The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding Paperback – Illustrated, September 17, 2002

古典。原理原則はそれほど変わらないので、今でも十分活用できる余地はあり。

This book contains applicable advice, but most of the 22 laws rehash the same basic principle: simplify and limit a brand's scope so that it stands for something distinct from other brands in the user's mind.1. The Law of Expansion:"When you put your brand name on everything, that name loses its power." (9)2. The Law of Contraction:"A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus." (17)"If you want to be rich, you have to do what rich people did before they were rich--you have to find out what they did to become rich. If you want to have a successful company, you have to do what successful companies did before they were successful. As it happens, they all did the same thing. They narrowed their focus." (22)3. The Law of Publicity:"The best way to generate publicity is by being first. In other words, by being the first brand in a new category." (27)4. The Law of Advertising:"Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy." (33)5. The Law of the Word:"If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect's mind. A word that nobody else owns." (39)"In the same way that Kleenex owns tissue, Jell-O owns gelatin dessert, Cocoa-Cola owns cola, Band-Aid owns adhesive bandage, Saran Wrap owns plastic food film, and Rollerblade owns in-line skates." (41)6. The Law of Credentials:"When you don't have the leading brand, your best strategy is to create a new category in which you can claim leadership." (50)"Most new prospects have no experience with the category and little knowledge of available brands, so they naturally gravitate to the leading brand." (53)7. The Law of Quality:"You can build quality into your product, but that has little to do with your success in the marketplace." (58)"High price is a benefit to customers. It allows the affluent customer to obtain psychic satisfaction from the public purchase and consumption of a high-end brand." (61)"To build a quality brand you need to narrow the focus and combine that narrow focus with a better name and a higher price." (63)8. The Law of the Category:"Leaders should continue to promote the category, to increase the size of the pie rather than their slice of the pie." (69)9. The Law of the Name:"In the long run a brand is nothing more than a name." (73)10. The Law of Extensions:"The easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything." (79)11. The Law of Fellowship:"In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands." (89)12. The Law of the Generic:"What you should generally do is to find a regular word taken out of context and used to connote the primary attribute of your brand." (101)13. The Law of the Company:"Unless there are compelling reasons to do otherwise, the best branding strategy should be to use the company name as the brand name." (107)14. The Law of Subbrands:"When you feel the need to create subbrands, you are chasing the market, you are not building the brand... Subbranding destroys what branding builds." (117)15. The Law of Siblings:"The key to a family approach is to make each sibling a unique individual brand with its own identity. Resist the urge to give the brands a family look or a family identity." (120)16. The Law of Shape:"Since the eyes of your customers are mounted side by side, the ideal shape for a logotype is horizontal. Roughly two and one-fourth units wide and one unit high." (129)"Legibility is the most important consideration in selecting a typeface used in a logotype." (130)17. The Law of Color:"A brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitor's." (135)18. The Law of Borders:"Every brand (no matter where it is bottled, assembled, manufactured, or produced) has to be from somewhere." (148)"English has become the second language of the world. If you are going to develop a brand name for use on the worldwide market, the name had better work in English. It doesn't have to be an English word, but it should sound like one." (150)19. The Law of Consistency:"Markets may change, but brands shouldn't. Ever." (153)20. The Law of Change:"Brands can be changed, but only infrequently and only very carefully... But brand changing does not occur inside a company. It occurs inside the mind of the consumer." (159)21. The Law of Mortality:"No brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution." ( 165)22. The Law of Singularity:"The most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness." (171)"What's a brand? A proper noun that can be used in place of a common word." (172)"What's a brand? A singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect." (172)Taken as a series of lessons and one-liners, the book educates and enlightens a brand builder. However, in between these quotes are litanies of examples from American consumerism, where the authors dump on companies for their branding follies, from Heinz vinegar and New Coke to Arby's and Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza.In general, case studies are helpful! But not when judged without the context of boardroom discussions, or delivered with the vindictiveness of an "I told you so" or 20/20 hindsight. The writing style comes across as know-it-all consultants who advised top companies and now have a bone to pick with those that neglected their advice. As readers, we can see (from history) when branding decisions don't turn out favorably for the company, so we need no reminder.What we can't see is the logic or the context that went into those decisions, so that is where Ries can educate us. Instead, his book just dumps on companies for branching out their brands to take on competitors and grow market share, like Mr. Pibb trying to block Dr. Pepper, or Miller Lite vs. Bud Light. But does Ries know the context of those decisions when the respective companies made them? CEOs aren't idiots. Did their investors pressure them for growth? Were they aiming for a quarterly earnings target? Did their market research give them the data to back that decision? Decisions should not be viewed in retrospect, but rather in the context of the information available at the time the decision was made. There is too much of this armchair director in the text.In either case, win or lose, the kinds of "I told you so" remarks so prevalent throughout the book don't belong in a short-but-sweet branding rulebook. They only tarnish the respectability of its author.