Welcome to the BBBT. Today I'll be posting some stuff about The Origin of Brands by Al and Laura Ries. There will be a question and answer session with Laura, and she may even pop in and post some things herself. Laura's blog can be found here. To begin, let me tell you what I think of the book.
I like books that create a little cognitive dissonance. There is no point in reading something that contains lots of information that I already know. Books that cause cognitive dissonance force me to rethink my ideas. Then I either realize I was wrong and embrace a new idea, or keep my old idea but buttress it against the arguments of this new idea. Either way I emerge with a stronger and more accurate idea. Most people don't like to be challenged in this way, but I think it is the best way to grow and learn. That said, I loved this book. It challenges some of the basic tenets of branding philosophy and it creates a lot of cognitive dissonance.
To sum it up as best I understand it, the Ries are arguing that the best way to create a world class brand is to create a new category. They relate it to evolution, in that the best way for a species to survive is to find a niche and differentiate from other species. The book is filled with countless examples of companies that tried convergence instead of divergence, and were unsuccessful. The basic reasoning behind the lack of success in convergence is that if you try to design a phone/PDA you end up with mediocre functionality on both ends. While some people may enjoy the convenience of the combination, most people would rather have a great phone and a great PDA. It's hard to be great in one category when you are also trying to fit into several others.
The tough part of the book for me to take is the idea that marketing research and focus groups don't work when launching a new category. You basically have to go on intuition and guts. Those of you who have high level positions in businesses know that intution and guts will get you laughed at, but positive market research will get you a bigger budget. Al and Laura would argue that positive market research will also get you a mediocre product. Now you see where the cognitive dissonance is setting in…
I'll sum this up by saying that everyone should read this book. Many business books are target towards a niche like managers or entrepreneurs or CEOs or small business owners, but this book is one you should all check out. I've sent Laura a list of questions, some of which I think are pretty tough. I'll post the answers later, and let you all leave questions and comments for Laura on the thread.
