The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

How to build a Product or Service into a World-Class Brand

By: Al Ries and Laura Ries

Summary by Jon Strande (EMAIL: [email protected] BLOG: Business Evolutionist)

1. The law of expansion – The power of the brand is inversely proportional to its scope. Expanding your brand
will diminish your power and weaken your image.

2. The law of contraction – A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus. Every small town in America
has a coffee shop. So, what can you find in a coffee shop? Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. Pancakes, Muffins, Hot
Dogs, Hamburgers, sandwiches, pie, ice cream, and, of course, coffee. What did Howard Schultz do? In an
incredible burst of business creativity, he opened a coffee shop that specialized in, of all things, coffee:
Starbucks.

3. The law of publicity – The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising. Anita Roddick created
the Body Shop in 1976 around the concept of “natural” cosmetics, made of pure ingredients, not tested on
animals, and kind to both the environment and the people indigenous to the communities in which the products
originated. With virtually no advertising, but with massive amounts of publicity, the Body Shop has become a
powerful global brand.

4. The law of advertising – Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy. A consistent theme of
Goodyear advertising over the years has been “#1 in tires”. So who makes the best tires? “It must be
Goodyear,” thinks the consumer. “It’s the leader”. Advertising may not pay for itself, but if you’re the leader,
advertising will make you competitor pay through the nose for competing with you.

5. The law of the word – A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer. Federal express
became successful by being the first air cargo carrier to narrow its focus to overnight delivery, thereby owning
the word “overnight” in the mind of the air cargo user. FedEx has become synonymous with overnight delivery.
Even better is for you product to own the category word: Kleenex, Xerox, Jell-O, Band-Aid, etc.

6. The law of credentials – The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity. In
1942, Coca-Cola launched an advertising program called “The only thing like Coca-Cola is Coca-Cola itself. It’s
the real thing.” In 1970 it reprised the “real thing” slogan for about a year. Most people prefer to wait for a
table at a restaurant that is crowded, rather than eat in an empty one. If this place were really good (goes the
thinking), there would be a line out the door.

7. The law of quality – Quality is important, but brands are not built by quality alone. Rolex has become the
best-known and best-selling brand of expensive watch. Does quality have anything to do with it? Probably not.
Does Rolex make high quality watches? Probably. Does it matter? Probably not. Does a Rolex keep better time
than a Timex? Are you sure? Does Mercedes have fewer mechanical problems than a Cadillac? Does Hertz have
better service than Alamo? Does Coca-Cola taste better than Pepsi? Most people think so because Coke outsells
Pepsi. Yet in taste tests most people prefer the taste of Pepsi. To build a quality brand you need to narrow the
focus and combine that narrow focus with a better name and a higher price.

8. The law of the category – A leading brand should promote the category, not the brand. You have to launch
the brand in such a way as to create the perception that “that brand” was the first, the leader, the pioneer, and
the original. Invariably, you should use one of these words to describe your brands. What was the market for
home delivered pizza before Domino’s? What was the market for in-line skates before Rollerblade?

9. The law of the name – In the long run a brand is nothing more than a name. One of the world’s most
powerful brands, Xerox demonstrates many of the important laws of branding, including being the first in a new
category (plain paper copier) with a short, unique name. Yet when Xerox tried to put its powerful copier name
on computers, the result was billions in losses.

1
10. The law of extensions – The easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything. With a
powerful marketing campaign, Miller High Life was rapidly gaining on market leader Budweiser (it got within
20% of the king of beers.) Then Miller introduced a bevy of line-extension brands that stopped Miller High Life
cold. More than 90% of all new products introduced in the U.S. grocery and drug trade are line extensions.
Which is the major reason that stores are choked with brands (1,300 shampoos, 200 cereals, 250 soft drinks).
Scanner data indicates that many of those line extensions (at least in supermarkets) sit on the shelf and gather
dust. Research from Kroger supermarkets in Columbus, Ohio, found that of the average 23,000 items in the
store, 6,700 sold in a day, 13,600 sold in a month, and 17,500 sold in a month, leaving 5,500 that sold nothing
in an entire month. If the market is moving out from under you, stay where you are and launch a second
brand. If its not, stay where you are and continue to build your brand.

11. The law of fellowship – In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands. One of the
best locations to for a number-two is right across the street from the leader. The best place for a Planet
Hollywood is right across the street from its biggest competitor, Hard Rock Café. Both brands will benefit.

12. The law of the generic – One of the fastest routes to failure is giving your brand a generic name.
Blockbuster is a great name for a video rental store whereas General Video Store is not.

13. The law of the company – Brands are brands. Companies are companies. There is a difference. Does the
Tide brand need the endorsement of the company name Proctor & Gamble? Probably not. Will a corporate
endorsement hurt the brand? Probably not. Corporate endorsements are primarily for the trade, not for the
consumer? The brand itself should be the focus of your attention. If you have to use the company name, use it.
But do so in a decidedly secondary way.

14. The law of sub brands – What branding builds, sub-branding can destroy. Holiday Inn has become a mega-
brand with the launch of sub-brands like Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Select, Holiday Inn Sun Spree
Resorts, and Holiday Inn Garden Court. This sub-branding is eroding the core brand. Think simple, like your
customer and your brand will become more successful.

15. The law of siblings – There is a time and a place to launch a second brand. When Honda wanted to
introduce an expensive car, it didn’t call it Honda Ultra. It developed a new brand called Acura, which became a
big success. As a matter of fact, Acura quickly became the largest selling imported luxury car in America.

16. The law of shape – A brands logotype should be designed to fit the eyes. Both eyes. A customer sees the
world through two horizontally mounted eyes peering out of his or her head. It’s like looking out the windshield
of an automobile. For maximum visual impact, a logotype should have roughly the same shape as a windshield,
roughly two and one-fourth units wide and one unit high. The Avis logotype is almost perfect in shape. The
Arby’s logotype is much too vertical.

17. The law of color – A brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitor. What color is a
Tiffany & Co. box? It’s that distinctive robin’s-egg blue. All Tiffany boxes are blue. If Tiffany had used a variety
of colors for its boxes, it would have lost a marvelous opportunity to reinforce the brand name with a distinctive
color. White = purity. Black = luxury. Blue = Leadership. Purple = Royalty. Green = environment and health.

18. The law of borders – There are no barriers to global branding. A brand should know no boundaries. There
are issues with English translations of words and slogans that you have to deal with: The Coors beer tag line;
“Turn it loose”, in Spanish becomes “Suffer from diarrhea”. The Perdue Slogan, “It takes a strong man to make
a tender chicken” translated into Spanish means: “It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate”.

19. The law of consistency – A brand is not built overnight. Success is measured in decades, not years. BMW
has been the ultimate driving machine to 25 years. What’s even more remarkable is the fact that BMW retained
its strategy even though the brand was driven through 3 different advertising agencies. A change of agencies
usually signals the end of a brands consistency. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither is a brand of Romano
cheese.

2
20. The law of change – Brands can be changed, but only infrequently and only very carefully.

21. The law of mortality – No brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution. Film photography is
being replaced by digital photography. But Kodak refuses to face that reality. Instead, it is trying to save its
brand by using the Kodak name on its digital products. It’s sad. Companies are willing to spend millions to save
an old brand, yet they resist spending pennies to create a new one.

22. The law of singularity – The most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness. Volvo has been
selling safety for some 35 years. In the process, the brand has become the largest-selling European luxury car.
In the past decade, Volvo has sold 849,348 cars in America, ahead of BMW (804,348) and Mercedes (770,
089). What’s a brand? A singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the consumer. It’s as simple
and as difficult as that.