FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand for the Future [Hardcover]

Nick Wreden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2002

FusionBranding: How to Forge Your Brand for the Future by brand futurist Nick Wreden represents a fresh look at branding imperatives, especially for companies selling to other businesses. Core principles of FusionBranding are illustrated with numerous case studies. Each chapter includes a FutureView, which looks at branding in 2005 and beyond, Takeaways, in-depth questions that can help apply FusionBranding principles, and Resources that features books and Web sites about FusionBranding principles.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fusion Branding: How To Forge Your Brand For The Future is highly recommended to anyone who wants to understand business -- Midwest Book Review

FusionBrands depend on everyday operational excellence, customer equity, and accountability, says brand futurist Wreden. The book is a wide-ranging overview -- Bookviews

Suffice it to say that FusionBranding should be at or near the top of every marketer's reading list. -- Internet.com, December 12,2002

The book is a wide-ranging overview and synthesis of the subject, describing ten core principles of building brands. -- Business Reader Review, October 2002

The book is bound to stimulate your thinking about new ways to communicate effectively.... -- Writers Room

This is a must-read for business students and entrepreneurs. It is cogent and complete. We rated this book four hearts. -- Heartland Review, October 2002

Use of the new technologies by customers and customer-to-customer communications have changed the rules of branding. -- Marketing Update, December 2002

While it has become fashionable in some circles to make extravagant claims and recklessly predict the future, Wreden is far -- Jonathan Jackson

Wreden forecasts how branding will evolve by 2005 and beyond, particularly for companies trying to sell to other businesses. -- DestinationCRM

Wreden uses a wealth of examples to illustrate his ideas, which makes this text all the more engaging and thought-provoking. -- Brand Republic, May 2003

From the Publisher

FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand for the Future is a strategic branding book based on the current requirements of the customer economy and the emerging demand economy.

It is not an Internet marketing guide, nor is it an idiosyncratic reminiscence of agency or PR experiences.

Main advantages of FusionBranding include:

•Model-based: The best branding strategy will fail if it's not based on the appropriate model. FusionBranding looks at the drivers and implications of mass, customer and demand economy models, and how to leverage their characteristics to build a brand.

•International focus: Brands can no longer be limited by national borders.

•Integrates business and technology: FusionBranding provides the strategic technological imperatives required to enable CRM (customer relationship management) as well as the ability to do business on customer terms.

•Future-oriented: Everybody knows how, for example, advertising works today. But how will it work in 2010? How can companies prepare for that evolution today? Each chapter explores the future implications of a FusionBranding strategy.

•Supply chain-enabled: Branding capabilities can no longer be limited to the four walls of an existing enterprise. Both the Internet, supply chain realities, emerging technologies and global trends make such branding short-sighted.

Each chapter looks ahead 5-10 years to discuss implications and trends. Chapters end with a 5-10 point checklist of strategic considerations. Chapters also list additional resources, ranging from books to vendors. One to three charts/illustrations are included in each chapter. Other valuable information is in the appendixes (including extensive glossary of technological, branding and supply chain terms).

Many competitive books look at branding and advise: "Do more" or "do better," based on mass economy techniques. "Do more" or "do better" can't work when the branding model has changed. Since old models won't work in the emerging economy, this book says, "do different" – so you can do what's right for your customers.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 390 pages
• Publisher: Accountability Press (September 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971744203
• ISBN-13: 978-0971744202
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,213,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tough Talk for Tough Times, January 20, 2003

By 

Linda L. Brennan "LLB" (Macon, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand for the Future (Hardcover)

This book is very readable, insightful and candid. Wreden uses a wealth of timely examples to illustrate his ideas -- some of which are quite contrarian, making this book also thought-provoking. His understanding of the implications and potential of technology adds a unique perspective. Each chapter provides additional resources for the reader. "Takeaways" are challenging questions to consider for determining a plan of action for the future. Built around 10 core principles, his arguments are compelling -- even as they might be uncomfortable for some readers.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good take on what's next, November 9, 2002

By 

Ed Higgins (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand for the Future (Hardcover)

According to brand futurist Nick Wreden, marketing faces a mid-life crisis, characterized by the growing ineffectiveness of campaigns and anger at spam and telemarketing. FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand for the Future looks at why marketing and branding appear to have lost their way, and suggests how they can redefine their roles for continued relevance.

Wreden writes thatthe post-war world can be divided into three eras. The "Mass Economy," which extended from about 1950-1995, was the golden age of branding. The power of the mass media allowed companies to control information flow and "position" offerings. The increasing power of such mass retailers as Wal-Mart as well as information-sharing through the Internet ushered in the "Customer Economy" around 1995. The next era, projected to begin around 2005, is the "Demand Economy." The Demand Economy will be characterized by three forces - reach, immediacy and personalization. Reach requires that companies be able to reach - and be accessible to - customers around the clock. Immediacy takes responsiveness to the next level. And personalization is required for both communications and offerings.

Why are many brands are failing today and executives growing cynical about their marketing investments? The reason, says Wreden, is because companies are still using mass-economy tactics like "positioning" even though the customer economy has changed branding imperatives. Wreden compares it to "playing golf today with clubs from the 1970s." This results in marketing that both wastes resources and fails to achieve desired results.

