The one-sentence summary
Everything you do or don’t do, or say or don’t say, communicates something about your brand
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WHAT THE BOOK SAYS
- Traditional advertising doesn’t work, and is nothing to do with the standard notion of 30-second commercials
- Awareness doesn’t sell, so there is no point in pursuing it in its own right
- Advertising is everything – packaging, spokespeople, employee relations, etc
- Loyalty is a perishable commodity – brands must change or die
- Fish where the fish are – stop looking for new users all the time
WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT
- It has six new versions of old rules:
OLD NEW
Give people budgets to spend wisely Give projects budgets, not people
Awareness is king and assume people get it Awareness is irrelevant
Promote from within, grow organically Teach continuously, get regular transfusions
Expand for success Maximise your existing assets
Get lots of data Get relevant data
Marketing is an expense Marketing is an investment
- It has some useful definitions of a brand:
- A container for a customer’s complete experience with the product
- A bundle of functional & emotional benefits, attributes, experiences, symbols
- The company’s links to the likes, wants and needs of its customers
- What keeps a company’s loyal users coming back
- He makes good sense on crisis management:
- Have your response come from the top
- Tell the truth, tell it all, and tell it fast
- Do something to make it better
- Have a theme and stick to the script
- Know when to shut up
- Keep your PR people in the loop
WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH
- The author is the former Chief Marketing Officer of Coca-Cola so, although he thinks he knows it all, he probably doesn’t
- Implementing his approach might upset the balance of teamwork because he is so opinionated