Susan Gunelius uncovers how a brand about sex survived and thrived despite attacks from every direction, in an increasingly competitive market and jaded consumers. It's the story of brand building, brand value, brand longevity and the ultimate brand champion.

The most important assets of any business are intangible: its company name, brands, symbols, and slogans, and their underlying associations, perceived quality, name awareness, customer base, and proprietary resources such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationships. These assets, which comprise brand equity, are a primary source of competitive advantage and future earnings, contends David Aaker, a national authority on branding. Yet, research shows that managers cannot identify with confidence their brand associations, levels of consumer awareness, or degree of customer loyalty. Moreover in the last decade, managers desperate for short-term financial results have often unwittingly damaged their brands through price promotions and unwise brand extensions, causing irreversible deterioration of the value of the brand name. Although several companies, such as Canada Dry and Colgate-Palmolive, have recently created an equity management position to be guardian of the value of brand names, far too few managers, Aaker concludes, really understand the concept of brand equity and how it must be implemented. In a fascinating and insightful examination of the phenomenon of brand equity, Aaker provides a clear and well-defined structure of the relationship between a brand and its symbol and slogan, as well as each of the five underlying assets, which will clarify for managers exactly how brand equity does contribute value. The author opens each chapter with a historical analysis of either the success or failure of a particular company's attempt at building brand equity: the fascinating Ivory soap story; the transformation of Datsun to Nissan; the decline of Schlitz beer; the making of the Ford Taurus; and others. Finally, citing examples from many other companies, Aaker shows how to avoid the temptation to place short-term performance before the health of the brand and, instead, to manage brands strategically by creating, developing, and exploiting each of the five assets in turn

This book bridges the gap between strengthening the ‘employee brand’ and the building ‘external brand image’ by synthesizing the two approaches. The result is a blurring of the boundaries and assigning creative powers to both. A customer has a number of interactions with the company, and each of these interactions has an impact on the brand equity account – either positive or negative. Examples of interactions include: the product itself, the purchasing process, the consumption experience, the ‘face’ of the organization, the call center, media etc. The real issue for the company is how to translate the optimized ‘ideal’ customer journey into effective company programmes, how to track their progress and their actual impact on brand equity, customer satisfaction and loyalty. This book takes a holistic view to brand management and distills this complex system into palatable chunks, involving all functions of the company. The book demonstrates the effect of an organization that facilitates and rewards employee brand commitment on ‘external brand equity (eg: customer satisfaction and loyalty) and ‘internal brand equity’ (eg: product improvement and innovation potential resident in the organization). While the more obvious benefits of this approach include the usual suspects such as increased sales and revenues, less obvious benefits include employee stress reduction through the elimination of tensions and incongruity between external and internal value systems. The result is a significant contribution to creativity, brand commitment, overall employee satisfaction and, finally, a company’s ability to attract and retain talent. The above is achieved via a very practical, step-by-step guide, lavishly illustrated with case studies from over 100 fascinating brands (the authors have researched and surveyed companies such as: Aer Lingus, BMW, BP, Deutsche Bank, Ducati, Edun, Google, innocent drinks, Lacoste, Lego, Manner, Maggi, Orange, Old Mutual, Rabobank, Sony, SOS Childrens Villages, Siemens, Thomas Sabo, TED/United, TUI, UBS, Vauxhall, Wal-Mart, Wikimedia, any many more) the authors are able to paint a very real picture of the issues facing business and provide powerful solutions. Refreshingly, this book draws on examples from across the globe, giving the book cultural depth. Each case helps demonstrate the arguments put forward by the authors. After reading this book the audience should be able to answer the following questions: How can I build a strong brand? Where do I start? Which analyses do I have to conduct? Who needs to be involved? How can I make sure every part of the organisation lives the brand? How can I revive the brand ? How can I create a new and relevant connection between the brand and key target audiences? How can I develop and expand the brand? How can future orientation become part of the brand? How can I best structure the brand portfolio? Which role should each of the brands adapt in order to optimise results? How do I best manage the brand? How do I cultivate and empower brand enthusiasts in the organisation? How do I foster and leverage networked collaboration?

Bruce Turkel explains how companies and individuals can build their brand value with simple, clear explanations, anecdotes, and illustrations.

Providing a synthesis of practical blueprint and theoretical field guide to managing design, this comprehensive reference shows how the various disciplines of design - product, packaging, graphic and environmental - create value and contribute to company performance.

The world today is struggling with the Personal Brand Paradox. On the one hand, growing competition at a global level is making it increasingly difficult for people to make enough money to support the lifestyle that more and more of us aspire for. On the other hand, social media and the Internet are giving us all the opportunity to experience global fame. In fact, the millennial generation that has grown up with the Internet as a fact of life now expects that they will at some point get their fifteen minutes of fame. So how do you resolve this clash between an unstoppable force and an immovable object? Building Brand YOU! casts light on what many consider to be the (black) art and science that is branding and marketing and its practical application to building your personal brand. The tools and methods described in the book are used by millions of marketers around the world to build the brands they manage on a daily basis. Now, you can apply these trusted techniques to truly differentiate yourself, and if done well, it is nothing short of magical.

A top executive at one of the world's leading marketing firms analyzes the familiarity and strength of brands and establishes five steps towards increasing brand strength in a globalized world Rapid advances in modern technology present companies with quickly expanding marketing opportunities, but they also create an over-saturated business landscape that both helps and hurts brands. The Global Brand is a thorough investigation of brand strength in the accelerated modern business world. Nigel Hollis draws on his experience at Millward Brown to present a simple formula for determining brand strength based on two axes, Presence (or familiarity) and Voltage (or marketing appeal), to illustrate the market value and performance of brands. He analyzes the five steps of customer commitment to a strong brand--Presence, Relevance, Performance, Advantage, and Bonding. Finally, Hollis emphasizes human nature as a set of constant core values that all brands should appeal to, and analyzes the future of brand-building as a profitable investment. “In The Global Brand, Nigel Hollis not only corrects some of the misconceptions of the past but offers a glimpse of the future that is both perceptive and grounded in good business sense. Those who take the time to properly digest this book will save their companies a lot of money.” —Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer, WPP