"Brands are not just about
fulfilling basic consumer needs. Brands possess
great power and the truly great brands will be those
that learn to balance this power with responsibility."
Susannah Hart, John Murphy
(Editors, The New Wealth Creators) |
"Word of mouth is the best
medium of all."
Bill Bernbach |
"If it doesn't sell, it isn't
creative."
David Ogilvy |
"The aim of marketing is
to know and understand the customer so well the
product or service fits him and sells itself."
Peter F. Drucker |
"Sustainability is here to
stay or we may not be."
Niall Fitzgerald, CEO Unilever |
"If you can dream it, you
can do it."
Walt Disney |
"A house of brands is like
a family,
each needs a role and relationship to others."
Jeffrey Sinclair |
"What should a brand leader
advertise?
Brand leadership, of course. Leadership is the single
most important motivating factor in consumer behavior."
Al Ries & Laura Ries |
"Success
is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts."
Winston Churchill |
"It is not a matter of what
is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived
to be true."
Henry Kissinger |
"Victory
belongs to the most persevering."
Napoleon Bonaparte |
"Products, like people, have
personalities, and they can make or break them in
the marketplace."
David Ogilvy |
"When dealing with people,
let us remember we are not dealing with creatures
of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion,
creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated
by pride and vanity."
Dale Carnegie |
"History
is the memory of things said and done."
Carl L. Becker |
"There are a terrible lot
of lies going about the world, and the worst of
it is that half of them are true."
Winston Churchill |
"Brands are the rock stars
of commerce, and create many fans, both at home
and abroad."
Simon Anholt, (Brand New Justice) |
"Price is what you pay. Value
is what you get."
Warren Buffett |
"It takes a big idea to attract
the attention of consumers and get them to buy your
product... I doubt if more than one campaign in
a hundred contains a big idea."
David Ogilvy |
"If an ad campaign is built
around a weak idea - or as is so often the case,
no idea at all - I don't give a damn how good the
execution is,
it's going to fail."
Morris Hite |
“Good tactics can save even
the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even
the best strategy.”
General George S. Patton, Jnr. |
"There ain't no rules around
here! We're trying to accomplish something!"
Thomas Edison |
"For every complex problem
there is a simple solution that is wrong."
George Bernard Shaw |
"The
consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife."
David Ogilvy |
"Unless
your advertising is built on a big idea,
it will pass like a ship in the night.”
David Ogilvy |
"The
future's already arrived; it's just not evenly
distributed yet.”
William Gibson |
"Marketing
is too important to be left to the marketing department.”
David Packard |
"A
great brand is a story that’s never completely
told.”
Scott Bedbury |
"In
a knowledge economy, a good business is a community
with a purpose, not a piece of property."
Charles Handy |
"Imagination
is more important than knowledge."
Albert Einstein |
"Change
is the law of life. And those who look only to the
past or present are certain to miss the future."
John F. Kennedy |
"If
this business were split up, I would give you the
land and bricks and mortar, and I would take the
brands and trademarks, and I would fare better than
you."
John Stewart, Former CEO, Quaker |
"When
you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one,
but you won't come up with a handful of mud either."
Leo Burnett |
"...
money is made by discounting the obvious
and betting on the unexpected."
George Soros |
"Our
company has, indeed, stumbled onto some of its new
products. But never forget that you can only stumble
if you are moving."
Richard P. Carlton, Former CEO, 3M Corporation |
"Nothing
strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience
like individual responsibility."
Elizabeth Cady Stanton |
"The
ability to learn faster than your competitors may
be the only sustainable competitive advantage."
Arie De Geus, Head of Planning, Royal Dutch Shell |
"Because
its purpose is to create a customer, the business
has two basic functions: marketing and innovation.
Marketing and innovation produce results, all the
rest are costs."
Peter Drucker |
"The best way to predict the future is to create
it."
Peter Drucker |
"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap,
but by the seeds you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson |
"Almost
all quality improvement comes via simplification
of design, manufacturing, layout, processes, and
procedures."
Tom Peters |
"Opportunity
is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls
and looks like work."
Thomas Edison |
"Leaders
keep their eyes on the horizon, not just the bottom
line."
