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What’s your brand? If you can’t answer that question about your own brand in two or three words, your brand’s in trouble.

Al Ries

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

It is better to have 50% of one market, instead of 10% of five markets.
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Better Have Instead Market Prospect
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’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
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
After a slow buildup, people become convinced that they have known about the brand forever.
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Brand Convince Forever Known Peop Slow
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
The Internet is the ultimate in brand-centered buying.
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Brand Buy Center Internet Ultimate
An attribute that nobody else already owns in your category.
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Already Attribute Else Nobody Own Through
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.
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Cancer Coherem Energy Focus Laser Light Source Stream Weak
But with a laser, you can drill a hole in a diamond or wipe out cancer.
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Cancer Diamond Laser Source Week
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
To get into the consumer’s mind, you have to sacrifice.
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Consumer Essence Info Mind Sacrifice
Changing the direction of a large company is like trying to turn an aircraft carrier.
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Aircraft Carrier Change Company Direction Try Trying
The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.
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Authenticity Claim Ingredient Success
You need to allow enough time for this forgetting to take place
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Enough Ned Place Take Time Forget
It creates in the mind of the prospect the perception that there is no product on the market quite like your product.
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Create Mind Perception Product Prospect Quite

What’s your brand? If you can’t answer that question about your own brand in two or three words, your brand’s in trouble.

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