Building Brandwidth: Closing the Sale Online [Hardcover]

Sergio Zyman (Author), Scott Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2000

Ex-chief office manager marketing from Coca Cola explains in this book the ins and outs of marketing on the internet. Why doing it? Why don't? It's absolutely worth its price twice. GO GET IT!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Brandwidth," according to Sergio Zyman and Scott Miller, is a steeping brew of "brand awareness," "brand meaning," and "brand power" designed specifically for just one thing: making the sale in cyberspace. In Building Brandwidth, former Coca-Cola marketing chief Zyman and political and corporate strategist Miller present simple but solid rules for harnessing this mixture to really move merchandise online. As in Zyman's well-received previous book The End of Marketing As We Know It, this volume considers as marketing virtually every step in the branding process up to the eventual sale--without which, the authors note logically, the entire effort fails. "You may be doing a $2 million ad on the Super Bowl," they explain, "but you're not doing e-marketing if you're not doing e-selling." And it is for the current phase of e-marketing--which Zyman and Miller believe opened in spring 2000, when even the most promising dot-coms were suddenly expected to begin turning profits or kiss their investment dollars goodbye--that this advice is aimed. There's a good deal of go-go inspirational prose here, but also much practical advice for explaining a product or service, enhancing its value, distinguishing it from its competitors, and connecting it with the appropriate consumers. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

The purpose of marketing is to sell productD"'selling stuff is what sells stuff'"Dand that doesn't change if you are in a traditional company or a dot-com, reminds Zyman (The End of Marketing As We Know It), a former chief marketing officer at Coca-Cola who now runs a consulting company he founded with Miller. What Zyman preachesDwith gusto and solid advice based on long experienceDis going back to the basics of building a brand. Readers should not dismiss his revved-up, disarmingly hip tone (aimed at dot-com entrepreneurs under 35); his book is solid gold. The five key elements of building "brandwidth" (and, therefore, intrinsic value, which will attract investors) are, he says, brand presence (which rests on activating a brand in the marketplace); relevance ("Fixate on the customer, not on the product or the competition"); "owning the position of relevant differentiation in your marketplace"; credibility ("you can't deliver on customer satisfaction unless you clearly define the customer benefit in advance") and imagery ("Your brand is defined in your customer's perceptions"). Zyman is confident that "gazillions" of dollars are still to be made on the Web but that the "easy money" days are long over. For companies willing to do the critical work of marketing, he maintains, the sky's the limit. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1st edition (October 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066620600
• ISBN-13: 978-0066620602
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,558,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, but there are better, November 30, 2000

By 

Will Richardson, publisher of "Just the tips,... (Flemington, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building Brandwidth: Closing the Sale Online (Audio) (Audio Cassette)

Brandwith is a cute name for Internet marketing, and the author's lay out the case for pushing sales pretty well. But speaking from a small business/entrepreneurial viewpoint, I found not very much practical information that I could put to good use. If you want a better alternative, try "The Anatomy of Buzz" by Emanuel Rosen. Some very practical stuff that the upstart e-marketer can really use.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The New Coke of Online Marketing Books?, November 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Building Brandwidth: Closing the Sale Online (Hardcover)

Let me try to save you a few bucks.

The authors believe that "brandwidth" (cool buzzword) means being able to sell on-line, and should include using the unique properties of the web to target and customize offers and relationships in a more intelligent way. OK, I get it, and ....? Not sure I should believe the authors, one of who is best known as the guy who convinced the Coca-Cola Company to scrap the world's greatest beverage for New Coke.

The book attempts to take you in with the obvious observation that online brands will not be built successfully via bombastic Super Bowl advertising. OK, I get it, and ....?

From my perch, online or offline, great brands are built by understanding competition and competitive dynamics, establishing a clear, differentiable product or service offering, and focusing marketing spending on the target customers with the best probable return on investment.

The fundamentals of marketing have not changed in years. If you want to read actionable books on strategic marketing, pick up anything by David Aaker or Phil Kotler.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars They should have followed their own advice, April 24, 2004

By 

"vladd99" (CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building Brandwidth: Closing the Sale Online (Hardcover)

When writing this book the authors should have followed their own advice, "If you don't build benefits and customer value into your brandwidth, your days are numbered." (pg 12) and "Every detail is either adding value or subtracting it..." (pg 40). If they had I would have loved this book. Instead the authors trumpet old ideas (e.g. Be customer focused not product focused) and don't add their own take on what that means. They don't even offer much in the way of supporting evidence.

Throughout the book I was asking myself, "How? You're the marketing gurus, tell me how your customers did it." They talk about viral marketing, how did the successful companies do it? What are the pitfalls? They talk about the importance of fostering a conversation with your customers. Again, no examples. No "how". The authors make grand statements, but never back them up with evidence of their truth nor examples of how the sucessful used the idea for success.

If you want to find out about being market driven read "The Market Driven Organization" by George S. Day., "Inside the Tornado" or "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey A. Moore.

But save yourself some money and time, don't bother with this book.