The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding (Hardcover)

by Al Ries (Author), Laura Ries (Author)

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

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Collins; First Edition edition (May 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060196211
• ISBN-13: 978-0060196219
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #455,403 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #28 in	Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Industrial
  #62 in	Books > Business & Investing > International > Global
  #65 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Digital Law

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can Save Billions for Internet Businesses and Investors!, May 17, 2000

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

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 60 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	R. Daly "razweekly" (Vienna, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ries's best book so far, July 17, 2000

By	John C. Dunbar (Sugar Land, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had problems with Ries's previous books. Back then it was Ries and Trout, instead of Ries and Ries (his daughter).

In the older books his basic message was very simple (niche and be the first in the mind of the buyer, position).

Ries and Trout are credited with popularizing this positioning subject.

From this very simple message, they wrote books that endlessly repeated this important, but very simple, message. Thus, his previous books were tedious, and sometimes boring. I had the same problem with Andy Grove's book, with his basic theme of "Only the Paranoid Survive": one concept... many pages.

Thus, I thought his previous books were over kill. But this book is different. Maybe because Ries's daughter kept him on track.

This is one of the best books on branding that I've read so far. And, it really does a great job on discussing branding as it applies to internet sites.

For example, don't even think of naming your web site without reading this book. From reading this book, I have a much better understanding of how to structure my web site, how to name it, how to come up with internet site business ideas.

Although Ries is a marketing guru, and not an internet techno-weenie, his understanding of the internet runs deep, from a business point of view.

This is a masterful book, and I recommend it highly. I think a lot of VC firms should have read it before they invested in many of the copy-cat web sites that took their money.