Gold Standard for Marketing a Brand, January 22, 2008
Dan Herman
This is a five-star book. Amazon won't let us change the stars. I realized I was imposing my ethics in taking away one star. For what it seeks to do, this is a five-star book.
This is a well-written book, ably illustrated, that is easy to read and appreciate. A few flyleaf notes:
+ Real-time branding, leveraging opportunities instead of plans
+ Accelerated world, focus on customer psyche
+ Price is NOT a strategic obstacle or advantage
+ Differentiation is everything (at the 5% level)
+ Promotional campaigns of dubious value
+ Good management is not strategy
+ Market research flawed for its focus on aggregate (group) statistics instead of psychology of the individual consumer
+ Vision plus values can make a difference
+ Identify, Invent, Implement
+ Stellar use of examples through-out the book
+ Opportunity scan: content, consumers, market, competitors, us (from outer circle to inner sweet spot)
+ Very useful and thoughtful lists, easy to understand and reflect upon
+ 15 stages of consumption within which differentiation can occur
+ Loyalty bankruptcy a challenge
+ Hypnotic branding and Fear of Missing Out both can be leveraged
Although I am a long-term strategist and focused on saving the Earth for my three boys and future generations, there is no question but that this book is the gold standard in short-term branding and market exploitation for short-term profit. It was worth my while.
Other books of possible interest:
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage
The Philosophy of Sustainable Design
Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons (Bk Currents)
The Ecology of Commerce
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
