Laura Ries

The Visual Hammer

Laura Ries is a leading branding strategist for prominent media outlets, a sought-after speaker, a popular television personality, and a best-selling author. She recently released Visual Hammer, which discuss how the critical missing piece in most marketing programs is a powerful visual that can drive a brand into the mind. Consumers are blasted with words at an astounding rate. Between traditional media and new social media, the amount of words, tweets and status updates is overwhelming. Ries believes that in a world of words, a visual hammer is the best, most effective way to get inside a consumer’s mind, yet 99% of all marketing programs lack one. She says one reason is that management is totally focused on words, when they need to think more about visuals. A visual hammer is a symbol that stands for a brand name. It subconsciously communicates the emotional power of a brand while driving a verbal idea into the mind. In this presentation, she discusses effective visual hammers and explains how an audience can capitalize on this concept and create visual hammers of their own.

The Immutable Laws of Marketing and Branding

Based on her decades of experience, Laura Ries discusses the immutable laws of marketing and branding in a presentation tailored to her audience and its industry. She also discusses how the internet, including social media, plays a role in today’s marketing and how organizations can effectively use these tools to their advantage.

Narrow Your Focus

Al and Laura Ries make sure that their seminars are visually focused. They use up to 300 slides per hour, which adds up to 1,800 slides in an all-day presentation, which totals 900% more information imparted by the typical speaker. Their tailored, carefully edited slide list of images and key ideas makes watching their presentation feel like watching a movie. And they deliver suspense, comedy, intrigue and education, completely revolutionizing the traditional marketing seminar. No two speeches are exactly alike. Using examples from a wide variety of industries around the world, Al and Laura Ries discuss and illustrate the laws and principles of positioning, marketing and branding, all of which have made their own business bolder and better. Starbucks narrowed its focus to high-end coffee and became the world’s largest coffee chain. Dell Computer narrowed its focus to personal computers “sold direct” and became the world’s largest PC manufacturer. BMW narrowed its focus to “driving” and became the largest-selling European luxury car in the U.S. Focus is the key to successful brand building in today's ultra-competitive marketplace, and Al and Laura Ries give presentations that embrace and apply the right focus for clients and audiences.

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