This is How You Need to Start Thinking About Branding

My pick: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries and Laura Ries
Approximate read time: 8 minutes

We brand to stick out, to create in the mind of the customer the perception that we’re different. A brand is nothing more than a name, yet is the essence of the company itself. It is its identity, the familiar face in the crowd that we know. When we build a brand, we’re deciding what it stands for and how we want to be perceived in the minds of customers. That’s a powerful thing, and it takes careful consideration and execution beyond just the marketing organization. If we consider that a company’s ultimate objective is marketing, and marketing is branding, then it’s obvious why everyone in the company should be concerned with marketing, and specifically branding.

There’s a reason we have relationships with certain brands- we identify with them and trust them. Perhaps they reflect our values or lifestyle. Maybe we like their personalities and packaging, or see qualities in them that we would like to see in ourselves. Whatever the reason, the fact that we have a relationship with a brand tells us everything about what branding is really about.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is a straightforward guide to building an effective brand. There’s a lot that goes into pulling off building a brand, but there are specific laws in the book that I found most noteworthy, because of how commonly they’re broken, or disregarded entirely. Two of these laws, Contraction and Category, are recurring themes throughout the book. I include Publicity vs Advertising in particular because of the misconceptions that seem to surround it with too many of the entrepreneurs I’ve known. Finally, I’ve included Basic Branding Guidelines to sum up a few of those laws that some companies just don’t seem to get right, way too often, and should be considered from the get-go when creating a brand.

Contraction (Focus)

A brand must be focused on a singular thing. No one brand will have universal appeal. We can’t build a brand on trying to please everyone, it’s just not going to happen- not that companies haven’t tried. Customers want brands that are narrow in scope- it keeps things clear and simplifies decision-making. The power a brand has is that it stands for something in the mind. The clearer we are about what that something is, the more effective we can be at defining it in the mind of the prospect.

Losing focus is how a lot of companies get into trouble. Companies emphasize short term, and managers often chase opportunities at the expense of the brand, resulting in line extension and sub-branding. It may pay off in the short term, but will certainly hurt the brand in the long run.

Coca-Cola is notorious for this. It created Diet Coke to compete with Diet Pepsi, even though it already had the leading diet cola brand, Tab. Its siblings, Mr. Pibb, Fruitopia, Mello Yello, and Surge, were all created to block the growth of other companies’ brands- Dr. Pepper, Snapple and Mountain Dew. None of this worked, and the brands have gone nowhere.

Putting the brand name on everything dilutes the power of the core brand and confuses customers. It prompts comparisons between our own products. We get lost in the noise of the category.

Coca-Cola's Tab was easily outselling Diet Pepsi.

Then it introduced Diet Coke. Less favored than Tab, it also cut into Tab's sales.

It takes decades to build a brand, and we have to consistently maintain focus to gain trust. Successful brands cross generations. You can build a brand, or you can milk it. Only one will make it stronger. If you must, launch a second brand. If not, continue building what you’ve got.

That’s not to say we can’t have a line of products, and launching future brands is a great idea when the time is right for the company. A company can have a long line and still maintain a narrow brand focus. Look at specialty shops like Starbucks, Domino’s, and Toys “R” Us at their inception. They narrowed their focus, and they dominated the category. Narrowing focus makes us a specialist, rather than a generalist. It’s category, not product, that should be our primary consideration with branding. Even big companies with expanded brands are weak against the specialists with a narrow focus.

Publicity vs Advertising

To get the business off the ground, we need publicity, not advertising. Develop the strategy first from a publicity point of view. The media likes talking about what’s new and exciting. The best way to generate publicity is by being the first brand in a new category, and announcing the new category. Again, draw attention to the category rather than the brand. It's through publicity that we first establish ourselves as leader, and that we impress in the customer’s mind that as the creators of the category we’re the best. In doing so, we create a sustainable advantage we can use to build the brand.

Publicity will eventually die out. When it does, advertising is used to maintain the brand’s position in the category. Advertising is not the primary communications vehicle, and brand strategies that rely on them as such won’t succeed. Advertising is essentially the company’s defense budget. It doesn’t buy us anything, it raises a competitor’s price of admission, and makes it difficult for them to gain substantial market share- it’s protection for maintaining leadership.

Basic Branding Guidelines

Branding Name

Ideally, the company brand should be the brand name. Think Zippo and WD-40. Managers lose sight of this from the inside and often forget that customers only care about brands. The brand name should be unique, one that doesn’t sound like anyone else. If your brand name is similar to too many others, you’ll get lost in the noise. Keep the brand name short and sweet, distinguishable by a single word- if it’s easily spoken, it’s easily remembered. Brand communication is predominantly verbal, not visual. If it’s hard to say, it’s not easily remembered or communicated.

A brand is a proper noun that can be used in place of a common word. It’s a singular idea or concept that you can own inside the mind of the prospect.

The Word

We want to have a word associated with our brand, one that reflects the quality of the brand itself. Often the perception the prospect has of the brand comes down to a single word they associate with the brand. BMW is driving, Volvo is safety, Kleenex is tissue. A brand needs a word no one else in the category owns. When a brand owns a word, no one is taking it away from them. Think about the size of the market your word can create.

Forget “Quality” as a word. The idea of quality resides in the mind of the buyer. Quality according to who? There isn’t much correlation between quality and sales rankings for a lot of products. If you’re going to be a quality brand, narrow your focus, come in with a higher price, then find something to put into your brand to justify the price.

Credibility

Without credibility, you’ll most likely be ignored. Any claims of benefits you may give can be easily dismissed by prospective customers. If we make claims, we have to back them up with credentials. If we’re faster and cheaper, and the best-selling, that’s not a claim every brand can make.

Packaging

Consumers buy brands, not companies. The best packaging is branded only with the brand. What is the name of the brand? What is the stuff inside the packaging? If your company name has to be on the package, relegate it to the bottom in tiny type, your brand should dominate. If possible, leave it off entirely.

Remember, the essence of your brand is the perception customers have of your brand. It’s easy to lose sight of the view from the outside when we’re fixated on our vision from within. When we lose customer perspective, the success we found by following the laws of branding is easily lost. Consistency is key. Going with your gut in branding is only helpful to the extent that you know your customers and what they want.

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Why this book is my pick

Long identified as the definitive guide to branding, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding could find a home as easily in the Self-Help section of a bookstore as in the Marketing or Business section. We intuitively know the value of others’ perceptions of us whether we care to have a relationship with them or not. Relationships are formed on the perception others have of us as much as they are on our impressions of others. It’s how we’re perceived that matters in a crowded marketplace.