Laura Ries

Why are most slogans and taglines ineffective? Because they’re just words and a mind cannot understand words. A mind can only understand sounds.

Why do most Americans remember the battlecry of the French Revolution (Liberté, égalité, fraternité) when they cannot remember the battlecry of the American Revolution?

Because the sounds of the words “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” rhyme and that’s one of the powerful techniques for creating a memorable slogan. In addition to “rhyme,”… Show more

Why are most slogans and taglines ineffective? Because they’re just words and a mind cannot understand words. A mind can only understand sounds.

Why do most Americans remember the battlecry of the French Revolution (Liberté, égalité, fraternité) when they cannot remember the battlecry of the American Revolution?

Because the sounds of the words “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” rhyme and that’s one of the powerful techniques for creating a memorable slogan. In addition to “rhyme,” there are four other techniques outlined in my new book, Battlecry.

(1) Rhyme: “Roto-Rooter, that’s the name. And away go troubles down the drain.”

(2) Alliteration: “M&Ms melt in your mouth, not in your hands.”

(3) Repetition: “The few. The proud. The Marines.”

(4) Reversals: “Two great tastes that taste great together. Reese’s peanut butter cups.”

(5) Double-entendre: “A diamond is forever.”

You might think companies and their ad agencies would be wise to these techniques. But few slogans actually use any of these memory-building tactics. In a recent survey of 266 advertising slogans, only 19 used any one of them.

Battlecry is a companion book to my previous book, Visual Hammer, and should be read together. Creating a slogan is only half the battle. The other half of the battle is a visual that will help drive your slogan into prospects’ minds.

The contour bottle helps drive “The real thing” into the minds of cola drinkers.

The duck helps drive the Aflac name into prospects’ minds.

The straw-in-the-orange helps drive “Not from concentrate” into the minds of Tropicana buyers.

Over the years, there have been many advertising campaigns showing beautiful automobiles being driven over lush, winding roads. The hammers are terrific, but the nails are missing.

The trick is to find the right combination of a visual hammer and a verbal nail. And my two books, Battlecry and Visual Hammer, can help you do exactly that. Show less

When my dad, Al Ries, wrote “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” in 1981, he overlooked one important idea. The visual.

Positioning is a totally verbal concept. You build a brand by owning a word in the mind.

Yet the best way into a mind is not with words at all. The best way into a mind is with visuals.

But not any visual. You need a “visual hammer” that hammers a verbal nail. The Marlboro cowboy. Coca-Cola’s contour bottle. Corona’s lime.

The cowboy hammers… Show more

When my dad, Al Ries, wrote “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” in 1981, he overlooked one important idea. The visual.

Positioning is a totally verbal concept. You build a brand by owning a word in the mind.

Yet the best way into a mind is not with words at all. The best way into a mind is with visuals.

But not any visual. You need a “visual hammer” that hammers a verbal nail. The Marlboro cowboy. Coca-Cola’s contour bottle. Corona’s lime.

The cowboy hammers “masculinity.” The contour bottle hammers “authenticity.” The lime hammers “genuine Mexican beer.”

A trademark is not a visual hammer. Almost every brand has a trademark, but fewer than one out of a hundred brands have a visual hammer. A trademark is a rebus which communicates nothing except the name of the brand.

A visual hammer, on the other hand, communicates the essence of the brand.

Visual Hammer is the first book to document the superiority of the “hammer and nail” approach to branding. Some examples.

The pink ribbon that made Susan G. Komen for the Cure the largest nonprofit foundation to fight breast cancer.

The Aflac duck that increased Aflac’s name recognition from 12 percent to 94 percent.

The green jacket which made the Masters the most-prestigious golf tournament.

The polo player which made Ralph Lauren the largest-selling high-end clothing brand.

The bottle which made Absolut the largest-selling high-end vodka.

The watchband which made Rolex the largest-selling luxury watch.

The red soles which made Christian Louboutin the leading luxury-shoe brand.

The chalice which made Stella Artois the fifth largest-selling imported beer.

Colonel Sanders who made KFC the world’s largest chicken chain.

Why are marketing plans usually nothing but words when the best way into a mind is with the emotional power of a visual?

After reading Visual Hammer, you might want to tear up your current marketing plan and start fresh.
Show less

There's a reason why the marketing programs of the auto industry, the airline industry, and many other industries are not only ineffective, but bogged down by chaos and confusion.

Management minds are not on the same wavelength as marketing minds.

What makes a good chief executive? A person who is highly verbal, logical, and analytical. Typical characteristics of a left brainer.

What makes a good marketing executive? A person who is highly visual, intuitive, and holistic… Show more

There's a reason why the marketing programs of the auto industry, the airline industry, and many other industries are not only ineffective, but bogged down by chaos and confusion.

Management minds are not on the same wavelength as marketing minds.

What makes a good chief executive? A person who is highly verbal, logical, and analytical. Typical characteristics of a left brainer.

What makes a good marketing executive? A person who is highly visual, intuitive, and holistic. Typical characteristics of a right brainer.

These different mind-sets often result in conflicting approaches to branding, and the Ries' thought-provoking observations—culled from years on the front lines—support this conclusion, including:

Management deals in reality. Marketing deals in perception.

