Visual Hammer

Nail your brand into the mind with the emotional power of a visual

By: Laura Ries

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Drive Your Brand into the Mind with Emotion, Memoribility and Distictiveness

When my dad, Al Ries, wrote “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” in 1981, he overlooked one important idea. The visual.

Positioning is a totally verbal concept. You build a brand by owning a word in the mind.

Yet the best way into a mind is not with words at all. The best way into a mind is with visuals. But not any visual.

You need a “visual hammer” that hammers a verbal nail. The Marlboro cowboy. Coca-Cola’s contour bottle. Corona’s lime.

• The cowboy hammers “masculinity.”
• The contour bottle hammers “authenticity.”
• The lime hammers “genuine Mexican beer.”

A trademark is not a visual hammer. Almost every brand has a trademark, but few have a visual hammer.

Visual Hammer is the first book to document the superiority of the “hammer and nail” approach to branding.

Some examples:

• The pink ribbon that made Susan G. Komen for the Cure the largest nonprofit foundation to fight breast cancer.
• The Aflac duck that increased Aflac’s name recognition from 12 percent to 94 percent.
• The green jacket which made the Masters the most-prestigious golf tournament.
• The polo player which made Ralph Lauren the largest-selling high-end clothing brand.
• The bottle which made Absolut the largest-selling high-end vodka.
• The watchband which made Rolex the largest-selling luxury watch.
• The red soles which made Christian Louboutin the leading luxury-shoe brand.
• The chalice which made Stella Artois the fifth largest-selling imported beer.
• Colonel Sanders who made KFC the world’s largest chicken chain.

Why are marketing plans usually nothing but words when the best way into a mind is with the emotional power of a visual? After reading Visual Hammer, you might want to tear up your current marketing plan and start fresh.