A well-known name in the marketing field for his work on positioning, AI Ries passed away on October7, 2022 at his home in Atlanta at the age of 95. AI Ries and his colleague Jack Trout (at Trout and Ries, Manhattan) proposed to their clients that creative advertising was not enough to persuade consumers to buy. They advocated positioning — to find a slot in the mind and be the first to occupy that slot. As IBM did by owning that slot — computers. As Volvo did it — safety. As FedEx did it — overnight. Burger King’s burgers were boiled, and not fried.

In 2005, Ad Age ranked the most important marketing ideas of the last 75 years. Positioning stood at No.56. In 2009, Ad Age conducted a survey on the best books on marketing. The No.1 ranked book was Ries and Trout’s book ‘Positioning : The Battle for Your Mind’ (1981).

Mr. Ries was inducted into American Marketing Association’s Marketing Hall of Fame in 2016. Positioning as a concept is a milestone in the evolution of modern marketing. It has influenced a whole generation of marketers.

Ries had started an advertising firm in 1963. Trout joined in 1967. They implemented positioning as concept. In essence, it was a position in the mind.

Trout passed away in 2017 at the age of 82.

In 1979, the firm was renamed Trout and Ries. They converted it to a consulting firm in 1989. They moved to Greenwich, Conn.

Ries is survived by a daughter, Laura and wife Mary Lou Ries, two other daughters Dorothy and Barbara and a son Charles.

Ries and Trout separated in 1994. Both set up separate firms.

Laura added emphasis on visual imagery while extending her father’s concept of positioning. Laura referred to her father’s contention — own a word in the mind. She says mere words are not enough — a visual is much more powerful.