Warren G. Bennis |
"A
brand is a living entity - and it is enriched or
undermined cumulatively over time, the product of
a thousand small gestures."
Michael Eisner, CEO, Disney |
"Nothing
is more dangerous than an idea
when it's the only one you have."
Emile Chartier |
"If
everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking."
Benjamin Franklin |
"Marketing
is the custodian of the physical brand, but who
are the custodians of behavior? If it is just HR,
you've perhaps got a problem because often HR departments
have lost their punch at board level. The best sponsor
for an internal culture is the CEO."
Ian Buckingham, Interbrand Insidediv> |
"To
accomplish great things, we must not only act, but
also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
Anatole France |
"…
even those deaf to the bragging cries of the marketplace
will listen to a friend."
Paddi Lund |
"If
each of us hires people who are smaller than we
are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if
each of us hires people who are bigger than we are,
we shall become a company of giants."
David Ogilvy |
“Imagination
rules the world.”
Napoleon Bonaparte |
“Skate
to where the puck is going, not where it is."
Wayne Gretsky
ice hockey legend |
"An
invasion of armies can be resisted,
but not an idea whose time has come."
Victor Hugo |
".
if it's not your style to stretch and go the extra
mile to make sure our customer experience is great,
you're going to have an allergic reaction to this
company.
You probably won't stay. If you do try and stay,
but can't adapt to the culture then it will reject
you like a virus from a healthy immune system."
Jeff Bezos |
"…
our first priority should be the people who work
for the companies, then the customers, then the
shareholders. Because if the staff are motivated
then the customers will be happy, and the shareholders
will then benefit through the company's success."
Richard Branson |
"You can't build a reputation on what you are
going to do."
Henry Ford |
"The
victorious strategist only seeks battle after the
victory has been won, whereas he who is destined
to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for
victory."
Sun Tzu
(The Art of War) |
"I
would not give a fig for the simplicity this side
of complexity, but I would give my life for the
simplicity on the other side of complexity."
Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes |
"We
slip from our obligation to know what consumers
are thinking… into believing they are like
us; and from there we slide further into believing
we can think for them and understand their actions."
William McComb |
"We're
not concerned about having consistency of brand
so much as about consistency of purpose that flows
throughout the whole organization. It doesn't actually
matter what we write on the napkins or say through
advertising, all that matters is that when you go
into a Pret shop you get that set of experiences
that describes Pret."
Andrew Rolfe, Pret A Manger |
"Good
ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be
driven into practice with courageous patience."
Admiral Rickover |
"Wherever
you see a successful business, someone once made
a courageous decision."
Peter F. Drucker |
"Leap
and the net will appear."
Julia Cameron |
"A
business exists because the consumer is willing
to pay you his money. You run a business to satisfy
the consumer. That isn't marketing. That goes way
beyond marketing."
Peter F. Drucker |
"If
we took the mission statements of 100 large industrial
companies, mixed them up while everyone was asleep,
and reassigned them at random, would anyone wake
up tomorrow and cry, 'My gosh, where has our mission
statement gone?'"
Hamel and Prahalad |
We
embarked on consciously building Virgin into a brand
which stood for quality, value, fun and a sense
of challenge. We also developed these ideas in the
belief that our first priority should be the people
who work for the companies, then the customers,
then the shareholders. Because if the staff are
motivated then the customers will be happy, and
the shareholders will then benefit through the company's
success.
Richard Branson |
"You
don't build it for yourself. You know what people
want and you build it for them."
Walt Disney |
"If
you only give people what they already want, someone
else will give them what they never dreamed possible."
Saatchi & Saatchi |
"Ultimately,
strong branding is not just a promise to our customers,
to our partners, to our shareholders and to our
communities;
it is also a promise to ourselves…
in that sense, it is about using a brand as a beacon,
as a compass, for determining the right actions,
for staying the course, for evolving a culture,
for inspiring a company to reach its full potential."
Carly Fiorina
CEO, Hewlett-Packard |
"It
has always seemed to me that your brand is formed
primarily, not by what your company says about itself,
but what the company does."
