The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries

Product Description


This marketing classic has been expanded to include new commentary, new illustrations, and a bonus book: The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding

Smart and accessible, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is the definitive text on branding, pairing anecdotes about some of the best brands in the world, like Rolex, Volvo, and Heineken, with the signature savvy of marketing gurus Al and Laura Ries. Combining The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, this book proclaims that the only way to stand out in today's marketplace is to build your product or service into a brand—and provides the step-by-step instructions you need to do so.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding also tackles one of the most challenging marketing problems today: branding on the Web. The Rieses divulge the controversial and counterintuitive strategies and secrets that both small and large companies have used to establish internet brands. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is the essential primer on building a category-dominating, world-class brand.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #5486 in Books
Published on: 2002-09
Released on: 2002-09-17
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
272 pages
Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
As it becomes increasingly associated with impressive corporate gains realized in recent years by companies ranging from FedEx and Rolex to Starbucks and Volvo, "branding" has developed into one of the marketing world's hottest concepts. And for good reason, contend well-known strategist Al Ries and his daughter Laura Ries in The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service into a World-Class Brand.

"Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect," they write. "If you can build a powerful brand you will have a powerful marketing program. If you can't, then all the advertising, fancy packaging, sales promotion and public relations in the world won't help you achieve your objective." A no-holds-barred look at a diverse collection of successful--and not-so-successful--branding efforts undertaken by these and other high-profile firms, their book distills the most critical principles involved into a series of clear rules with straightforward titles such as The Law of Expansion, The Law of Contraction, The Law of Consistency, and The Law of Mortality. While some of their suggestions may at first seem counterintuitive, together they compose a logical blueprint for success in today's ever-more-competitive environment. --Howard Rothman

Amazon.com Audiobook Review
When you call a book The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, you're pretty much ruling out Oprah's Book Club as potential buyers. (Not that Oprah herself isn't a terrific brand.) This is an audiobook for a narrow demographic: entrepreneurs, top managers, and public-relations directors. Coauthor Al Ries comes off like the eccentric genius that most of these managers keep in a basement office, only listening to when necessary. When he says, "The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope," and hectors managers with the idea that "customers want brands that are narrow in scope," you know he's right (he backs himself up with dozens of examples), and you know it's the last thing powerful, expansion-minded businesspeople want to hear. Coauthor Laura Ries, his daughter and marketing-firm partner, also reads sections. (Running time: 1.5 hours, one cassette) --Lou Schuler

Scott Kay, CEO, Scott Kay Inc.

"This book is like a synthesizer. Using an impressive list of the world's best-known brands, it fine tunes the art of branding to its optimum levels, enabling you to make the right marketing decisions with utmost confidence."
Customer Reviews

Nonsense for the non-reader
Having worked myself within academia for ten years and in the "real" world of marketing for about as long, I must say that this book fills no purpose at all. It is nothing but an arbitrary collection of guesses that are not proved, could not be proved and would be of limited valuen even if proved. Neither the acadmic nor the practitioner can find any real value in this book.

For the academic, the method of making unqualified guesses without being able to prove any of them is, I hope all will agree, worthless. Research is about being able to test and prove one's hypotheses, but the authors show no interest in that. It is more comfy to just make guesses, but it's not research.

For the practitioner, the scientific failures of the book may not be as important, but where's the value in it. Two guys make guesses about what might work in companies, but they have nothing at all to support their guesses.

All in all, this is a book that should never have been written, never read and certainly never relied upon.

6 years of University branding classes in one book
If you would like to speed up six years of college into six hours of reading and study - buy this book.

I've been creating world known brands for Fortune 100 companies for over ten years like Heinz, Hershey, BJ's, Sams Club, COSTCO and Mc Cormick - and this read sharpened my skills to a razor slicing edge.

I can't say enough about having every manufacturer or college student to have a copy of this amazing tome on their, "required reading list." Some of the most inane things million dollar and start-up clients try to do are revealed in the Ries writings.

Creative groups and major marketing agencies with 20 people around the table roll what they think are amazing and astounding ideas. A good example of this is Miller Clear Beer with a 50 million dollar advertising budget. It was pulled in six months and the brand suffered. The product was removed from the shelves.

At our company, King Marketing, this book is required reading for all to memorize! I can also say that a lot of my colleagues at Momentum Worldwide, the Interpublic Group, Marketing Drive and Proctor & Gamble love this book.

This book is very useful
I really found this book to be useful on many levels. It's easy to read, and you can immediately find uses for the ideas here. Some of the information about specific products is outdated, so I'd like to hear what the author would say about huge emerging brands over the past few years.

I'd love to see a study examining Microsoft's Zune marketing strategies to go up against the iPod, what went wrong, and could still go right. Going up against the iPod is quite the challenge.

I used the "category definition" information immediately. "Promote the category if you are first, not just the product." Great stuff!