The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Al Ries (Author), Laura Ries (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 16, 2000

As we move into the twenty-first century the most important question for businesses everywhere is: What are we going to do about the Internet? The two most qualified people in the country to answer that question may be Al Ries and Laura Ries. Not only are they the authors of the BusinessWeek bestseller The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, they are also consultants to dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

This book is the result of their hands-on work with both large and small companies as well as Internet start-ups and established Internet brands. Brash, bold, and mercifully succinct, The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding is the definitive text for businesses eager to jump on the Internet expressway.

In the book you'll learn why:The Internet can be a business or a medium for your brand, but not both.Interactivity is the single most important ingredient of any Internet site.The kiss of death for an Internet brand is a common name.Being second in a category is tantamount to being nowhere.You have to be fast. You have to be first. You have to be focused.Everyone is talking about convergence while just the opposite is happening.

The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding will also give you tangible information on how to successfully build your company, product, service, or self into a hot and profitable brand on the Internet. Specifically you'll learn how to:Build a brand that will dominate a category over an extended period of time.Find a proper name (instead of a common one) for your Website.Take your brand into the global marketplace.Avoid the biggest mistake in Internet branding: the belief that you can do everything.Take advantage of the transformations that will occur in all aspects of life, thanks to the power of the Internet.

With characteristic counterculture observations and signature marketing savvy, Ries and Ries bring their expertise to branding on the Internet, the most challenging problem in the world of marketing today. No one who wants to turn a brand into a global phenomenon should ignore their sage advice.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

To most observers, the Internet is too new a medium to draw any firm conclusions about how to use it for business. But the Rieses have already come up with 11 "immutable" laws. Each is somewhat counterintuitive, and a couple are downright debatable. Start with No. 1: the Law of Either/Or. It states that a Web site can be a business or a medium for information, but not both. Therefore, companies have to choose which purpose they want to use the Internet for. Is it a medium, a way to get out the message about an existing "outernet" business? An example of this would be a magazine that puts up a Web site to allow readers to sample its content and then order a subscription. Or is it a business, trying to make money by selling a product or service? The Rieses argue that when a company decides to do business on the Web, it's better off starting a new brand rather than trying to extend its existing name. Another debate might erupt over No. 10: the Law of Divergence. Rather than the Internet becoming a medium that combines radio, TV, and telephone service, the Rieses say technology always goes in the opposite direction--it splinters. They use the analogy of the combination car and boat someone once invented: it drove like a boat and floated like a car. Thus, the Internet will separate into different types of services but will never converge with TV and radio.

Only history will tell us if these laws are truly immutable, but one thing is certain now: there's not a paragraph in this book that isn't provocative in some way. Businesspeople may not take all the counsel the Rieses offer, but they'd be nuts not to at least consider it. --Lou Schuler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Al Ries and partner Jack Trout made positioning a buzzword with their so-titled book on marketing in the 1980s. Later they laid down The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (1993). Now "branding" is marketing's catchphrase, and Ries has already teamed with daughter Laura to set out The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding (1998). Arguing that the Internet will change our lives more than either TV or the computer, the Rieses here offer 11 invariable rules for building brands on "the Net." They liken the current state of the Internet to that of the unruly, uncontrollable Wild West. Perhaps that is why this time around they can come up with only 11 laws. Regardless, the pair employs its own unique brand of common sense to look at what has been successful on the Internet and what has not. From their many examples, they extrapolate a straightforward canon that can be applied by companies big and small and by those doing business on the Internet and those that, with the Rieses' urging, inevitably will. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: HarperAudio (May 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0694523143
• ISBN-13: 978-0694523146
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,081,329 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can Save Billions for Internet Businesses and Investors!, May 16, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding (Hardcover)

The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding is a valuable guide for those who operate, work for, or invest in e-businesses. If this book had come out 3 years ago, billions would have been better invested. Perhaps the valuations of e-businesses would still be higher as well.