Jeff Bezos |
"I
am irresistible, I say, as I put on my designer
fragrance. I am a merchant banker, I say, as I climb
out of my BMW. I am a juvenile lout, I say, as I
down a glass of extra strong lager. I am handsome,
I say, as I don my Levi's jeans."
John Kay
Economist |
"I
have found the most important thing to do is decide
what you're about, decide who you are, what you
hold as important, and what you value. Make sure
that whatever you're doing about becoming more of
what you really are and not about plans and strategies
that have financial gain as the starting point."
Scott Livengood
Chairman, CEO, Krispy Kreme |
"Any
CEO who cannot clearly articulate the intangible
assets of his brand and understand its connection
to customers, is in trouble."
Charlotte Beers
US Under Secretary of State |
"If
all Coca Cola's assets were destroyed overnight
, whoever owned the Coca Cola name could walk into
a bank the next day morning and get a loan to rebuild
everything."
Carlton Curtis
VP Corporate Communications, Coca Cola |
"…nothing
is so powerful as an insight into human nature,
what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate
his action, even though his language so often camouflages
what really motivates him.
For if you know these things about a man you can
touch him at the core of his being."
Bill Bernbach |
"It
is a struggle to preserve a brand's aura of authenticity
when layers of management, paid advertising, and
unabashed promotion are added to the marketing mix.
Small businesses have a distinct advantage in fostering
consumer trust (and thereby boosting sales) simply
by revealing their company's brand character and
personality - cracks, quirks, and all."
Kirsten Osolind |
"A
good product is not enough to provide competitive
advantage. Only brands can tap into the emotional
needs of consumers and create a bond with them."
Jamie Lord |
"Singleness
of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success
in life, no matter what may be one's aim."
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 1874 |
"Regard
your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly
be possessed of - for credit is like fire; when
once you have kindled it you may easily preserve
it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find
it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way
to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what
you desire to appear."
Socrates |
"The
best and most effective brands of the future
will be built around knowledge."
Lord Puttnam CBE |
"We
are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget
we can mold it. We are also busy listening to statistics
we forget we can create them."
Bill Bernbach |
"Where
absolute superiority is not attainable, you must
produce a relative one at the decisive point by
making skillful use of
what you have."
Karl von Clausewitz (On War) |
"What
people in business think they know about the customer
and market is likely to be more wrong than right...the
customer rarely buys what the business thinks it
sells him."
Peter Drucker |
"The
real success story of branding in recent decades
has been the way in which companies have used their
brands to turn the satisfaction of complex and even
spiritual needs into commercial transactions."
Simon Anholt |
"It
is insight into human nature that is the key to
the communicator's skill. For whereas the writer
is concerned with what he puts into his writings,
the communicator is concerned with what the reader
gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of
how people read or listen."
Bill Bernbach |
"Market
research can establish beyond the shadow of a doubt
that the egg is a sad and sorry product and that
it obviously will not continue to sell. Because
after all, eggs won't stand up by themselves, they
roll too easily, are too easily broken, require
special packaging, look alike, are difficult to
open, won't stack on the shelf."
Robert Pliskin |
"Your
brand's power lies in dominance. It is better to
have 50% of one market, instead of 10% of five markets."
Al Ries |
"Your
most unhappy customers are your greatest source
of learning."
Bill Gates |
"You
have to live with your product, you have to know
it through and through, you have to look at it,
understand it, love it then, and only then, you
can crystallize in one clear thought, one single
theme, what must be conveyed about the product to
the consumer."
Bill Bernbach |
"We
are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
Aristotle |
"There
is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more
doubtful of success than to initiate a new order
of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those
who profit by the old order."
Niccolo Machiavelli |
"Any
damn fool can put on a deal but it takes genius,
faith, and perseverance to create a brand."
David Ogilvy |
"The
secret to our enduring brand lies in delivering
an experience rather than just a collection of products
and services."
Harley-Davidson annual report |
"Positioning
is not about finding what the market wants you to
be, but about finding out what you are and owning
that space."
F. Byron Nahser |
"The
more complicated the world gets, the more comforting
the familiar will seem, and the better it will get
for brands."
Fortune Magazine |
"We
don't ask consumers what they want. They don't know.
