BrandSTOKE Book Review: ♦♦

In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Captain Barbossa informs Elizabeth that the Pirates’ Code is “more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.” And so it is with The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.

A better title might have been The 4 Occasionally Mutable Laws of Branding and Several Rather Obvious Observations.

Six of the laws (Expansion, Contraction, the Name, Extensions, Consistency, and Singularity) address essentially the same theory: extending a brand weakens it, and conversely, focusing a brand strengthens it.

Except that two of the laws (Siblings and Change) say it’s okay to line-extend under certain circumstances. Which makes the forgoing six laws not exactly “immutable.”

Seven of the laws (Word, Credentials, the Name, the Generic, the Company, Shape, and Color) discuss the role of various brand properties in claiming ownership of a niche.

Rather obviously, the laws of Publicity and Advertising observe the importance of those tools in building brand awareness. Really?

Yet a couple of the laws (Quality and Category) are more substantive, including advice such as “A leading brand should promote the category, not the brand.” And given the constant drumming of “Best Quality! Lowest Prices!,” I appreciated the observation that quality is not a believable differentiator for a brand unless one charges extra for it.

Numbering the laws and claiming they are immutable was likely a promotional device. Overall, however, the “guidelines” are insightful, even if generally accepted. Every chapter brims with examples, many of which are still valid ten years later.

Al Ries, along with Jack Trout, advanced the concept of brand “positioning” and many of their basic theories are repeated here. Still, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, written with his daughter Laura Ries, remains a very accessible read on the basics of brand building.

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