The Origin of Brands Quotes

“The primary objective of a branding program is never the market for the product or service. The primary objective of a branding program is always the mind of the prospect. The mind comes first; the market follows where the mind leads.”
― Al Ries, The Origin of Brands: How Product Evolution Creates Endless Possibilities for New Brands – The Darwinian Approach to Divergence and Business Success

“Names don't matter, many managers believe; it's the product that matters. With the right product at the right price, goes the thinking, we can win the battle of the marketplace. Names do matter. Depending on the category, the name alone can represent the primary reason for the brand's success. A company might spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a new product and then give that new product a brand name that almost guarantees failure. Innovation alone is never enough. Along with innovation, a company needs marketing to assure the brand's eventual success and survival. The heart of a good marketing program is a great name.”
― Al Ries, The Origin of Brands: How Product Evolution Creates Endless Possibilities for New Brands – The Darwinian Approach to Divergence and Business Success

“Traditional marketing is not focused on creating new categories. Traditional marketing is focused on creating new customers. Traditional marketing involves finding out what consumers want and then giving them what they want, better and cheaper than the competition.”
― Al Ries, The Origin of Brands: How Product Evolution Creates Endless Possibilities for New Brands – The Darwinian Approach to Divergence and Business Success

“Големите компании виждат нещата такива, кавито са. Предприемачите ги виждат такива, каквито могат да бъдат.”
― Al Ries, The Origin of Brands: How Product Evolution Creates Endless Possibilities for New Brands

“Branding opportunities do not lie in the pursuit of existing markets. Branding opportunities lie in the creation of new markets.”
― Al Ries, The Origin of Brands: How Product Evolution Creates Endless Possibilities for New Brands – The Darwinian Approach to Divergence and Business Success

“To build a new brand, you must overcome the logical notion of serving a market. Instead you must focus on creating a market.”
― Al Ries, The Origin of Brands: How Product Evolution Creates Endless Possibilities for New Brands – The Darwinian Approach to Divergence and Business Success

“Test marketing has some benefits, but we believe the negatives far outweigh the benefits. Some of the negatives include: WASTED TIME. You can't afford to waste the time that test marketing takes, especially since the essence of branding is getting into the mind first. TIPPING OFF THE COMPETITION. Test marketing will alert competitors and perhaps stimulate one or more of them to introduce similar products. UNPROJECTABLE RESULTS. Test marketing for Enamelon toothpaste projected $50 million in annual sales nationally. Actual sales: $10 million. One of the problems with test marketing is overstimulation of demand. To get enough tangible results to measure, you usually have to run a local marketing program that you can't afford to run nationwide.”
― Al Ries, The Origin of Brands: How Product Evolution Creates Endless Possibilities for New Brands – The Darwinian Approach to Divergence and Business Success

“If you want to build a successful brand, you have to understand divergence. You have to look for opportunities to create new categories by divergence of existing categories. And then you have to become the first brand in this emerging new category.”
― Al Ries, The Origin of Brands: How Product Evolution Creates Endless Possibilities for New Brands – The Darwinian Approach to Divergence and Business Success