieve it with publicity and maintain it with advertising, to promote the category rather than the brand, to distinguish it from the company, to avoid using subbranding etc. This book is clear in the format and the content, illustrated by plenty of examples of what not to do and lessons on how to brand in the customer's mind! I can get a lot of insights from it.This book is worth reading! I highly recommend you to read it!

Focus. Don't do a line extension to save your life. OK, this book is great and should be read by anyone involved in marketing (I mean come on, who doesn't have the 3 hours it takes to read this book). Unfortunately one serious drawback is that he uses plenty of examples to support his claims. Huh? Why is that a negative? Here's why: because it gets the reader to think of plenty of counter-examples that contradict his points. As another reviewer suggested the claim of "immutable" laws of marketing is a bit bold, but what the book does provide is food for thought in a highly readable context. You gotta give the guy credit though. He takes a stand. And there's a lot to be said for taking a viewpoint and standing by it in today's middle of the road world. If you don't feel up to reading "Focus," "Positioning," or some of the other texts by Al Ries, this one provides a lot of the insights in bite size pieces. Despite the knocks against it listed above there are a few points worth acknowledging: 1. Al Ries is a legend in marketing. 2. It's a good, fun read with many useful examples worth keeping in mind when developing marketing strategies. 3. By reading it for yourself you can develop examples to refute a lot fo the laws and move along the path towards critically evaluating branding strategies.