A New Brand World: 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century
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ere are certainly many books out there about the rules or ‘how to’ of branding. This book is different from so many of the other books. It is useful from two perspectives. On the more basic level, Bedbury lists eight principles for building and maintaining brand leadership. He cites examples from both Nike and Starbucks, two successful brands he has helped to develop. The stories told by Bedbury do an excellent job of illustrating his point while making the book a very interesting read. The reviewer’s company recently launched a new business model and a new brand which he had the honour of leading. He found this book after the company had launched the brand. Fortunately, the company got most of it right, according to the book. Nevertheless, the book provides a useful thought-provoking tool as the brand is taken forward. A key thread throughout the book is building and maintaining brand relevance and resonance rather than focusing on brand awareness. One has to start with the basis that the product or service has relevance to the end customer. This is a truth for everyone. A brand that does not represent a 424
relevant product or service is destined to fail. As pointed out in the book, it is clearly important to understand one’s customers and a brand’s relevance to them. With this understanding, one can begin to communicate with customers. Brands largely exist as perceptions. One has to understand that a brand is really made up of a set of experiences and actions that customers have with it. As pointed out later in the text, employees are a key aspect of creating these experiences through their actions. The author notes several historical success stories, where understanding the one thing a company is really good at and sticking to it is paramount. As Bedbury says, ‘You have to understand your brand’s DNA’. This understanding has to be combined with brand relevancy and resonance. For the history buffs, this chapter also contains a brief story of the development of the ‘Just Do It’ campaign for Nike. This story is a good illustration of understanding and applying a brand’s DNA. The next chapter discusses expanding the ‘brandwidth’. To illustrate this point, Bedbury tells the story of expanding the Starbucks brand to include United Airlines. Given Star-
䉷 HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1479-1803 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 11, NO. 5, 424–426 MAY 2004
BOOK REVIEW
bucks’ now ubiquitous presence on street corners and in shopping malls, grocery stores and airports, where it now also sells ice cream, this story illustrates the possibilities of expanding a brand. Equally thought-provoking are examples of brands that have overextended their brandwidth and succeeded in only diminishing the value of the brand. The key point is that just because one can do something does not mean that one should. The chapter on brand emotion was especially insightful. A key component of a brand’s success is the establishment of a relationship with customers. The three parts of this relationship are: creating a sense of belonging, longing and promoting
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