Al Ries: A Forever Stamp
2026 marks 100 years since Al Ries was born. His ideas aren't history. They're the battle plan every marketer still needs.
The U.S. Postal Service issues Forever Stamps for one reason. They never expire. Whatever happens to postage rates, the stamp holds its value. Forever.
That’s Al Ries.
Al always said anniversaries get attention. Milestones are news. This year, 2026, would have been his 100th birthday. A centennial.
The perfect reason to celebrate what Al Ries left us forever.
“Positioning is not what you do to a product. It’s what you do to the mind of the prospect.”
Al wrote those words with Jack Trout in 1972. Over fifty years ago. And they are still the most precise definition of marketing strategy ever written. Not “brand purpose.” Not “consumer journey.” Not "authentic storytelling." Positioning. One word. One idea. One mind.
That’s the legacy.
Al didn't build his reputation by telling people or clients what they wanted to hear. He built it by being right.
Volvo owned safety — and the moment they launched a sports car, they started losing it. IBM owned mainframes — and the moment they tried to own everything, they owned nothing. Line extension is the enemy within. You can't be all things to all people and be anything to anyone.
Simple ideas. Brutal clarity. Permanent relevance.
Look at the marketing world today. More channels. More content. More data. More everything, except focus. Few brands can answer the question Al asked first: what position do you own in the mind?
Al didn't just ask the question. He built the framework for answering it. Focus on one idea. Connect it to something the mind already believes.
“The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what’s already up there in the mind.”
He wrote that in Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind in 1981. It was true then. It is true now. It will be true in 2126.
That’s what a Forever Stamp means.
It doesn’t mean a person lived forever. Al passed in 2022. It means the idea lives forever. Because a great position, properly planted in the mind, cannot be displaced. Not by trends. Not by technology. Not by time.
The mind still works the same way it did in 1972. It still ranks. It still simplifies. It still rewards the brand that got there first. Al got there first. No one has displaced him. Half a century later, his name is still the category. First doesn’t just win. First endures.
Al’s ideas on positioning are Forever.
Ries and Trout changed my life forever. The education I received from these two tians of Marketing Strategy was more important than my Babson MBA: In a world overrun by AI driven slop - cutting through with their ideas is more important than ever.