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 SAYSTHE END OF ADVERTISING

  • 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