Brand Books: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries and Laura Ries (1998)
In an attempt to wean myself from my brand-whorish ways, I'm reading a number of books about branding, marketing, and consumer psychology. I hope to gain a better understanding of why brands have such a strong pull, and thereby to diminish the pull itself. I'll be posting interesting quotations from these books here, for my reference and possibly others' interest.
"A successful branding program is based on the concept of singularity. It creates in the mind of the prospect the perception that there is no product on the market quite like your product." (p. 7)
"Mercedes built the market for expensive cars using prestige as its strategy. But you need subtlety in dealing with a word like 'prestige.' Its connotations may work in brand building, but the word itself does not. It's not that people aren't dying to own prestige brands. They just hate to admit it.
To be sucessful in branding a 'prestige' product or service, you need to do two things:
1. You need to make your product or service more expensive than the competition.
2. You need to find a code word for prestige.
The first part was easy. Mercedes-Benz priced its vehicles at about twice the price of a comparable Cadillac. ('Mercedes cars must be better than Cadillacs,' thinks the buyer, 'because they are twice as expensive.')
Mercedes also found a powerful code word for prestige. 'Engineered like no other car in the world.'" (p. 45-46)
"Another factor in building a high-quality perception is having a high price. Rolex, Häagen-Dazs, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Montblanc, Dom Pérignon, Chivas Regal, Absolut, Jack Daniel's, and Ritz-Carlton are all brands that benefit from their high price.
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.
The customer who wears a Rolex watch doesn't do so to be more punctual. The customer who wears a Rolex watch does so to let other people know that he or she can afford to buy a Rolex watch." (p. 61)
"A better strategy in a sea of similar products with similar prices is to deliberately start with a higher price. Then ask yourself, What can we put into our brand to justify the higher price?
Finally, a bonus quotation from another book that ironically wasn't relevant enough to my inquiry for me to read the whole thing:
"Luxury is not defined by price. Luxury is defined by scarcity."
-Tim Manners, Relevance: Making Stuff That Matters (2008), p. 39
"A successful branding program is based on the concept of singularity. It creates in the mind of the prospect the perception that there is no product on the market quite like your product." (p. 7)
"Mercedes built the market for expensive cars using prestige as its strategy. But you need subtlety in dealing with a word like 'prestige.' Its connotations may work in brand building, but the word itself does not. It's not that people aren't dying to own prestige brands. They just hate to admit it.
To be sucessful in branding a 'prestige' product or service, you need to do two things:
1. You need to make your product or service more expensive than the competition.
2. You need to find a code word for prestige.
The first part was easy. Mercedes-Benz priced its vehicles at about twice the price of a comparable Cadillac. ('Mercedes cars must be better than Cadillacs,' thinks the buyer, 'because they are twice as expensive.')
Mercedes also found a powerful code word for prestige. 'Engineered like no other car in the world.'" (p. 45-46)
"Another factor in building a high-quality perception is having a high price. Rolex, Häagen-Dazs, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Montblanc, Dom Pérignon, Chivas Regal, Absolut, Jack Daniel's, and Ritz-Carlton are all brands that benefit from their high price.
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.
The customer who wears a Rolex watch doesn't do so to be more punctual. The customer who wears a Rolex watch does so to let other people know that he or she can afford to buy a Rolex watch." (p. 61)
"A better strategy in a sea of similar products with similar prices is to deliberately start with a higher price. Then ask yourself, What can we put into our brand to justify the higher price?
- Rolex made its watches bigger and heavier with a unique-looking wristband.
- Callaway made its drivers oversized.
- Montblanc made its pens fatter.
- Häagen-Dazs added more butterfat.
- Chivas Regal let its Scotch whiskey age longer." (p. 62)
Finally, a bonus quotation from another book that ironically wasn't relevant enough to my inquiry for me to read the whole thing:
"Luxury is not defined by price. Luxury is defined by scarcity."
-Tim Manners, Relevance: Making Stuff That Matters (2008), p. 39