The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving

587: Globally Recognized Marketing Strategist on How to Build Brands That Dominate

Sep 17, 2025

Laura Ries, a globally recognized marketing strategist and author of The Strategic Enemy, shares her insights on brand building. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on categories rather than brands, asserting that clarity and contrast drive success. Ries discusses pivotal strategies, like defining a category, choosing a strategic enemy, and the power of a memorable visual hammer. She illustrates her points with examples from Kodak and Toyota, highlighting that owning a singular idea can propel brands to dominance in a competitive landscape.

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ADVICE

Name New Categories Anew

If you enter a new category, create a new brand name rather than extend the old one.
Legacy names anchor perception to old categories and block acceptance in the new space.

ADVICE

Pick A Strategic Enemy

Define a strategic enemy to clarify what your brand stands for by contrast.
Position against that enemy to make differentiation believable and memorable.

ANECDOTE

Target’s Cheap Chic Contrast

Target positioned itself versus Walmart by offering 'cheap chic' rather than competing on lowest price.
That clear contrast let Target attract customers wanting style without matching Walmart's low-cost leadership.

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Laura Ries, globally recognized marketing strategist and author of The Strategic Enemy, outlines a category-first approach to brand building. As she explains, "while people talk in brands, they really think in categories. The category is king." Her core message: focus, contrast, and clarity determine whether a brand leads or disappears.

The conversation emphasizes why narrowing focus creates strength, when to launch a new brand name rather than extend an old one, and how visible, repeatable signals, what Ries calls a "visual hammer", turn a positioning into dominance. She draws on vivid examples: Kodak's misstep in naming its first digital cameras, Toyota's use of Lexus to enter the luxury market, Subaru's turnaround through all-wheel-drive focus, and Target's positioning as "cheap chic" against Walmart.

Strategic takeaways for leaders include:

Define and own a category. "The power is in owning a singular idea, and the even more powerful thing is to dominate and own a category."
Choose a strategic enemy. As Ries argues, "the mind understands opposition faster than superiority." Standing against something clarifies what you stand for.
Use new names for new categories. Legacy names can trap perception in the old category.
Deploy the visual hammer. A simple, memorable image or symbol cements positioning more powerfully than words alone.
Keep the message simple and repeat it. Brands like BMW ("The Ultimate Driving Machine") and Chick-fil-A ("Eat More Chicken") succeeded through decades of repetition, not campaign churn.
Invest in leadership visibility. Well-known figures, from Anna Wintour at Vogue to Elon Musk at Tesla, can embody and amplify brand positioning.
Treat AI as a tool, not a substitute. Ries uses it for research synthesis but insists, "there's a great human element that is still incredibly valuable."

For executives shaping brand portfolios or launching new products, this discussion offers a disciplined playbook: narrow the focus, name carefully, define the enemy, and repeat until the position is instinctive in customers' minds.

📚 Get Laura's book, The Strategic Enemy, here: https://shorturl.at/PUuwc

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