Complicated Lives
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Book Reviews Added Value: The Alchemy of Brand-Led Growth Mark Sherrington Palgrave Macmillan, 2003; 208pp; hardback; £25.00; ISBN: 1-4039-0387-5
The five ‘I’s
An era of customer engagement
During the 1990s, the brand consultancy Added Value was arguably the most dynamic catalyst for fresh thinking in marketing. When clients announced they had called in Added Value, traditional ad agency bosses quaked in their Guccis because it usually signalled a more profitable change in strategic direction. This book, by their founder and chief lightning conductor Mark Sherrington, brings us up close to the Added Value operating system that delivered extraordinary differentiation for brands as diverse as Levi’s, Guinness and Unilever. The philosopher’s stone promised in the book’s subtitle takes worldly shape in the process Sherrington calls the five ‘I’s: insight, ideas, innovation, impact and investment return. And it is precisely this formulation that should interest direct marketers. For Sherrington, brands are not simply the created fancies of above-the-line advertising. They are quasi-sociological phenomena that are rooted in the everyday experience of life, its tribulations and celebrations. Citing Nigel Bogle, founder of the agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, he agrees that we have moved from the interrupt and repeat era of marketing to the age of customer engagement. He even posits a formula for the ‘tipping point’ of awareness into action: I ¼ f (n 3 m 3 p) t
An indispensable read
where I ¼ impact leading to action (not just impact that makes an impression); n ¼ number of times; m ¼ message; p ¼ places or people; and t ¼ time. It is the five ‘I’s process, however, that will quickly make this an indispensable read for anyone excited by marketing. From brand planners to brand managers, marketing directors, finance directors, CEOs and even the odd jaded creative director, the system brings a great deal of logic to the fuzzy and often instinctual matter of brand building. Added Value answers the questions we are always asking. Where do I look for new insight into my customers? How will I know when I have spotted a real trend? What techniques can I use to identify winning strategic ideas? How do I brainstorm effectively? How do I begin to set my marketing budget? What do I need to know to brief creatives? What are my key performance indicators? There is just one serious niggle. Alchemy was the study of base metals and how to turn them into gold. This book is far too centred in rational observation to deserve such a subtitle — however knowing — and the references to the black art peppered throughout the book are often strained. This is more than compensated for by the frequent wry asides and deft
& H E N R Y S T E W A R T P U B L I C AT I O N S 1 4 7 8 - 0 8 4 4 . I n t e r a c t i v e M a r k e t i n g . V O L . 5 N O . 3 PP 303–308. JANUARY/MARCH 2 0 0 4
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Book Reviews
Corporate vanity, greed and capriciousness
quotations from masters of the game as distinct as Henry Ford and Sir Bobby Robson. Moreover, the anecdotes
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