Ruling the brandwagon
THE ORIGIN OF BRANDS:
HOW PRODUCT EVOLUTION CREATES
ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES FOR NEW BRANDS
Al Ries and Laura Ries

Adapt Charles Darwin’s Origin Of Species to branding strategies and you get this book by the father-daughter team of Al and Laura Ries. The Origin Of Brands uses the evolution analogy to make an argument for divergence, as opposed to convergence, for brand successes of the kind that are a marketer’s dream. They believe that the sweet spot of a market is an illusion that will soon give way to multiple sweet spots.

The Ries team argue that creating categories is the first step, which is to be followed by creating brands in the different categories. Competition between individuals (brands) improves the species, while competition between species (categories) drives the categories further apart.

It’s true enough that to survive in today’s competitive market where technology makes innovations much faster than in the past, companies must continue to introduce new products. However, the drawbacks of expansion and innovation mean that some products and some corporations won’t be profitable. ‘You can win by doing the right thing or you can win when your competitor does the wrong thing’ is illustrated through the examples of brands like Microsoft, IBM, Nokia, Motorola, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Gap.

While the first-mover advantage has propelled some brands forward, it was conti-nued foresight that kept them there. As the Rieses point out, there was no market for carbonated drinks before Coca Cola and there was no market for motion-picture animation before Walt Disney. The founders of the brands gave them sound bases, and then worked to make the association between products and brands super strong. Throughout, the method that worked was divergence.

The book is just as interesting when it analyses what went wrong with some brands as it does computing what they did right. The authors study how Wal-Mart succeeded while Kmart went bankrupt, how mergers involving Time Warner and AOL have diluted, not fortified, the value of the companies, how if interactive television has not taken off almost 30 years after it was launched, it probably never will.

Chapter after chapter, example after example, the book brings forward the logic of applying divergence to categories, brands and positioning. And it is convincing stuff. Divergence has unlimited potential. Consumers may complain about confusion, but fundamentally they like choice. In reaching that conclusion, the book makes for a very interesting read.

3 quick lessons

1. Divergence is the key to brand evolution
2. Survival of the firstest applies to brands
3. Marketing is a battle of categories