Origin of Brands

While writing my first post what better to write about than the first marketing book that I have read in my life - Origin of Brands. The book by Al and Jack Ries compares the Darwinian theory of Divergence with the current scenario of brands and how companies that have failed to adhere to the same have lost out in the game of survival of the fittest.

The author takes numerous examples to illustrate how in the long run products diverge into various categories to give rise to new brands just like how nature diverged into various species. She also shows how convergence as a concept has gained so much ground without any sucesss story to back the claims.

After forming a base elucidating the importance of divergence he moves on to showing how the first mover advantage is critical in branding. It is not important to introduce a new brand first but it is of the utmost importance to be the first in the minds of the consumer. In a perception dominated world all wars are won in the minds of the consumer. She takes examples of how McDonald's as the first hamburger chain, IBM as the first mainframe computer, Microsoft as the first software company, Coke as the first Cola captured the minds of the consumers and have never looked back.

The author does not discount the Survival of the second player, only that he mandates staying away from the leader rather than copying and staying close to it. He suggests that positioning a second brand as an enemy to the current leader provides a better chace of success than a copy cat posoitioning.

The major learnings from the book have been that, to build brands :

• One should think category first, and come up with generic name
• Create a small brand name and capture the minds of the consumer
• Try to be the first in the category - Survival of the firstest
• If late, try to go for an opposite positioning - survival of the secondest
• Create an enemy to the brand so as to create a stir
• Finally remember that brands always diverge to give rise to more brands and never converge unless convenience mandates it so.