The book re-establishes the importance of visual cues in maintaining brand supremacy. To that point, General Video Rental fails as a brand name, while Blockbuster Video succeeds. It is here that the book provides its most compelling message. The Rieses are right on the mark when they state that a brand is not built overnight and that success is measured in decades and not years. The issue of singularity demands that the most important aspect of a brand is, as the Rieses state, its single-mindedness.
All great brands possess a singularity of focus, a clarity of message.
Here they state that no brand will live forever and that euthanasia is often the best solution. To support the argument, they point out that Kodak is a photographic brand that will not be as effective in the digital era. Their contention is that it is sometimes too expensive to remarket an existing brand. One may question the immutability of all 22 laws. But, as a primer on the fundamentals of brand preservation and protection, the Rieses latest effort provides a worthwhile addition to the branding library.