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

by Al Ries

21 THE LAW OF MORTALITY No brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution.

22 THE LAW OF SINGULARITY The most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness.

What’s a brand? A singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.

1 THE LAW OF EITHER/OR The Internet can be a business or a medium, but not both.

On the Internet, you should start the brand-building process by forgetting everything you have learned in the past and asking yourself these two questions: What works on the Internet? What doesn’t work on the Internet? Hopefully these laws will provide the answers you need to build a powerful Internet brand. The material is not based on strategies that have worked in other media. Rather, it is based on our experience with developing strategies for dozens of Internet start-ups. What worked and what didn’t work. Which leads to the first and most crucial decision you must make: For my product or service, is the Internet going to be a business or a medium? If the Internet is going to be a business, then you must start from scratch. You must develop a totally new strategy, a totally new way of doing business, and (most important of all) a totally new name.

2 THE LAW OF INTERACTIVITY Without it, your Website and your brand will go nowhere.

3 THE LAW OF THE COMMON NAME The kiss of death for an Internet brand is a common name.

4 THE LAW OF THE PROPER NAME Your name stands alone on the Internet, so you’d better have a good one.

5 THE LAW OF SINGULARITY At all costs you should avoid being second in your category.

On the Internet, monopolies will rule. There is no room on the Internet for number-two brands. The Internet will operate more like the computer software industry, in which every category tends to be dominated by a single brand.

Michael Mauboussin, chief investment strategist at Credit Suisse First Boston, found that Internet sites adhere to a mathematical valuation system so rigid, it resembles patterns found in nature. The pattern suggests that there may be fewer ultimate winners than many investors expect. As some sites get bigger, Mr. Mauboussin argues, they attract more users, and the more users they attract, the richer and more useful they become, attracting more users. This produces a “winner-take-all” outcome: a handful of Websites with almost all the business, and the rest with next to nothing; i.e., the Law of Singularity.

When building an Internet brand, you have to think category first and brand second. Customers are not primarily interested in companies, in brands, or even in Websites. They are primarily interested in categories. They are not primarily interested in buying a Volvo, for example. They buy a Volvo in order to get a safe car. Volvo is the leader in a mental category called “safe cars.”

6 THE LAW OF INTERNET ADVERTISING Advertising off the Net will be a lot bigger than advertising on the Net.

Let us repeat that statement. The Internet will be the first new medium that will not be dominated by advertising, and the reason is simple. The Internet is interactive. For the first time, the user is in charge, not the owner of the medium. The user can decide where to go, what to look at, and what to read. At many sites, the user can decide how to pick and arrange the material to best fit that user’s needs.

7 THE LAW OF GLOBALISM The Internet will demolish all barriers, all boundaries, all borders.

changes the Internet will bring. So fasten your seat belts and get ready

9 THE LAW OF VANITY The biggest mistake of all is believing you can do anything.

Many managers believe it’s only necessary to deliver a better product or service to win. But brands like Coca-Cola, Hertz, Budweiser, and Goodyear are strong not because they have the best product or service (although they might have) but because they are market leaders that dominate their categories. Which scenario seems more likely, A or B? Scenario A: The company creates a better product or service and consequently achieves market leadership. Scenario B: The company achieves market leadership (usually by being first in a new category) and then subsequently achieves the perception of having the better product or service. Logic suggests Scenario A, but history is overwhelmingly on the side of Scenario B. Leadership first, perception second.

10 THE LAW OF DIVERGENCE Everyone talks about convergence, while just the opposite is happening.

Why are divergence products generally winners and convergence products generally losers? One reason is that convergence products are always a compromise. The Intel microprocessor inside the Philips DVX8000 should be good for three years or so. The home-theater half of the machine should last twenty years.

11 THE LAW OF TRANSFORMATION The Internet revolution will transform all aspects of our lives.