The one-sentence summary
Everything you do or don’t do, or say or don’t say, communicates something about your brand
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
1. Give people budgets to spend wisely – Give projects budgets, not people
2. Awareness is king and assume people get it – Awareness is irrelevant
3. Promote from within, grow organically – Teach continuously, get regular transfusions
4. Expand for success – Maximise your existing assets
5. Get lots of data – Get relevant data
6.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