Customer Reviews

FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand for the Future

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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.

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.

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.

In FusionBranding, Nick Wreden first warns his readers that his book is not 1) a cookbook (about how to "do more" or "do better", activities that do not necessarily ensure a brand); 2) a positioning user's guide (that builds a brand strategy over relying on competitive activities); 3) a celebrity marketing treatise (capitalizing on a passing fad, like e-brands or communities); or 4) a tactical book (spending time on PR, advertising, emails and other marketing tactics while ignoring the strategic mindset required for branding). Wreden then debunks such die-hard branding myths as awareness equal to branding, overrated first-mover advantage, overestimated impact of the Internet on human behavior and business fundamentals, and disproportional relevancy of pricing to branding. Wreden clearly demonstrates through his book that a brand is all about creating a set of positive expectations that generate trust, commitment, loyalty, respect, and satisfaction based on the ability to deliver constantly what is promised to the target audience. Wreden concisely explores the evolution of branding through the ages of the Mass Economy, Customer Economy, and Demand Economy. To his credit, Wreden not only emphasizes customer equity (lifetime value of customer) and accountability, but also operational excellence. What is indeed the value of a brand if operations cannot deliver what marketing and sales promise? To summarize, FusionBranding brings a breeze of fresh air into branding that keeps its paramount importance in convincing the target audience to take a ride and hopefully make a journey together until death separates them.

Fusion Branding: How To Forge Your Brand For The Future by product branding specialist and consultant Nick Wreden offers the reader an informed and informative presentation on how to make corporate advertising and branding resources effectively operate in the competitive marketplace for goods and services. Individual chapters cogently address the importance of product accountability for successful branding, being careful not to overestimate the importance of e-branding, the power of "Fusion Branding" that incorporates the needs of the customer, and much, much more. Highly recommended, especially for neophyte businesses seeking to make a name in their chosen field of endeavor, Fusion Branding is a complete course under one cover and an invaluable reading for anyone charged with enhancing or maintaining the corporate bottom line in sales and market share.

This book offers a lot of insight into the future of successful business. It contains invaluable suggestions and advice for both existing companies as well as new businesses. This is one of the few books that are written with a focus on the future, providing the reader with numerous innovative ideas and strategies. This guide will undoubtfully be useful to businessmen and students alike. Highly recommended!

I knew nothing about branding or advertising before reading FUSION BRANDING. Further research has shown me what a great resource Fusion Branding is for anyone who wishes to understand these topics. It was interesting and thought provoking, yet easy to read. Having had very little knowledge on which to base an opinion, I did not realize Fusion Branding's true value until after I had read several more books on similar topics. Nick Wreden really understands which elements are essential for creating a successful brand and inspiring a faithful customer. I'm looking forward to his next book!

Fusionbranding goes beyond the usual trendy buzzwords and shallow analysis seen in other marketing and business books. Throughout the book relevant branding concepts are covered, such as consumer equity, accountability and quality assurance. It uses a combination of relevant case studies, how-tos and insightful discussions to show the importance of proper branding. Everyone has something to learn from this book.

FusionBranding is a textbook look into the future of business branding.Written by a branding futurist, this book can be read on several levels,depending on how deep the reader wants to dig into the subject. The author points out that branding has become increasingly important, while at the same time, increasingly more difficult to generate. Fusion branding is not about products in isolation, but the whole sales and support infrastructure­going beyond the bounds of the company to these pipeline and even to the customers' reactions to the company's products and their support infrastructure.

This is a must read for business students and entrepreneurs. It is cogent and complete. It emphasizes the customer viewpoint interactions with them. We rated this book four hearts.
-- Bob Spears
Heartland Reviews

I found this work to be very informative about branding.
Anyone involved in marketing and interested in the future
ought to read this book.