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Branding: secrets revealed, best practices explained, pitfalls exposed!
• The truth about positioning brands and developing brand meaning
• The truth about brands as corporate profit drivers
• The truth about advertising, pricing, segmentation, and more
Simply the best thinking
the truth and nothing but the truth
This book reveals the 51 bite-size, easy-to-use techniques for building great brands–and keeping them great.
“I recommend this punchy, provocative book that uses vivid case studies to remind us of 51 truths about brands.”
DAVID AAKER, Vice-Chairman, Prophet and Author of Building Strong Brands and Spanning Silos
Preface ix
Truth 1 Managing brands is not common sense 1
Truth 2 No one loves your brand as much as you love it 5
Truth 3 The brand is not owned by marketing; everyone owns it 9
Truth 4 Making more by doing less 13
Truth 5 Does your brand keep its promise? 17
Truth 6 Price is the communication of the value of your brand 21
Truth 7 Brand personality is the emotional connection with your brand 25
Truth 8 Does your sales force know the difference between a product and a brand? 29
Truth 9 Beware of the discounting minefield 33
Truth 10 Packaging protects your product; great packaging protects your brand 37
Truth 11 Brand management is association management 41
Truth 12 The retail experience is the brand experience 45
Truth 13 Corporate ego: Danger ahead 49
Truth 14 Brand metrics: Best measure of success? 53
Truth 15 Customer complaints are a treasure 57
Truth 16 Brand stewardship begins at home 61
Truth 17 Market share doesn’t matter 65
Truth 18 Avoid the most common segmentation mistake 69
Truth 19 Public relations and damage control: The defining moment 73
Truth 20 Focus equals simplicity 77
Truth 21 Marketing is courtship, not combat 81
Truth 22 Don’t sacrifice brand focus for sales 85
Truth 23 The medium is not the message; the message is the message 89
Truth 24 Brand development and the small business 93
Truth 25 Imitation is an ineffective form of flattery 97
Truth 26 Positioning lives in the mind of your target customer 101
Truth 27 The value of brand loyalty 105
Truth 28 Quality is not an effective branding message 109
Truth 29 Effective use of celebrity endorsers: The fit’s the thing 113
Truth 30 Brand-building consumer promotion 117
Truth 31 Advertising built for the long run 121
Truth 32 A service brand is a personal brand 125
Truth 33 Is your brand the best at something? If so, be satisfied 129
Truth 34 Great positionings are enduring 133
Truth 35 Effective branding begins with the name 137
Truth 36 Your brand makes your company powerful, not the other way around 141
Truth 37 Be consistent but not complacent 145
Truth 38 Is your brand different? If not, why will someone buy it? 149
Truth 39 The three M’s of taglines: Meaningful, motivating, and memorable
Truth 40 Customer service is the touch point of your brand 157
Truth 41 Smaller targets are easier to hit 161
Truth 42 Beware of the allure of brand extensions 165
Truth 43 Keep advertising simple, but not simplistic 169
Truth 44 It’s a long walk from the focus group room to the cash register 173
Truth 45 Repositioning can be a fool’s chase 177
Truth 46 With advertising, don’t expect too much 181
Truth 47 Don’t let testing override judgment 185
Truth 48 Effective advertising is 90% what you say, 10% how you say it 189
Truth 49 Compromise can destroy a brand 193
Truth 50 Don’t let the pizazz outshine the brand 197
Truth 51 There are no commodity products, only commodity thinking 201
References 205
Acknowledgments 209
About the Authors 211