Out of the Ordinary

Some serious sausage

I don't want to give the impression that all I do these days is read books (if only) but I've just finished  reading David J Taylor's book Never Mind the Sizzle...Where's the Sausage?: Branding Based on Substance, Not Spin and I've got to say I absolutely loved it. This came as something of a surprise to me as its been sitting on my shelf for ages and I only picked it up as I had nothing else to read. To be honest I think my initial indifference to it came about as a result of reading the back cover on which one of the reviewers comments that the book can be read in two hours. Now in reality a great book that you can finish in two hours is an absolute bonus particularly when it has been recommended by such a list of marketing luminaries but somehow in my head this got translated as 'if it only takes two hours it can't be worth reading'. Funny how the human mind, or perhaps just my mind, works because that couldn't be further from the truth.

Not only has David got a really timely and well thought-out message in reminding us that there is more to brand building than multi-million pound ad campaigns and nice logos. In the trials and tribulations of Bob Jones and Simpton's Sausages he has found the perfect vehicle to bring it to life. It is as entertaining and engaging as it is wise. I was also particularly impressed with how David has managed to overcome the obvious limitation of using the parable style, which is the difficulty of providing detailed examples without breaking the the flow of the narrative, by integrating the book with his blog wheresthesausage.com.

All in all the book is a brilliant example of something that combines just the right amounts of sausage and sizzle.

The Brand Bubble

I recently finished reading The Brand Bubble by John Gerzema and Ed LeBar and I throughly recommend it if you have any interest at all in the future of branding. There is no doubt that part of the rationale for the book is to promote Young and Rubicam's BrandAsset® Valuator but there is certainly nothing wrong with that, particularly when it is a source of such rich data.

Based on their analysis of this data Gerzema and Lebar argue that there is another $4 trillion dollar bubble in the global economy as a result of the fact that the financial markets valuation of brands is fundamentally out of kilter with the value placed on these brands by their consumers. This is an intelligent and very well supported argument.

Nevertheless, from my perspective the most interesting aspect of the book is the authors analysis of the attributes of those brands who are creating sufficient consumer value to justify their significant financial brand valuations. This analysis leads the authors to conclude very convincingly that a brand is not so much a position as a direction and that it is the energy and movement around this direction that creates value for the consumer. This is something that resonates very strongly with me and reinforces my view that an over emphasis on brand strategy at the complete expense of tactical marketing initiatives, something that is surprisingly common, can be detrimental to a brands development. In my view tactics and strategy are equally important and fundamentally complimentary from a branding perspective as the success of brands like 42 Below clearly demonstrate.

Overall,The Brand Bubble is an important and thought provoking book that definitely sits in my top 5 marketing books of recent years.

Rocket Fuel not Rocket Science

While in Cuba recently I had the opportunity to get through some of my stock pile of books marked 'I know I should read that some time' (not quite the EC wine lake but not far off) and one of the highlights was the latest book by Marty Neumeier called Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands. The book itself is a master class in combining form and function, which is perhaps not that surprising given Marty's heritage in design and is full of practical advice on building a differentiated brand. The thing that struck me most about the book however was that while none of the specific points that Marty makes are radically new in themselves, by combining them in such an engaging and easy to digest form, the book has less than 200 pages and can be easily read in a few hours, the book provides a thought provoking and ultimately invaluable framework for thinking about a brand. The book may not be rocket science but it is certainly rocket fuel for reassessing the strengths and weaknesses of a brand.