The Buzz Bin

Laura Ries is one of the most respected minds in marketing today. I remember seeing her speak as a guest of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and promptly bought ten copies of her latest book to give to associates. Laura and father Al Ries’s collective works have easily influenced ten million marketers, and her new blog Origin of Brands has quickly ascended to become one of the most well read destinations on the internet.

With a new Ries via internet video series about to be launched (www.riesreport.com), Laura took some time to discuss new media’s impact on brands. What better way to celebrate one year in business than publishing this thought provoking interview.

BB: How do you like blogging as compared to speaking and writing books?

LR: Writing a book is a long and sometimes agonizing process. A book can take years from the time you write the words down until the time someone reads them. Once written and published, however, a book can reach hundreds of thousands of people around the world in almost every language for many years. Al’s book Positioning is still in print 26 years after it was first published. All of the four books we have written together are also still in print.

Speaking live in front of an audience is exhilarating because of the audience feedback. But speeches require a lot of planning, contracts and travel time. Even in business class, sitting on an airplane for 24 hours is not all it’s cracked up to be. And one speech can only reach maybe 1,000 people at a time.

Writing a blog is the best of both worlds. You have the ability to reach a mass audience on a global scale immediately. It gives me the opportunity to comment on breaking business news and relate our branding laws to the situation. A blog also can reach people with a frequency not possible with either a book or speech. Making a trip to India certainly cannot be done on a weekly basis.

BB: Has communicating with the blogosphere via Origin of Brands benefited your business?

LR: I believe my blog has greatly benefited our business. Fans of our books and/or our speeches can sign up and get my latest blog post as well as read posts from the archive which offers a treasure trove of ideas, advice and observations.

Our consulting business also benefits. Having a blog keeps us current and relevant in the new Internet age. It also gives prospects a constantly updated catalog of our branding philosophy. Reading our books and/or blogs is what drives people to pick up the phone or email us to book a consulting session.

BB: Your blog comments a lot on major brands and their strengths and weaknesses. Can you discuss how new media can positively affect a brand?

LR: Word of mouth is what builds brands today. But you still need a way to get that first mouth moving. The best way is by PR, not advertising. Advertising doesn’t have the credibility to drive the word of mouth process. Also, PR benefits from the proliferating choices of new media outlets. Compared to decades ago, there are more places today to generate PR.

BB: And conversely, how can it negatively impact a brand?

LR: As quickly and as easily as PR can build a brand, PR can take a brand down. Negative PR is incredibly damaging. And with the growth of new media, mainly the Internet, it can happen faster than ever. Look no farther than Don Imus, JetBlue or Taco Bell for proof of this fact.

Luckily, we live in a celebrity obsessed society. This means that famous people and famous brands are always given a second chance. The ability for famous people and brands to generate PR, gives them the tools they would need to rebuild what negative PR has destroyed.

Non-famous people or brands can be annihilated by even mild scandals. If you’re not famous, you seldom get a second chance.

BB: How will new media impact the creation and diversification of brands as outlined in your book, the Origin of Brands?

LR: The Origin of Brands says that over time more and more brands will inhabit the earth. (It’s an analogy with the book, The Origin of Species, which states that over time more and more species will inhabit the earth.) The best way to succeed is by being first in a new category and then creating a brand to dominate that category, as Apple did with the iPod, the first high-capacity MP3 player.

You can also be successful today by creating categories that serve small market segments. The Internet gives brands the ability to reach even the most narrow of segments profitably.

Niche is no longer a dirty word in branding. A niche can become a billion dollar brand. Red Bull and Under Armour, for example.

BB: What are your favorite blogs?

LR: CK’s Blog (http://www.ck-blog.com), Brand Autopsy (http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/), and Bl Ochman’s What’s Next Blog (http://www.whatsnextblog.com/).

BB: Last December’s Time person of the year article really seemed to legitimize blogging and other web 2.0 technologies. How did this impact the blogosphere?

LR: You answered your own question. The Time person of the year article gave blogging and websites credibility and legitimacy as an alternative source of information. Credibility is both the most difficult to attain and most valuable thing an industry needs to survive. Now that the blogosphere has it, it is sure to survive, evolve and diverge.