Stop Playing Nice: Make an Enemy, Build a Brand

Negotiate Anything

American Negotiation Institute

Education, Careers, Business

4.8 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Be nice, be invisible—brand leaders pick a strategic enemy and own the category. ⁠Buy the book The Strategic Enemy - How To Build & Position a Brand Worth Fighting For. By Laura Ries⁠ In this episode, branding strategist Laura Ries (daughter of positioning pioneer Al Ries) breaks down why playing it safe kills momentum, how to define a category you can own, and how the psychology of contrast turns brands into movements. We dig into visual hammers, multi-brand vs. line extensions, and the bold decision to say no so a brand can finally say something. You’ll learn: What a strategic enemy is (and isn’t)—and why it supercharges word-of-mouth How to choose the right category first, then dominate it with brand The role of a visual hammer (icon, color, shape) in instant recognition Why line extensions backfire—and when a new brand is the winning move How personal branding uses the same rules (signature look, ruthless focus) Why advertising should reinforce, not introduce, a positioning Connect with Laura Buy the book The Strategic Enemy - How To Build & Position a Brand Worth Fighting For. By Laura Ries Laura Ries Website Contact ANI ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠negotiateanything.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life! Discount code "KWAME" gives 30% discount over 3 months TL;DR what is folk? folk is a CRM, and extension, that helps businesses build real relationships and close deals. Why is folk better? folk is simple, integrated, and proactive to use. folk’s value proposition? folk CRM does the busy work for you, so you can focus on growing your service business. folk’s tagline folk, like the sales assistant your team never had What product details will most excite your audience? • Our seamless integrations with social channels • Our 1-click Enrichment that finds contact details for y ou • Know the best leads to reach out to with AI Follow-up s Useful links & resources • folk's website • folk's Linkedin • Simo, our CEO’s, LinkedIn • folk's Youtube

Transcript

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0:00.0	She is Laura Reese, a world-renowned branding strategist, bestselling author, and the daughter of legendary marketing pioneer Al Reese.
0:08.4	With over 30 years of experience advising some of the most iconic companies on the planet,
0:14.6	Laura has helped leaders master one of the most powerful tools in marketing, positioning.
0:20.1	Her new book, Strategic Enemy, How to Build and
0:23.2	Position a Brand Worth Fighting for, is already shaking up the way companies think about branding.
0:28.7	In this episode, Laura reveals why brands that play it safe lose, how to define a category
0:34.7	that you can own and how the psychology of contrast can make your brand
0:39.3	unforgettable. Laura will also show you how to leverage the concept of a strategic enemy to stand
0:44.6	out in overcrowded markets for your own brand. This conversation will give you the tools to build a
0:49.8	brand that people can't ignore. And now, without further ado, let's get into the interview.
0:56.9	Can you tell us about your work with Coke and about the case study with Coke?
1:00.5	Well, I mean, Coke's a very interesting example, but they have stuck to red, except they've
1:06.2	launched a lot of silly line extensions. For example, remember Coca-Cola Life? It's not alive anymore,
1:12.2	but that brand was not red. In fact, they went against their own rule, apparently. It was all
1:16.7	green. Why green? They wanted to be more environmentally friendly, right? This was a new product.
1:22.1	It was a mid-calorie cola, if you know, it had cane sugar and stevia. But it was a loser. Why? Because if you say
1:31.2	your brand is Coke Life, what does that position your original thing as? I think it positions them
1:37.5	as Coke death. Because, listen, I mean, if you say this is life, what's the opposite? I mean,
1:44.0	there's always an opposite. I mean, that's the key of thinking about strategic enemies because there's always a choice out there. There's not one thing for everyone. And whatever you say about your brand, if you position it as life, people are going to think about what the opposite is. And for them, it was their own brand and making themselves their own worst enemy. Now, that product
2:01.9	isn't around anymore. And you think about that category, was the category problem? No, it was the line
2:07.3	extension because today, the mid-calorie cola with prebiotics is the hottest thing going, right? You got
2:12.7	poppy, you got ollie pop out there. And they're going like gangbusters because when people want a new category like this
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