Management demands better products. Marketing demands different products.

Management deals in verbal abstractions. Marketing deals in visual hammers.

Using some of the world's most famous brands and products to illustrate their argument, the authors convincingly show why some brands succeed (Nokia, Nintendo, and Red Bull) while others decline (Saturn, Sony, and Motorola). In doing so, they sound a clarion call: to survive in today's media-saturated society, managers must understand how to think like marketers—and vice versa. Featuring the engaging, no-holds-barred writing that readers have come to expect from Al and Laura Ries, War in the Boardroom offers a fresh look at a perennial problem and provides a game plan for companies that want to break through the deadlock and start reaping the rewards. Show less

What Charles Darwin did for biology, Al and Laura Ries do for branding.

In their exciting new book, The Origin of Brands, the Rieses take Darwin's revolutionary idea of evolution and apply it to the branding process. What results is a new and strikingly effective strategy for creating innovative products, building a successful brand, and, in turn, achieving business success. Here, the Rieses explain how changing conditions in the marketplace create endless opportunities to build new… Show more

What Charles Darwin did for biology, Al and Laura Ries do for branding.

In their exciting new book, The Origin of Brands, the Rieses take Darwin's revolutionary idea of evolution and apply it to the branding process. What results is a new and strikingly effective strategy for creating innovative products, building a successful brand, and, in turn, achieving business success. Here, the Rieses explain how changing conditions in the marketplace create endless opportunities to build new brands and accumulate riches. But these opportunities cannot be found where most people and most companies look. That is, in the convergence of existing categories like television and the computer, the cellphone and the Internet.

Instead, opportunity lies in the opposite direction—in divergence. By following Darwin's brilliant deduction that new species arise from divergence of an existing species, the Rieses outline an effective strategy for creating and taking to market an effective brand. In The Origin of Brands, you will learn how to:

Divide and conquer
Exploit divergence
Use the theories of survival of the firstest and survival of the secondest
Harness the power of pruning

Using insightful studies of failed convergence products and engaging success stories of products that have achieved worldwide success through divergence, the Rieses have written the definitive book on branding. The Origin of Brands will show you in depth how to build a great brand and will lead you to success in the high-stakes world of branding. Show less

Bestselling authors and world-renowned marketing strategists Al and Laura Ries usher in the new era of public relations.

Today's major brands are born with publicity, not advertising. A closer look at the history of the most successful modern brands shows this to be true. In fact, an astonishing number of brands, including Palm, Starbucks, the Body Shop, Wal-Mart, Red Bull and Zara have been built with virtually no advertising.

Using in-depth case histories of successful PR… Show more

Bestselling authors and world-renowned marketing strategists Al and Laura Ries usher in the new era of public relations.

Today's major brands are born with publicity, not advertising. A closer look at the history of the most successful modern brands shows this to be true. In fact, an astonishing number of brands, including Palm, Starbucks, the Body Shop, Wal-Mart, Red Bull and Zara have been built with virtually no advertising.

Using in-depth case histories of successful PR campaigns coupled with those of unsuccessful advertising campaigns, The Fall of Advertising provides valuable ideas for marketers -- all the while demonstrating why:

*advertising lacks credibility, the crucial ingredient in brand building, and how only PR can supply that credibility;
*the big bang approach advocated by advertising people should be abandoned in favor of a slow build-up by PR;
*advertising should only be used to maintain brands once they have been established through publicity.

Bold and accessible, The Fall of Advertising is bound to turn the world of marketing upside down. Show less

As we move into the twenty-first century the most important question for businesses everywhere is: What are we going to do about the Internet? The two most qualified people in the country to answer that question may be Al Ries and Laura Ries. Not only are they the authors of the BusinessWeek bestseller The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, they are also consultants to dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

This book is the result of their hands-on work with both large and small companies as well… Show more

As we move into the twenty-first century the most important question for businesses everywhere is: What are we going to do about the Internet? The two most qualified people in the country to answer that question may be Al Ries and Laura Ries. Not only are they the authors of the BusinessWeek bestseller The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, they are also consultants to dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

This book is the result of their hands-on work with both large and small companies as well as Internet start-ups and established Internet brands. Brash, bold, and mercifully succinct, The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding is the definitive text for businesses eager to jump on the Internet expressway.

In the book you'll learn why:The Internet can be a business or a medium for your brand, but not both.Interactivity is the single most important ingredient of any Internet site.The kiss of death for an Internet brand is a common name.Being second in a category is tantamount to being nowhere.You have to be fast. You have to be first. You have to be focused.Everyone is talking about convergence while just the opposite is happening.

The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding will also give you tangible information on how to successfully build your company, product, service, or self into a hot and profitable brand on the Internet. Specifically you'll learn how to:Build a brand that will dominate a category over an extended period of time.Find a proper name (instead of a common one) for your Website.Take your brand into the global marketplace.Avoid the biggest mistake in Internet branding: the belief that you can do everything.Take advantage of the transformations that will occur in all aspects of life, thanks to the power of the Internet. Show less

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… Show more

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.
Show less