Al and Laura Ries point out that companies seeking to do business on the Internet almost always get it wrong. And those errors begin with their choice of a brand name to use, the services they offer, the form those services take, and the technologies they plan to use. Basically, the authors make the now familiar argument (if you have read their earlier work) that there can only be one winning name in a category, that this name will be a proper noun or two rather than a common noun or two. The lousy examples they give of poorly selected brand names would be fairly humorous if it weren't for all of the money and lives being wasted in an obviously losing effort. One of the most persuasive arguments they make is that most categories will be dominated by one brand, and that brand will be the one with the best brand name (assuming some level of decent service), not necessarily the first entrant. Thus, Amazon.com is praised for having a good name while buy.com is hissed for a generic one. Yet everyone believes that being first on the Internet is the only issue for dominating a category. Wrong!

Since their earlier work called for 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, I was pleased to see that the Internet is less complicated to brand correctly than a typical new product. The main reason for this is that the seller is dealing directly with the buyer, rather than through an intermediary like a bricks and mortar retailer.

The most telling argument they make is that existing businesses have an important decision to make: To either turn the existing business into an Internet-based one (like Cisco, Dell, and Charles Schwab have done), or to create a new brand with an Internet business model to compete with the nonInternet business. Most businesses would benefit from carefully thinking through this point.

The authors also argue that making your Web site more interactively valuable is critical to your success. If you notice that most Web sites aren't, you will soon be convinced that this is advice more people need to read and understand.

This book points out the problem that many people are now operating Internet-based businesses who have little understanding of the fundamentals of how to succeed. This book will be a valuable contribution to the literature of how to solve that problem.

The book is also valuable for its ability to point out the sources of stalled thinking when it comes to the Internet. The issues are more similar to existing businesses than different, despite all of the hype in the e-press.

51 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Start Improving Your Internet Business Skills Here, June 7, 2000

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R. Daly "razweekly" (Vienna, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding (Hardcover)

This book won't grant you an MBA in Web Marketing. It won't replace sound business practices. It won't be 100% right in its predictions. It won't make you rich. It won't tell you how to make a better widget for your web site.

"Ries & Daughter" provide Eleven (11) Laws by which you can judge any Internet business. These are helpful to investors, business owners, venture capitalists, designers, and stock option holders. Or if you just are interested in "the way things work" this book will be of interest.

But why should you consider this book when there are so many other Internet business books?

First, brand names are important. Look in your kitchen cabinets, the name of your car, etc. Look at the names of the web sites you frequently visit. A good brand name is an often overlooked part of building a business. This book's focus is Internet branding, something that is vitally important to every Internet web site and business.

Second, Ries is a good brand. Ries is co-author of Positioning, the most important business book I've ever read. His two other Immutable Law books are also considered by many as classics. In other words, Ries as been talking about branding for sometime and that knowledge is an important component of this book.

Third, 11 Immutable Laws is a good start. Another reviewer called it an "easy read." That is a high compliment since complex ideas get explained concisely without a lot of fluff. The book is full of examples and predictions. Names are named. I think the other books can wait until you read this.

Fourth, it will give you an understanding about why you like some sites and not others. After you read one law, you might say, "That was obvious." Then that make you think about why the other laws are not obvious to you. That is learning. That is why I went back an re-read the first law.

If you are not sure, then read the publisher's information and visit their interactive web site.

But I'm biased. Ries and his former partner Trout are two of my five favorite authors. Regardless, I think anyone in the Internet business will find this a useful business tool.

Right now I'm examining how our four current and two future Internet products comply with the 11 Laws. Certainly sparks some interesting possiblities.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An over-extended brand, August 20, 2001

By 

Adam F. Jewell (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding (Hardcover)

Al Ries has written or contributed to some stellar marketing books including "Focus" and "Positioning". The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding is a disgrace compared to previous works.

It appears the Reis' got caught up in the Internet hype, stating things like "putting your name on both your physical store and your Website is a serious error" and "On the Internet you should start the brand-building process by forgetting everything you have learned in the past", WHAT?

The authors demonstrated their knowledge of the net by introducing us to FrogDog (FogDog.com) and the infamous JRKoop (DrKoop.com), which makes one wonder if the authors were even awake when they wrote this book.

You'll find as much hype and as many ill-conceived marketing laws in this book as any on the market. I'd take this book over something like Charles W. Kadlec's "Dow 100,000: Fact or Fiction" so maybe it's worth a second star. The bottom line:

DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!