The Brand Marketing Book: Creating, Managing, and Extending the Value of Your Brand

Citation

Robben, H. (2001), "The Brand Marketing Book: Creating, Managing, and Extending the Value of Your Brand", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 75-83. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2001.18.1.75.1

Without any doubt, one of the most valuable assets of present‐day companies is the brand they market and manage. Whether we are talking about “bricks and mortar” companies, “clicks and mortar” companies, or pure plays, brands are meaningful to all stakeholders in the value and demand and supply chain. That is why the present book will keep most of its value even when major changes appear in the marketplace, e.g. through a more efficient and effective use of the Internet as a channel – brands are omnipresent, and of decisive value to customers.

The book’s goal is clearly stated: “Marketers need to understand the importance of creating, managing, and maximizing the impact of a brand in the marketplace. The question of how to do it is what this book will explore” (p. xv). The book begins by showing how important it is to work with brands, and it gives the reader some instruments to do just this.

In three sections, “Equity, loyalty, and a good brand name,” “Creating a brand niche,” and “Creating, managing, and marketing brand equity,” that include seven chapters, the author takes the reader by the hand through an exciting business‐scape, full of spectacular views, beautiful gorges, and, to finish the analogy, a number of pitfalls that could easily take a brand downhill. The book is an easy read, with a writing style that holds your interest. It is clear that the author is an expert on brand marketing, and the book is one long stimulating and entertaining lecture.

The first section, “Equity, loyalty, and a good brand name,” lays down the principles that are important in building a brand. A nice extra is that the four chapters in this section provide an excellent summary – a kind of “Dos and don’ts when building your brand” – that offers an instant overview of relevant and practical issues that people working with brands should consider.

The first chapter starts off by discussing the name of your brand, a highly relevant issue indeed. This chapter offers the experience of quite a few companies with a number of recommendations. But what if your company is merging with another company: what about the name of the new company? Or, what should be done if your brand name is the same as that of the corporate parent (child, or sibling) brand? Again, this chapter offers advice on the matter. Quite importantly, the fact that we need good products and services prior to developing communication to build the brand is not neglected.

Chapter 2 deals with brand equity by stressing the “buyers’ hot buttons”: price, quality, value, and image. Obviously, a brand has to deal in a superior way with these concepts. By using countless examples, the value of communication, positioning, and creating value are discussed. The marketing plan highlights the importance of doing adequate research before all these actions can be undertaken.

The third chapter deals with another hot topic, namely building brand loyalty. There are many examples of brands that have made it through the last four decades, and quite a few that did not. The author identifies a number of issues that one should consider in building brand loyalty – brand loyalty does not happen overnight. The end‐of‐chapter summary conveniently highlights these issues.

The final chapter of the first section discusses an issue that many companies come to experience: the brand is in trouble. This may because the brand and the associated product were not so good to begin with, but there may be all kinds of circumstances internal or external to the company that warrant action. Again, the message is that we should listen to what the market tells us – through research. A very important reason brands experience problems is that “they willingly surrender their unique selling proposition, choosing to identify themselves with self‐serving and generic descriptions” (p. 83). In fact, this chapter is a call for a clearer perspective on the consumer, and for brands to get out of the vacuum that they sometimes operate in. What are you offering the customer that is unique and of value?

The second section, “Creating a brand niche,” consists of a single chapter, “Brand personality and extension positioning – a brand marketing casebook.” And a casebook it is!Comprising about 50 per cent of the book, this chapter represents a great number of brand case studies from a wide range of product categories: from over‐the‐counter pharmaceuticals to cigarettes, soft drinks and search engines. This part of the book gives an excellent overview of a great number of branding and communication issues that could – or will – happen to most brands around. For those of you looking for examples in a class or in a discussion, they are here. The only issue I want to raise here is the connection between sections one and two. Given that section 1 describes a number of principles on brand marketing, applying those principles to this very rich and educational case material might have led to a more systematic learning experience for the reader. Undoubtedly, such an enterprise would have affected the positioning of this book. And admittedly, the main message from the multitude of case studies is and remains quite simple: listen to the customer, and act accordingly. But although the book’s message is straightforward, it clearly is not the case that all companies heed this advice. History shows this very evidently.

Section three contains two chapters, “A crash course in brand marketing” that provides 18 rules to create, manage, and market brand equity. In fact, these rules may provide the lessons learned from the brand cases in section two. One might argue that more specific reference to the case material covered in the previous section might have more clearly illustrated how these rules have been or could have been applied to greater effect for the brand manufacturers and advertisers concerned. The concluding chapter, “Brand marketing: today and tomorrow,” presents us with a view on the future of brands and brand marketing. The future, very likely to be shaped to a significant degree by the Internet and related technlogical developments, also needs brands and products with a unique selling proposition or a difference genuinely differentiating a brand from its competition.

The book throughout stresses the importance of market research in preparing and making the brand decisions that the book covers. It is necessary to keep up with changes and trends in the markets: in the words of the author, it is essential to “keep a sense of the pulse of the market” (p. 236). The role attributed to research in this book somehow created the expectation that research findings would play a more prominent role in the cases, the checklists and rules presented. Possibly through its intended positioning, there is little reference to academic or other publications that could further substantiate the experience so richly provided in this book.

The book “is primarily aimed at marketers, the material presented can be useful to CEOs, corporate boards, managers, consultants, and market research personnel.” But if you are looking for brand marketing and management examples for teaching or for fueling a discussion on the subject, or when preparing a brand presentation, the book offers a large stock of examples to choose from. Although clearly written with a North‐American audience in mind, most examples and cases are easily recognizable for an European audience. In all, the book makes for a stimulating read for brand marketing professionals.