Al Ries and Jack Trout, two of the world's most successful marketing strategists, call upon over 40 years of marketing experise to identify the definitive rules that govern the world of marketing.

Combining a wide-ranging historical overview with a keen eye for the future, the authors bring to light 22 superlative tools and innovative techniques for the international marketplace. The authors examine marketing campaigns that have succeeded and others that have failed, why good ideas didn't live up to expectations, and offer their own ideas on what would have worked better.

The real-life examples, commonsense suggestions and killer instincts contained are nothing less than rules by which companies will flourish or fail.

“Ries and Trout taught me everything I know about branding, marketing, and product management. When I had the idea of creating a very large thematic community on the Web, I first thought of Positioning....”—David Bohnett, Chairman and Founder of GeoCities

A handsome edition of the original 1981 text, this 20th Anniversary Edition makes available to business and marketing professionals—including tens of thousands of Ries and Trout groupies, worldwide—the work that forever changed the way marketing strategy is done. This new edition features commentary from the authors that offers fresh insight into why “positioning” a product in a prospective customer’s mind is still the most important strategy in business, and includes numerous examples of campaigns that followed, or didn’t follow, Ries and Trout’s thinking.

One of the most important communication books Ive ever read. I highly recommend it!
­­Spencer Johnson, author of Who Moved My Cheese? and co-author of The One Minute Manager

...Ries and Trout taught me everything I know about branding, marketing, and product management. When I had the idea of creating a very large thematic community on the Web, I first thought of Positioning....
­­David Bohnett, Chairman and Founder of GeoCities

The first book to deal with the problems of communicating to a skeptical, media-blitzed public, Positioning describes a revolutionary approach to creating a position in a prospective customers mind-one that reflects a companys own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of its competitors. Writing in their trademark witty, fast-paced style, advertising gurus Ries and Trout explain how to:

• Make and position an industry leader so that its name and message wheedles its way into the collective subconscious of your market-and stays there
  
• Position a follower so that it can occupy a niche not claimed by the leader
  
• Avoid letting a second product ride on the coattails of an established one.
  

Positioning also shows you how to:

• Use leading ad agency techniques to capture the biggest market share and become a household name
  
• Build your strategy around your competitions weaknesses
  
• Reposition a strong competitor and create a weak spot
  
• Use your present position to its best advantage
  
• Choose the best name for your product
  
• Determine when-and why-less is more
  
• Analyze recent trends that affect your positioning.
  

Ries and Trout provide many valuable case histories and penetrating analyses of some of the most phenomenal successes and failures in advertising history. Revised to reflect significant developments in the five years since its original publication, Positioning is required reading for anyone in business today.

Bestselling authors and world-renowned marketing strategists Al and Laura Ries usher in the new era of public relations. Today's major brands are born with publicity, not advertising. A closer look at the history of the most successful modern brands shows this to be true. In fact, an astonishing number of brands, including Palm, Starbucks, the Body Shop, Wal-Mart, Red Bull and Zara have been built with virtually no advertising. Using in-depth case histories of successful PR campaigns coupled with those of unsuccessful advertising campaigns, The Fall of Advertising provides valuable ideas for marketers -- all the while demonstrating why * advertising lacks credibility, the crucial ingredient in brand building, and how only PR can supply that credibility; * the big bang approach advocated by advertising people should be abandoned in favor of a slow build-up by PR; * advertising should only be used to maintain brands once they have been established through publicity. Bold and accessible, The Fall of Advertising is bound to turn the world of marketing upside down.

A business book with a difference: clear-cut advice, sharp writing and a minimum of jargon.­­Newsweek

Revolutionary! Surprising!­­Business Week

Chock-a-block with examples of successful and failed marketing campaigns, makes for a very interesting and relevant read.­­USA Today

This marketing classic has been expanded to include new commentary, new illustrations, and a bonus book: The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding

Smart and accessible, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is the definitive text on branding, pairing anecdotes about some of the best brands in the world, like Rolex, Volvo, and Heineken, with the signature savvy of marketing gurus Al and Laura Ries. Combining The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, this book proclaims that the only way to stand out in today's marketplace is to build your product or service into a brand -- and provides the step-by-step instructions you need to do so.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding also tackles one of the most challenging marketing problems today: branding on the Web. The Rieses divulge the controversial and counterintuitive strategies and secrets that both small and large companies have used to establish internet brands. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is the essential primer on building a category-dominating, world-class brand.

Everyone knows that building your product or service into a bona fide brand is the only way to stand out in today's insanely crowded marketplace. The only question is how do you do it? This is the definitive text on branding, distilling complex theories and principles behind this key marketing term into in twenty-two easy-to-read vignettes including: The Law of Contraction A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus The Law of the Word A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer The Law of Fellowship In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands World-renowned marketing guru Al Ries and his daughter and business partner Laura Ries examine brand-blazing strategies from the world's best, including Coca-Cola, Xerox, BMW, Federal Express and Starbucks, to provide you with the expert insight you need to build a world-class brand.

In their trademark witty style, the Rieses draw upon ten years of research in order to present lively case studies showing how successful brands are developed. Exploring some of the most powerful brands and products of all time, they provide penetrating analysis into the marketing methods that built and established them. Ries and Ries lay down the rules for brand creation in a series of chapters showing how new ideas are developed, the importance of being first, inventing a new category, positioning opposite existing brands, positioning against an "enemy." They also discuss the importance of public relations, protecting the brand, and when to give up on an existing brand. They go on to show how one of the most effective techniques for creating new brands is to branch them off of already successful products or services. The authors contend that the principle applies in every category - beer, water, cola, insurance, software, computer hardware, retail, restaurants, clothing, etc. - and they examine the notion through their cases and examples. In contrast, they also look at the disasters created when products, services - or companies - are pushed together in misguided attempts to create new brands. Best example is the merger between AOL and Time-Warner.

Two world-renowned marketing consultants and bestselling authors present the definitive rules of marketing.

Move business forward and drag Top Management along with you Al Ries' best selling book, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, shook the advertising industry to the bone. The advertising world was outraged. When Ries argued that advertising just wasn't working any more, he had struck a nerve. Advertising was simply not changing with the times. Half a decade later, things have come full circle. PR is now finding its credibility in the intensive care unit. Stefan Engeseth gives the PR business the same treatment. The Fall of PR & the Rise of Advertising, with a foreword by Al Ries, analyses the enormous changes in the media landscape in PR, advertising and everything in between. Stefan Engeseth's books, Detective Marketing and ONE, have firmly established him as one of today's most refreshing business thinkers. In his latest book, The Fall of PR & the Rise of Advertising, he shows how advertising has redefined itself and re-emerged as a force to be reckoned with. Written in his trade mark, funny, original and provocative style, the book adds whole new dimensions to the business world.

What's the secret to a company's continued growth and prosperity? Internationally known marketing expert Al Ries has the answer: focus. His commonsense approach to business management is founded on the premise that long-lasting success depends on focusing on core products and eschewing the temptation to diversify into unrelated enterprises.

Using real-world examples, Ries shows that in industry after industry, it is the companies that resist diversification, and focus instead on owning a category in consumers' minds, that dominate their markets. He offers solid guidance on how to get focused and how to stay focused, laying out a workable blueprint for any company's evolution that will increase market share and shareholder value while ensuring future success.