Source of the Brand

Author: Al Ries, Laura Ries
Translator: Huo Huaqiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This is a definitive work on building brands, delving deeply into how to create great brands and succeed in the costly field of brand building. Changes in the market environment create endless opportunities for creating new brands and accumulating wealth, but there are no such opportunities in the convergence of existing categories, such as televisions and computers, or mobile phones and the internet. Instead, opportunities lie in the opposite direction—in differentiation.
Al and Laura Ries draw on Darwin's insightful analogy of the origin of species to outline an effective strategy for building and launching high-performing brands. In this book, you will learn:
Disrupt and Conquer
Leveraging Differentiation
Applying the Winner and Second-Place Survival Theories
Harnessing the Power of Pruning
In nature, this force ultimately leads to the birth of new species. In business, it has led to the success of many second-place brands, even in the presence of dominant leaders. For example, Target competing with Walmart, Scope competing with Listerine, and Lowe’s competing with Home Depot.
In nature, it is easy to see why survival requires some separation between species, why monkeys climb trees to avoid ground-based predators, or why giraffes use their long necks to reach food that shorter competitors cannot. In the long run, each species occupies a different small branch on the tree of life. The second-largest city in the U.S. isn’t Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, or other cities near New York; it’s Los Angeles, nearly the farthest from New York. Consider the struggles of cities living in the shadow of vibrant metropolises: Newark is a prime example. There are also Dallas compared to Fort Worth, Minneapolis compared to St. Paul, Oakland compared to Los Angeles, and Trenton compared to Philadelphia.
Being the Antithesis of the Leader
In business, the concept of second-place survival can be extended to the principle of "being the antithesis of the leader." It doesn’t matter what the leader’s strategy is; fundamentally, being the antithesis of the leader always outperforms copying the leader. Whether due to genetics or some inadequacy of human nature, strong second-place brands always have an opportunity to enter customers’ minds. Why do younger generations rebel against the older generation? It’s true in music, fashion, food, and cars. The driving forces of human nature seem to move in two directions: the desire for consensus and the desire for difference. Most people balance these two conflicting forces by agreeing on some things and differing on others. The interplay of these two forces creates opportunities for leaders to maintain their position (Winner Survival) and for strong second-place brands to thrive (Second-Place Survival).
Fortunately, the force of consensus is stronger than the force of divergence, but both are essential for a dynamic society. Consensus promotes social stability, while divergence creates periodic fluctuations, injecting new concepts and ideas into culture.
There isn’t just one way to build a brand—there are two. Become the Leader and build your brand to dominate, or become the Second and build your brand to stand in opposition to the leader. There’s no right or wrong way.
Too many business professionals let their emotions cloud their judgment. There are no right or wrong methods for building brands—there’s vanilla ice cream, and there’s chocolate ice cream. Some people prefer vanilla, others prefer chocolate.
In politics, you can see these two forces at work. Each party is almost the opposite of the other. Democrats are generally seen as consumer-oriented, favoring low-income groups, supporting abortion legality, and advocating for big government. Republicans are seen as business-oriented, favoring high-income groups, supporting life, and favoring small government. Under these two forces, is there room for a third party? If the two dominant brands in a category (whether political or commercial) are positioned well, there’s little room for a strong third brand. (We often call this the Crown Cola problem.)
In business, the interplay between consensus (Leader) and divergence (Second) creates serious problems for brands stuck in the middle. (For example, Kmart.) Leaders and their main competitors often fail to understand this dichotomy. Leaders, eager to expand the market, often use strategies that are more suitable for second-place brands. "Mine is mine, and yours is mine too." When executed to an extreme, this strategy can destroy a brand. This is often called the trap of one-size-fits-all products, and Chevrolet is a prime example.