The Strategic Enemy

"The next breakthrough in Positioning thinking. Laura Ries simplifies, amplifies, and challenges us to get serious about what we stand for."
-Seth Godin, Author, This is Marketing

Build a brand worth fighting for using the power of positioning and focus

Consumers are overwhelmed by choices and inundated with marketing messages. And despite an obsession with positioning amongst the world's most well-known companies, too many brands retain an outdated focus on "being better" and using "line-extensions" rather than on what really matters in the mind-being different than your strategic enemy.
In The Strategic Enemy: How to Build and Position a Brand Worth Fighting For, bestselling author and brand strategist Laura Ries delivers an exciting and powerful new discussion of how some of the world's most energetic brands make an impact in the market. She explains the key to effective brand positioning-identifying an "enemy"-and shows you how to use an indisputable difference to drive your brand into the minds of consumers. To get people to fight for something, it will require them to reject something else. Ries draws on her extensive experience in marketing and branding to show you how to develop a "visual hammer:" a crystal-clear image that distinguishes your brand from everyone else's. You'll also find:

• Illustrative case studies of real-world companies-like Liquid Death, the popular canned water brand, Chick-fila-A's "Eat More Chikin" campaign, Oatly's "Wow no Cow," slogan, and Nvidia, the leader in AI computing-that demonstrate how to effectively position using focus and a distinctive enemy (plastic bottles, beef, and dairy milk, respectively)
• Strategies to adapt to a constantly changing marketplace where trends, products, and customer needs shift every day
• How to keep your company from expanding or extending to such an extent that true differentiation is impossible

 
Perfect for branding and strategy teams, managers, executives, and other business leaders, The Strategic Enemy is also a must-read for marketing professionals, sales leaders, and anyone else with an interest in driving revenue at their company.

Preface ix
Introduction xi
1 The Mind Is Not a Computer 1
2 The Category Folders in the Mind 15
3 The Strategic Enemy 29
4 Don't Be Your Own Worst Enemy 45
5 The Power of Saying No 65
6 When You Focus, the Enemy Is Clear 79
7 An Enemy Fuels Debate 103
8 Wielding a Visual Hammer 125
9 Nvidia: A Positioning Success Story 147
10 Leadership Is Your Anchor 163
11 Giving Birth to Your Own Enemy 175
12 Getting Started: Strategy in Action 191
Notes 199
Acknowledgments 207
About the Author 211
Index 213