VIDEO BREAK Ron Brown (TedX) The Personal Brand of You: https://youtu.be/rGbsb6aXbzc
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product of Service into a World Class Brand. Al and Laura Ries. Harper Business 2002
• Branding program should be designed to differentiate your product from all the other cattle on the range. (Even if they all look alike)
• Create in the mind of the prospect the perception that there is no product on the market quite like your product.
•Marketing is not selling. Marketing is building a brand in mind of the prospect.
• 2002 – Decline of selling and function is slowly sinking like the Titanic. Most products are services are bought – not sold.
• Any proper noun is a brand – therefore you are a brand.
You don’t want to be a commodity.
1. THE LAW OF EXPANSION.
The power of ta brand is inversely proportional to its scope. Expansion undermines the brand name in the mind of the consumer.
If you want to build a powerful brand in the minds of consumers, you need to contract your brand, not expand it.
Keep it simple. Focus
2. THE LAW OF CONTRACTION
A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus. Example: Howard Shultz, founder of Starbucks – was just a coffee house. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Stand for something – don’t fall for everything.
VIDEO BREAK: Dave Carroll: Personal Branding in the age of Social Media (TedX) https://youtu.be/u-R-TeGMufA
3. THE LAW OF PUBLICITY
The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising.
The best way to generate publicity is by being first. Being first means that you are a brand new category. People like to talk about what’s new. It’s hard to capture lighting in a bottle twice. Iphone – Apple USED to do this. They either introduced a new category or revolutionized existing ones.
• What others say about your brand is much more powerful than what you say about it yourself. (SOCIAL MEDIA). PR>Advertising.
4. THE LAW OF ADVERTISING
Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy.
a. Introduction of a new category.
b. Rise of a company that introduces it. Awareness.
Advertising is a powerful tool, not to build leadership of a fledgling brand but to maintain that leadership once it is obtained.
Video BREAK: Me https://youtu.be/YBM5MmzgWXE
5. THE LAW OF THE WORD
A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of a consumer.
What do you think of when you hear Xerox? Kleenex? Coke?
Can be also on a personal front, too. Tiger. Lance Armstrong. Beyonce. Locally: Rick Cleveland. David Hartman (WAPT Weather). Barbie Bassett.
Courtney Cronin redefined her beat as a high school sports reporter by using platforms that the athletes her students used to cover them She now is covering pro teams for the San Jose Mercury (Bay Area News Group) Her name became something to the people she covered.
Daryl D’Souza: Building Brand: The Power of Social Media: https://youtu.be/nAwjeu4Y5h4
6. THE LAW OF CREDENTIALS
The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity. Customers are suspicious. Credentials are the collateral you put up to guarantee the performance of your bran. Have the right ones, your prospect is likely to believe almost anything you say about your brand.
Ways to establish it:
a. Leadership. If you don’t have it, create your own category.
b. Find a niche category.
Highest-rated newscast. States largest newspaper. The number one drivetime show. Two-time Pulitzer Finalist
7. THE LAW OF QUALITY
Quality is important, but brands are not built by quality alone.
Quality (or the perception of it) resides in the mind of the buyer – you have to build it in the mind of the consumer. Goes back to the LAW OF CONTRACTION – specialist is seen as knowing more than a generalist.
VIDEO BREAK Creating your own label: Arturo Castaneda https://youtu.be/I4iWcrefqcM
8. THE LAW OF THE CATEGORY
A leading brand should promote the category, not the brand.
Build a brand in a non-existing category, to build something out of nothing. You have to do two things at once.
a. Launch in a way to create a perception it was first.
b. Promote the new category. Apple failed to do this with the Newton. People didn’t know what the product was for.
9. THE LAW OF A NAME
In the long run, a brand is nothing more than a name.
a. Short-term – A brand needs a unique idea of concept to survive. It needs to be first in a new category.
10. THE LAW OF FELLOWSHIP
In order to build a category, a brand should welcome other brands.
a. Choice stimulates demand.
b. Consumers have choices even when there is no competition. If no choice, customers are suspicious.
c. Welcome healthy competition
d. No brand can own the entire market.
11. THE LAW OF EXTENSIONS
The easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything. GM example.
VIDEO BREAK Building A Personal Brand: Jacob Cass https://youtu.be/qeHtvuTcy70