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Creating Passionbrands

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Creating Passionbrands

Getting to the Heart of Branding

Kogan Page,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Don`t follow consumer trends; lead your customers with "passionbrands" that represent their values and good taste.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

The topic of branding has inspired an outpouring of writing, including this book about why brands should move beyond the boundaries of rational marketing into emotion and ideology. Authors Helen Edwards and Derek Day thoroughly cover high-end branding, with a European perspective. They even include a section of sociological and economic criticisms of branding. They blend appropriate academic research with actual case studies, so their recommendations are both interesting and applicable. They devote the second half of the book to specific procedures and checklists that dedicated marketing managers can use to create a "passionbrand." While scholars and commentators differ about the applicability and desirability of cause-based branding, Edwards and Day make an exceptionally literate case for their position. getAbstract highly recommends this book to all branding and marketing specialists.

Summary

The Soul of the Brand

Customers were not always the center of business marketing as they are today. Only in 1960 did Theodore Levitt, a Harvard professor, write that marketers should focus on what customers want, and that companies should create products that fulfill consumer desires. Since Levitt wrote his paper, marketers have moved from one extreme to the other - from emphasizing products to emphasizing customers. At either extreme, they minimize the importance of their brands and, indeed, of the role of marketing.

Marketers must understand a brand's basic essence - the intangible qualities that define it. One marketing expert said a brand's essence is "a single thought that captures the soul of the brand." Only when you have looked into your brand's soul can you create appropriate new products, distribution plans, advertising strategies and partnerships.

Determining your brand's essence and establishing that deeper link between customer and brand can be difficult. Since branding is so expensive, top executives want proof from the marketing department that consumers are embracing any new campaign and that the corporation is getting a direct return on its marketing...

About the Authors

Helen Edwards lectures on brand management at the London Business School and has worked at a senior level at many international companies. Derek Day has 30 years' experience working with brands in all product sectors. He won several awards for his creative work in marketing.

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