Instead of dated market-economy tactics, Wreden suggests "Ten Core FusionBranding Principles" for branding in the customer and demand economies. These include "brands are created by organizations and supply chains, not marketing departments" and "products offer promises. Brands honor commitments."

These core principles are based on the book's three key themes: customer equity, operational excellence and accountability. Customer equity reflects the value of existing customers, operational excellence is everything required to do business on customer terms, and accountability is needed to avoid wasting re sources and ensure responsiveness.

FusionBranding takes on a lot of topics often ignored in branding books, which tend to focus on the creative aspects of advertising. These books look at business-to-consumer branding, even though the bulk of business conducted worldwide is business-to-business. Businesses that sell to other businesses also need to establish a brand, but don't have the budgets used to promote yet another toothpaste or other consumer item. For such businesses, FusionBranding covers the role of supply chains in branding as well as the technologies and processes required for responsive customer service and fulfillment.

Another important topic that's often ignored is pricing. Often, pricing is talked about in terms of a branding advantage - "brands enable higher pricing." But how much higher? What about brands based on value? Is it better to set a high price, with promotions that offer substantial discounts, or a lower price from the beginning. One insightful chapter on pricing discusses how to link pricing to branding while maximizing profitability.

FusionBranding also contains a lot of specific tips for those in the business. PR agencies must start to incorporate competitive intelligence and accommodate a new world where the Internet allows everyone to be a journalist. Advertising agencies must expand capabilities to help channel partners market more effectively.

The last section is especially interesting. It discusses the three main branding challenges of the emerging Demand Economy - dynamic pricing, privacy and change management. It's debatable whether these issues will assume the importance Wreden says they will, but they definitely need to be kept in mind for long-range strategic planning. At any rate, the ideas, perspectives and strategies in FusionBranding can recharge any branding effort for today's - and more important, tomorrow's - markets.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Customer equity is king in branding, June 11, 2003

By 

Andrew Dod (Duluth, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand for the Future (Hardcover)

How do you turn a small business into big business?

Answers vary from hiring great talent to inspiring innovation to superlative customer service. While all those factors play a vital role in growth, this book argues that the key force in propelling start-ups from bedrooms to boardrooms is customer equity.

According to Wreden, customer equity is "the value that a customer brings to an organization in terms of sales, profits and intangibles, like referral sales, over the lifetime of a relationship." Customer equity is built on the premise that existing customers are much more valuable than new customers.

Everyone knows that existing customers are most valuable, yet few firms follow through with actions. About 80%-90% of sales and marketing budgets are devoted to customer acquisition, not retention. According to the consulting firm Bain & Co., fewer than 20% of firms track retention.

FusionBranding argues that focusing a business on customer equity pays multiple dividends. First, it increases branding and other accountability by, for example, pinpointing whether marketing campaigns are generating short-term sales without creating long-term customer value. Customer equity also focuses an organization on retention, especially if sales and other compensation are tied to that benchmark. Loyal customers lead to word-of-mouth, the most effective form of branding. Finally, and most important, loyal customers are more profitable. FusionBranding cites well-publicized studies that indicate that a retention increase of only 5% results in a lifetime profit increase of 95%.

Branding is important even for small firms. But too many firms see branding only from the perspective of advertising and public relations. (As an advertising and PR agency executive, I run into this perspective all the time.) While ads and PR are absolutely essential to branding in the mass economy, Wreden believes they are less important in today's customer economy. Because customers - not companies - define brands today, he argues that better branding and other paybacks come from emphasizing customer equity, accountability and operational excellence running from the supply chain to the customer.

Accountability starts with benchmarks that are clearly measureable, not intangibles like "creativity," "awareness" or even satisfaction. The most crucial benchmark is customer equity, but other benchmarks can include responsiveness, percent of revenue from new products and even employee retention. Benchmarks must also be from the customer's perspective. This is part of what Wreden calls "doing business on customer terms." In short, it's not about the ad featuring my company and my products but about the relationship my company fosters with you.

Wreden believes the coming demand economy will spark another wave in branding. Then, the emphasis will be on immediacy, reach and personalization. Immediacy places an even premium on responsiveness. Companies will be able to reach customers through a variety of media, but have to be prepared for customers to reach them at all times, and have to be prepared for accuracy and completeness during each contact. Almost all products will be personalized in the demand economy.

Interestingly, he also examines the challenges of the demand economy, such as dynamic pricing. Unlike other marketing books, which dismiss pricing with a standardized comment about "brands enable premium pricing," FusionBranding devotes attention to pricing techniques and their relationship to customer value. Dynamic pricing, where prices change in real-time according to supply and demand, will present a lot of challenges to businesses seeking to understand all their process costs as well as current market conditions.

Most branding books have little relevance to small businesses, especially those involved in selling to other businesses, because the authors focus on large consumer firms with big budgets. But Wreden has purposely oriented his book toward the practicalities of business, such as ensuring an effective distribution channel and incorporating the right technologies. At almost 400 pages, FusionBranding is not a quick read, but it is most definitely a worthwhile one for any small business that wants to be a bigger business which means everyone.