Al Ries Quotes

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

“A branding program should be designed to differentiate your cow from all the other cattle on the range. Even if all the cattle on the range look pretty much alike.”

“A laser is a weak source of energy. A laser takes only a few watts of energy and focuses them in a coherent stream of light. But with a laser, you can drill a hole in a diamond or wipe out cancer.”

“All truth is relative. Relative to your mind or the mind of another human being. When you say, 'I’m right and the next person is wrong', all you’re really saying is that you’re a better perceiver than someone else.”

“The essence of marketing is narrowing the focus. You become stronger when you reduce the scope of your operations. You can’t stand for something if you chase after everything.”

“When you launch a new product, the first question to ask yourself is not 'How is this new product better than the competition?' but 'First what?' In other words, what category is this new product first in?”

“Companies are focused on building products rather than brands. A product is something made in a factory. A brand is something made in the mind. To be successful today, you have to build brands, not products. And you build brands by using positioning strategies, starting with a good name.”

“Don't play semantic games with the prospect. Advertising is not a debate. It's a seduction.”

“Don’t try to trick the prospect. Advertising is not a debate. It’s a seduction.”

“If you were forced to drink a beaker of di-hydrogen oxide, your response would probably be negative. If you asked for a glass of water, you might enjoy it. That's right. There's no difference on the palate. The difference, in the brain.”

“In our overcommunicated society, the paradox is that nothing is more important than communication.”

“Marriage, as a human institution, depends on the concept of first being better than best. And so does business.”

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

“Positioning is an organized system for finding a window in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstances.”

“Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect.”

“Successful positioning requires consistency. You must keep at it year after year.”

“The average person can tolerate being told something which he or she knows nothing about. Which is why 'news' is an effective advertising approach. But the average person cannot tolerate being told he or she is wrong. Mind-­changing is the road to advertising disaster.”

“The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what’s already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist.”

“The easy way to get into a person’s mind is to be first.”

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

“The mind, as a defense against the volume of today’s communications, screens and rejects much of the information offered it. In general, the mind accepts only that which matches prior knowledge or experience.”

“The most difficult part of positioning is selecting that one specific concept to hang your hat on. Yet you must, if you want to cut through the prospect's wall of indifference.”

“The professionals who are opposed to advertising say it downgrades their profession. And it does. To advertise effectively today, you have to get off your pedestal and put your ear to the ground. You have to get on the same wavelength as the prospect. In advertising, dignity as well as pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

“To find a unique position, you must ignore conventional logic. Conventional logic says you find your concept inside yourself or inside the product. Not true. What you must do is look inside the prospect’s mind.”

“Too often, however, greed gets confused with positioning thinking. Charging high prices is not the way to get rich. Being the first to (1) establish the high-price position (2) with a valid product story (3) in a category where consumers are receptive to a high-priced brand is the secret of success. Otherwise, your high price just drives prospective customers away.”

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

“When you try to be everything, you wind up being nothing.”

“You build brand loyalty in a supermarket the same way you build mate loyalty in a marriage. You get there first and then be careful not give them a reason to switch.”

“Building your brand on quality is like building your house on sand. You can build quality into your product, but that has little to do with your success in the marketplace.”

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