Instead we apply our brain power to what they need,
and will want, and make sure we're there, ready."
Akio Morita
Sony Corporation |
"Quality
is remembered long after the price is forgotten".
Gucci family motto |
"Have
regard for your name, since it will remain for you
longer than a great store of gold".
The Apocrypha
Ecclesiasticus 41:12 |
"The
more complicated the world gets, the more comforting
the familiar will seem, and the better it will get
for brands."
Fortune Magazine |
"What's
the reason to trust a company in a new country or
in a new business it knows nothing about? My god,
it's the brand."
Laurel Cutler |
"You
can say the right thing about a product and nobody
will listen. You've got to say it in such a way
that people will feel it in their gut. Because if
they don't feel it, nothing will happen."
Bill Benbach |
"Standing
in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you
get knocked down by traffic from both sides."
Margaret Thatcher |
"Think
small and act small, and we'll get bigger. Think
big and act big, and we'll get smaller."
Herb Kelleher |
"It
is not the strongest of the species that survive,
nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive
to change".
Charles Darwin |
"…in
the factory we make cosmetics, in the store we sell
hope."
Charles Revlon |
"If
you ever have the good fortune to create a great
advertising campaign, you will soon see another
agency steal it. This is irritating, but don't let
it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating
somebody else's advertising."
David Ogilvy
(Confessions of an Advertising Man) |
"Managing
brands is going to be more and more about trying
to manage everything that your company does."
Lee Clow |
"Behind
good brands lie stakeholder companies."
Will Hutton |
"Never
give in - never, never, never, never, in nothing
great or small, large or petty, never give in except
to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield
to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming
might of the enemy.''
Winston Churchill |
"Simplicity
is all. Simple logic, simple arguments, simple visual
images. If you can't reduce your argument to a few
crisp words and phrases, there's something wrong
with your argument. There's nothing long-winded
about 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité'."
Maurice Saatchi
M&C Saatchi |
"We
all know that the Disney brand is our most valuable
asset. It is the sum total of our seventy-five years
in business, of our reputation, of everything that
we stand for."
Michael Eisner,
Chairman and Chief Executive, Disney |
"Really
strong brands are the ones that have
done all my thinking for me."
Marieke van der Werf
Founder, New Moon communications agency |
"A
business that makes nothing but money is a poor
kind of business."
Henry Ford |
"The
product that will not sell without advertising will
not sell profitably with advertising."
Albert Lasker |
"On
the average, five times as many people read the
headline as read the body copy. When you have written
your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of
your dollar."
David Ogilvy |
"If
I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the
experiment. The literature was full of examples
that said you can't do this." (On the work
that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M 'Post-It'
Notepads.)
Spencer Silver |
"Knowledge
is a process of piling up facts;
wisdom lies in their simplification."
Alexander Graham Bell |
"The
essence of positioning is sacrifice. You must be
willing to give up something in order to establish
that unique position."
Al Ries & Jack Trout
(Positioning:
The Battle for your Mind) |
"To
swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you
have to do is swear off having ideas. "
Leo Burnett |
"Looking
at small advantages prevents
great affairs from being accomplished."
Confucius |
"Normally,
I am not a betting man but on one thing I've bet
more than US$18 billion in the last three years
-
my belief that the future of consumer goods marketing
belongs to the companies with the strongest brands."
Hamish Maxwell, Phillip Morris |
"Advertising
promotes that divine discontent which makes people
strive to improve their economic status."
Ralph S. Butler |
"Give
people a taste of Old Crow, and tell them it's Old
Crow. Then give them another taste of Old Crow,
but tell them it's Jack Daniels. Ask them what they
prefer. They'll think the two drinks are different.
They are testing images."
David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising |
"In
times of change, learners inherit the Earth,
while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped
to deal with a world that no longer exists."
Anon |
"You have only 30 seconds [in a TV commercial].
If you grab attention in the first frame with a
visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding
the viewer. People screen out a lot of commercials
because they open with something dull ... When you
advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire."
David Ogilvy |
"Doing business without advertising is like winking
at a girl in the dark. You know what you're doing,
but nobody else does."
Stuart H. Britt |
'QUOTES' ARCHIVE
