“Marketing is what a company is in business to do. Marketing is a company’s ultimate objective.”

Today, communication itself is the problem. We have become the world’s first overcommunicated society.

To get into the consumer’s mind, you have to sacrifice.

The Internet is the ultimate in brand-centered buying.

A laser is a weak source of energy. A laser takes [only] a few watts of energy and focuses them in a coherent stream of light.

IBM didn’t invent the computer; Sperry Rand did. But IBM was the first to build the computer position in the prospect’s mind.

It takes a mile before anything happens. And if it was a wrong turn, getting back on course takes even longer.

Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.

The essence of positioning is sacrifice.

Strategy should evolve out of the mud of the marketplace, not in the antiseptic environment of an ivory tower.

Branding is simply a more efficient way to sell things.

Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.

The Law of the Generic: One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name.

Marketing is not selling. Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect.

It normally takes decades to build a brand because it takes decades to penetrate the gray matter in between your ears.

Successful brands get into the mind slowly. A blurb in a magazine. A mention in a newspaper. A comment from a friend. A display in a retail store.

After a slow buildup, people become convinced that they have known about the brand forever.