R.I.P.: Al Ries, Father of Positioning

Al Ries (1927-2022)

Al Ries, known as the father of positioning, died on Oct. 7 at age 95, according to Ad Age.

Along with his then-partner Jack Trout, Ries burst onto the advertising scene in the early 1970s with the radical concept of positioning, which held that rather than focus on brand benefits, marketers must instead fix a place for the brand in the consumer’s mind.

“Success depends on finding an open hole in the mind and becoming the first to fill the hole with a brand,” Trout & Ries wrote in a landmark series of articles published in Ad Age on the subject.

That led to a book, “Positioning: A Battle for Your Mind,” the first of many co-authored by Ries, including “The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding” and “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR,” written with his daughter and business partner, Laura Ries.

But it was the concept of positioning—which Ad Age ranked No. 56 on its list of the 75 most important marketing ideas in the publication’s then 75-year history—that was most closely associated with Ries. In a 2009 reader poll, “Positioning: A Battle for Your Mind” was rated the No. 1 book of all time on marketing, beating even “Ogilvy on Advertising,” which came in at No. 2. (“The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding” came in third.) 

“Al Ries was a major figure in the marketing industry and his influence will be felt for many years to come,” said Bob Liodice, CEO of the Association of National Advertisers. “His breakout work with Jack Trout on the idea of brand positioning impacted countless CEOs over the years who went on to build entire marketing plans around the concept.” 

Among the who’s who of clients served by Ries, who was inducted into the American Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame in 2016, are Apple, Walt  Disney Co., Frito-Lay, Ford Motor Co., Microsoft, Papa Johns, Samsung, Siemens and Unilever.

'Moses of the marketing world'

Highly quotable and outspoken, Ries was known as a maverick in the industry. Trout & Ries worked directly with marketers, which was sometimes perceived as circumventing agencies, which then were charged with executing their positioning ideas. Consider this 1994 comment from Kevin O'Neill, then exec VP and chief creative officer at Lintas, New York, about Trout & Ries: “They position themselves as the Moses of the marketing world.”  

Unflappable as always, Ries responded, "Many times, an agency refuses to accept a strategy because it wasn't 'invented here.’”

Ries, in fact, came from an agency background. The Indianapolis native began his career with General Electric but moved to New York to join Needham Louis & Broby and later Marsteller Inc. In 1963, he founded Ries Cappiello Colwell, an ad agency that later evolved into the consultancy Trout & Ries.