Al Ries

Who they are: Al Ries (1926–2022) was an American marketing strategist. He founded the New York advertising agency Ries Cappiello Colwell in 1961, where Jack Trout joined him in 1967, and later chaired the Atlanta consultancy Ries & Ries with his daughter, Laura Ries.

The concept HaELM draws from: with Jack Trout, Ries popularised positioning, the idea that a brand wins a place in the customer’s mind rather than in the market, first in a 1972 Advertising Age series and then in Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (1981). In Marketing Warfare (1986) they set out rules for defence: only the market leader should play defence, the best defence is the courage to attack yourself, and strong competitive moves should always be blocked. Decode uses these rules to read Google’s part in the Spider-Man campaign as a market leader protecting its position rather than taking new ground.

Decode articles where their thinking appears: Spider-Man: Brand New Day × Google Maps: A Film Promotion Built into a Daily Habit

Source: Wikipedia, “Al Ries”; Ries and Trout, Marketing Warfare (1986); Branding Strategy Insider, “Marketing Warfare Revisited”.