Dear Tourism Partner,
Every year the most important tourism trade show for Southern Africa, INDABA, draws thousands of tourism professionals to Durban. This year was no exception and everyone we talked to said that this year's INDABA seemed to be better than last year's, and those of previous years.
It's a rather strange phenomenon, as we've heard this all before. This nevertheless leaves us wondering, why it is so.
No one will know for sure, but it possibly has something to do with the incredibly positive mind set of every participant, exhibitor and delegate alike, that everybody really feels that this year, INDABA was better than the many before.
Certainly, our own presence and positive attitude toward the future of tourism for Southern Africa, has contributed to it and was felt by hundreds of people visiting our stand.
Wholeheartedly we thank everyone for their visit and the great spirit we could share with you. We look forward to seeing you next year once again.
|
| . |
| The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding |
| by Al Ries & Laura Riest |
| . |
1. The law of expansion |
| The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope "Marketers constantly run branding programs that are in conflict with how people want to perceive their brands. Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and are distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better." |
| . |
| 2. The law of the contradiction |
| A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus |
| . |
| 3. The law of publicity |
| The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising Ries and Ries maintain that advertising is best used to maintain a brand, but that it is very difficult and expensive to launch a new brand through advertising alone they best way, they say, is to be first in a new product or service category, and reap the attendant publicity. |
| . |
| 4. The law of advertising |
| Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy. |
| . |
| 5. The law of the word |
| A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer "If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect's mind. A word that nobody else owns." Examples they give include: Mercedes = prestige; Volvo = safety; Kleenex = tissue; Xerox = copier; FedEx = overnight. |
| . |
| 6. The law of credentials |
| The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity - and the best claim to authenticity is being the leading product or service in your category, because consumers assume that if it is a leading seller, it must be good:
"Never forget leadership. No matter how small the market, don't get duped into simply selling the benefits of the category.
There are also the long-term benefits of leadership. Because once you get on top, its hard to lose your spot. A widely-publicized study of twenty-five leading brands in twenty-five different product categories in the year 1923 showed that twenty of the same twenty-five brands are still the leaders in their categories today. In seventy-five years, only five brands lost their leadership." |
| . |
| 7. The law of quality |
| Quality is important, but brands are not built by quality alone In fact, as the authors point out, most people have no idea as to the "real" quality of a product or service. Is a Rolex really better at keeping time than a Timex? How do you know? |
| . |
| 8. The law of the category |
| A leading brand should promote the product or service category, not the brand This may seem counter-intuitive, but the authors argue here that the best way for the brand leader to build sales is to promote the category, not their specific brand. This is a more effective way to build up overall market awareness and interest, and the brand leader will naturally benefit to a greater degree than other competitors, by virtue of their larger market share. (And when the overall size of the market is built up, then the leader is in a good position to increase market share still further.) |
| . |
| 9. The law of the name |
| In the long run, a brand is nothing more than a name. |
| . |
| 10. The law of extensions |
| The easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything. |
| . |
| 11. The law of fellowship |
| In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands see law #8 |
| . |
| 12. The law of generic |
| One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name Generic names (i.e. names that describe the product or service category, such as "Wine Coolerz"), do not strongly position the product or service within the category, and are thus liable to confuse potential customers. |
| . |
| 13. The law of the company |
| Brands are brands. Companies are companies. There is a difference.
"The issue of how to use a company name is at the same time both simple and complicated. Simple, because the laws are so clear-cut. Complicated, because most companies do not follow the simple laws of branding and end up with a system that defies logic and results in endless brand versus company debates.
Brand names should almost always take precedence over company names. Consumers buy brands, they don't buy companies. So when a company name is used alone as a brand name (GE, Coca Cola, IBM, Xerox, Intel), customers see these names as brands." |
| . |
| 14. The law of subbrands |
| What branding builds, subbranding (i.e. brand extensions) can destroy. The name 'Chevrolet' used to stand for something. Now, what is it? A large, small, cheap, expensive car or truck. |
| . |
| 15. The law of siblings |
| There is a time and a place to launch a second brand. "The key to a family approach is to make each sibling a unique individual brand with its own identity. Resist the urge to give the brands a family look or identity. You want to make each brand a different and distinct as possible." |
| . |
| 16. The law of shape |
| A brand's logotype should be designed to fit the eye. Both eyes. The authors argue here that the ideal shape for a logotype or brand symbol is two and a quarter units wide and one unit high. |
| . |
| 17. The law of colour |
| A brand should use a colour that is the opposite of its major competitor's. |
| . |
| 18. The law of borders |
| There are no barriers to global branding. A brand should know no borders. |
| . |
| 19. The law of
consistency |
| A brand is not built overnight. Success is measured in decades, not years. |
| . |
| 20. The law of
change |
| Brands can be changed, but only infrequently and very carefully. |
| . |
| 21. The law of
mortality |
| No brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution. |
| . |
| 22. The law of
singularity |
| The most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness. |
| . |
| Please note: The books "The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding" and "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing " make intriguing reading, despite the fact that they contain nothing startlingly new.
Part of what makes them so interesting is their counter-intuitive, contrarian stance on certain issues (for example the notion that product attributes don't matter in and of themselves, and that it is essentially the position of the product in the mind of the consumer that is the important thing).
However, with twenty-two 'laws' in branding / marketing, there is something to cover just about every situation imaginable, so these books seem more prescient than they actually are.
In fact, given the fact that there are counter-examples to just about every rule presented by the authors, perhaps the only immutable law of marketing / branding is that there are no immutable laws of marketing / branding! |
| . |
