The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries, Laura Ries
This book is known as a branding classic (first published in 1993) so I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that much of the 
advice and lessons are still incredibly relevant.
If you’re about to name a product or business then there’s some super useful stuff in this book for you. In particular I found the comments on sub branding and company branding pretty insightful. According to the authors, “Unless there are compelling reasons to do otherwise, the best branding strategy should be to use the company name as the brand name.”
Here’s 6 more brand building tips from the book
1. Be first
“So what do you do if you weren’t the first in a category? Quite often you can create a new category by simply narrowing your focus.”
2. Narrow your focus
“A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.” (the authors call this the law of contraction)
3. PR = brand building.
“…over the past two decades, public relations has eclipsed advertising as the most effective force in branding.”
4. Advertising = brand loyalty
“Advertising is a powerful tool, not to build leadership of a fledgling brand, but to maintain that leadership once it is obtained.”
5. Own the language
“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.”
6. Be consistent
“Brand building is boring work. What works best is absolute consistency over an extended period of time.”
Happy reading,
C x
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