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.

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.

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.

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.