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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.

Al Ries

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Marilyn Monroe Paulo Coelho Abraham Lincoln C. S. Lewis Khalil Gibran Charlie Chaplin Gautama Buddha Isaac Newton

It’s the first company to build the mental position that has the upper hand, not the first company to make the product.
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Company Hand Mental Mind Position Product Upper
Good things happen when you narrow your focus.
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Focus Good Happen Narrow Thing
Only brand names register in the mind… What you should generally do is take a regular word and use it out of context to connote the primary attribute of your brand.
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Attribute Brand Connect Contact Generally Mind Name Primary Register Regular Take Use
What should a brand leader advertise?
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Advertise Behavior Brand Important Leader
An attribute that nobody else already owns in your category.
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Already Attribute Else Nobody Own Through
The Law of the Generic: One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name.
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Brand Failure Fast Give Law Name One Route
War and marketing have many similarities.
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Many Market Similarity War
Positioning is how you differentiate yourself in the mind of the prospect.
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Differentiate Mind Position Product Yourself
When a really new product comes along, it’s almost always a mistake to hang a well-known name on it.
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Along Come Mistake New Product Really Simple Successful
It’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
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Better Business First Marketplace Mind
It normally takes decades to build a brand… It’s the forgetting of the old truth that allows a person to accept a new truth.
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Accept Allow Brande Decade Enough Forget Need New Normal Old Person Time Truth
Everyone is interested in what‘s new. Few people are interested in what‘s better.
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Better Everyone New People
Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.
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Advertise Catskill Else Everything Himalaya Market Strategy Time
That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect.
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Mind Position Product You
It normally takes decades to build a brand because it takes decades to penetrate the gray matter in between your ears.
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Allow Build Decade Ear Forget Normal Old Person Take Truth
Positioning is not what you do to a product.
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Mind Position Product

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.

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