'The King' may be gone, but his wiggle and sneer live on.

IT'S 27 years since he died, yet Elvis Presley is still topping the sales lists in music stores.

Indeed, the Elvis brand is as potent as it has ever been, possibly more so. And "The King" may be able to give us valuable clues on what makes some brands enduring success stories, while others are just passing fads.

No one can question that the man remains a phenomenon. This month, he was back on top of the British charts, scoring the 1,000th British No. 1 with a rerun of his song "One Night."

That's part of a campaign in which Presley's record label, Sony BMG, is re-releasing all 18 of his U.K. No. 1 singles in consecutive weeks to mark the 70th anniversary of his birth.

Overall, Elvis has sold more than I billion record units worldwide, according to the elvis.com Web site, more than any other recording artist in history. Moreover, he topped the 2004 rankings of earnings by dead celebrities published by Forbes. Elvis's estate had $40 million in revenue last year.

Impressed? Well, pretty soon you may even be able to own shares in the great man himself. Last month, Robert Sillerman paid $100 million for 85 percent of Elvis Presley Enterprises. Sillerman plans to take that company public.

The 1950s produced lots of iconic singers and actors, from Buddy Holly to James Dean. Yet nobody matches Elvis' selling power. So, if he were on a business-school curriculum, what lessons in brand management could we draw from Elvis?

Here are four to start with.

One: Be the first.

Elvis effectively invented the modern image of the rock star. The sneer, the wiggle, the attitude, he had it all wrapped up from the moment he burst into the charts. The formula has been varied many times since then, though it has never been bettered.

The lesson? First-mover advantage is crucial. If you create the genre, then you own it.

Two: Die young.

Elvis' career was the perfect length. It was just long enough to establish a compelling narrative (starts out cool, loses cool by making terrible films, then becomes cool again). Yet it didn't last so long that it became embarrassing.

The lesson? Create a story for your brand that people can identify with. And make the story short.

Three: Keep it simple.

Elvis' image evolved only slightly over the two decades he was making records. He got a touch fatter, and the sideburns got a bit longer. Yet he didn't try to write symphonies, sing Verdi numbers, or play King Lear in a movie. He was a singer who could also wiggle his hips a bit. And that's it.

The lesson? Don't extend, change or push the brand. Stick to its essence and it will last a lot longer.

Four: When all else fails, boost your sex appeal with black leather.

Elvis didn't invent the idea of mixing sex with music, yet he pushed the combination further than anyone else had until that time. He defined an image that has been imitated 1,000 times since: a pelvic thrust, a shrug and a slight sneer.

The lesson? Nobody ever went broke by putting sex into a package and finding a way to sell it.

Follow those four rules, and no product can go wrong.

Matthew Lynn is a columnist with Bloomberg News.