Positioning – The Battle for Your Mind
by Al Ries and Jack Trout
A Must Read for Branding Gurus
One of the all-time classic books on branding is Positioning – The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Although the book was written a number of years ago – as evidenced by its examples – it’s still nonetheless a must read for marketers, brand managers, business owners and trademark attorneys, even in today’s social media world.
How I Learned of this Book
I was fortunate enough to have learned about this book by one of my good Canadian patent and trademark attorney colleagues [Philip] during a Blue Jays baseball game while attending the 2006 International Trademark Association’s annual meeting in Toronto. Since then, I have sent numerous copies of this book to a number of my clients and branding friends as a “must read.”
One of those individuals has since moved to another company and was recently named the Director of Marketing for the parent organization overseeing global branding. In an e-mail the other day, he informed me that one of the first things that he asked his team to do once he was elevated to his new position was “read this book.”
How this Book Has Helped Me
This book has allowed me to not only better understand what goes on in many of my clients’ “marketing heads,” but also be an advisor for many of my clients on brand positioning strategies as it relates to brand name selection. Let’s face it; the brand name is, in my opinion, the “face” of the branding strategy. As I have blogged about on a number of occasions [including here and here], brand name selection can be the difference between brand failure and brand success.
Thank you Philip for your friendship and for offering me some of the best advice that I’ve been given in my many years, which was “Roger, you need to read this book.”
My Advice to You
I now share Philip’s advice with you: please take a few hours out of your day, weekend or week and “read this book.” You won’t regret it and, if you’re like me, you will probably never think about branding and brand name selection the same way again.
Here is the link to Amazon. However, if you can’t wait, go on down to the local book store, buy a cup of coffee or tea, sit back, relax and change your way of thinking.