Sublime

The more products, the more markets, the more alliances a company makes, the less money it makes. “Full speed ahead in all directions” seems to be the call from the corporate bridge. When will companies learn that line extension ultimately leads to oblivion. —AL RIES AND JACK TROUT, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Your product, your company culture, your marketing—everything has to be aligned with transforming the way potential customers think. If you change the way they think, they will change their buying behavior. More important, if you are the company that changes the way people think, people will see your company as the category king, and you will win t

Today it has become obvious that advertising is entering a new era—an era where creativity is no longer the key to success.

1. Head to Head: Positioning to win an existing market

What you must look for is a name that begins the positioning process, a name that tells the prospect what the product’s major benefit is.

People don’t buy the best products; they buy the products they can understand the fastest.

Advertising is a powerful tool, not to build leadership of a fledgling brand, but to maintain that leadership once it is obtained. Companies that want to protect their well-established brands should not hesitate to use massive advertising programs to smother the competition.

If you’re introducing the first brand in a new category, you should always try to select a name that can work generically. (Lawyers advise the opposite, but what do they know about the laws of marketing?)