Customer Reviews

Kellogg on Branding: The Marketing Faculty of The Kellogg School of Management

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The last time I checked, Amazon and its online partner Borders sell more than 8,000 different books on the general subject of brands and brand management. Presumably this number will continue to increase as organizations become more actively involved with marketing initiatives which effectively leverage one or more brands.

What we have here is one of the volumes which comprise a series produced by faculty members at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. It was edited by Alice M. Tybout and Tim Calkins who co-authored the Preface; Philip Kotler provides the Foreword and Calkins the Introduction.

I feel obligated to suggest at the outset that none of the volumes in this series is an "easy read." On the contrary, each requires but will generously reward a careful consideration of its contents which, in this volume, are carefully organized within four Sections:

I (Chapters 1-3) Key Branding Concepts
II (Chapters 4-6) Strategies for Building and Leveraging Brands
III (Chapters 7-13) From Strategy to Implementation
IV (Chapters 14-20) Branding Insights from Senior Managers

There are five themes which are rigorously examined through the narrative: brand positioning, brand design, brand meaning, leveraging a brand, creating a brand-driven organization, and then three chapters are devoted to issues on measurement. I especially appreciate the provision of various frameworks, check-lists (e.g. the five-step process for designing a brand on page 38), "Figures" (e.g Whirlpool's Touch Point Wheel" on page 230), and other tools to assist the reader with clarifying her or his thoughts about branding in terms the specific needs and interests of his or her organization.

Although taken out of context, the following three excerpts are representative of the high quality of thinking and writing throughout this book:

"The word brand has a tripartite etymology. One emphasis clusters around burning, with connotations both of fiery consummation and of banking the hearth. A second emphasis clusters around marking, with connotations of ownership and indelibility, as well as paradoxical allusions to intrinsic essence, whether or merit or stigma. A third emphasis clusters around the delivery of, or deliverance from, danger (stoke, anneal, cauterize; conflagration, possession, aggression). The brand embodies the transformative heat of passion, properly tended. It is bestowed and it is earned. The brand bespeaks the forging of a family." John F. Sherry, Jr. on "Brand Meaning," page 41.

"There are several sources of pioneering advantage. All are derived from the pioneer's unique role in creating the category, in defining the dimensions on which brands compete, and in influencing the importance buyers attach to perceived differences. Simply put, the pioneer plays a unique role... It is perceived different from others, and that perception is valuable in several ways....A pioneer can become the standard against which later entrants are judged simply by establishing the category and being viewed as the near-ideal product. This strong association with the product category means that virtually all other products in the category are now judged by the established standard. Standards in markets take at least two forms -- psychological standards and technological standards." Gregory S. Carpenter and Kent Nakamoto on "Competitive Strategies," pages 75 and 77.

"The differences between technology markets and CPG [consumer packaged goods] markets from a branding standpoint can be categorized into differences related to the market, differences related to products, differences related to customer behavior, and differences related to channels and ecosystems. I use this categorization scheme to discuss the challenges and principles of branding in technology markets. Figure 11.1 [pages 204 and 205] summarizes the key contextual dimensions that form the basis of contrasting brands in technology markets with branding in CPG markets." Mohanbir Sawhney on "Branding in Technology Markets," pages 202 and 203.

This book will be of greatest value to those senior-level executives who need to know their customers better and how to get closer to them, who need expert counsel on how to differentiate what they offer and then with formulating appropriate branding strategies which position their offering, not only as relevant to the given target market but indeed superior in value to whatever is offered by competitors.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Kellogg on Marketing edited by Dawn Iacobucci and Kellogg on Integrated Marketing co-edited by David Dranove and Sonia Marciano. I also recommend Harvard Business Review on Brand Management, Alina Wheeler's Designing Brand Identity, William J. McEwen's Married to the Brand, Marty Neumeir's The Brand Gap, Martin Lindstrom's Brand Sense, David A. Aaker's Building Strong Brands as well as Brand Portfolio Strategy, Bill Schley and Carl Nichols Jr.'s Why Johnny Can't Brand, Scott Bedbury and Stephen Fenichell's A New Brand World, Kevin Lane Keller's Strategic Brand Management (Second Edition), Alex Wipperfurth's Brand Hijack, and Douglas B. Holt's How Brands Become Icons.

I picked up "Kellogg on Branding" from Amazon because my company was embarking on a branding exercise. As part of the team, I wanted to get well-versed in the theoretical and practical implications of branding and brand management. Little did I realize that I have picked up a gem.

First and foremost, this is an academic book, some of which may cause a reader to gloss over, especially if they are just looking for easy bullet point overviews. Nonetheless, I found this to be a goldmine of information.

A collection of articles and research by some of the by faculty at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University covering a range of issues. Specifically, the book covers branding concepts in the first three chapters, strategies for building and leveraging brands, strategy to implimentation, and branding insights.

I found the last chapters (14 through 20) to be the most interesting as they were written by senior executives at firms. Whether it was a discussion on there individual companies leveraged their brand, to using their brand internally, it was the more "Practical" section of the book.

Thats not to diminish the other sections of the book. In one collection we have a guide for branding in the tech sector, to managing a brand portfolio, to design and positioning. Each with a wealth of information for anyone looking at their own companies and trying to make sense of branding, brand strategy and brand management.

Needless to say, this volume armed me quite well for our branding initiatives.

Again, this is a detailed book, and not a gloss over. If you can read this with the attention to detail "Kellogg on Branding" offers, then you will be well rewarded. If not, you may want to look elsewhere.

Regardless, I highly recommend.

I'm a business student and this book saved my team and my grade in marketing class. We were given the assignment of managing an ad campaign for a fictional company, and we were sorely lacking for strategy until I found this book. Filled with case studies from the real world and the collective wisdom of the Kellogg faculty, this book was the key to putting together our promotional plan which ended up getting the highest grade in the class and a school award.

This book is written by academics and it shows. While there are many good ideas and insightful analysis, it is essentially a compilation of papers written by academics. Accordingly, there is little flow to the book, which makes it somewhat of a difficult, if not boring, read.

I haven't made it through the entire book yet. However, had I bought this book sooner, I would have gotten a basic understanding of branding much sooner and saved a lot of time. Instead, I did a lot of my own research on the web and reading blogs. My independent research was helpful, but it took substantially more time than simply reading the first couple of chapters.

This book is a great compilation of articles on different matters related to branding. I missed a story, a guiding line between each chapter: so make sure the articles interest you individually before you buy the book.

All chapters that mattered to me (like 30% of them) were really great and full of practical examples.

I don't work in this area, but I got really interested on branding during my masters class. The book covers a lot of topics with great examples, not only from the mass consumption market but from heavy manufacturing and technology companies.

All the articles and topics make a coherent progress from the basics of branding to the complexity of branding strategy.

Image is everything right? But is hard to stick a dollar sign on to "Image" or better yet "Brand". Detailed case studies of real world products help put things in perspective. Some of the early choices of companies like Coke and Nike have really helped maintain the integrity of the brand through the test of time. By using brands that are all around us, Kellogg on Branding brings it all to your doorstep. I recommend this book to marketing/advertising industry people just as much to fans of books like "The Tipping Point" and The Long Tail.".

This book is very good for anyone who wants to be or already works as a marketing manager in any industry. Branding is not everything of marketing, but it is really an important part can increase or decrease a business.

The Kellog school is renowned for their marketing school standing head and shoulders above their competitors. It is fair to say that this book, Kellog on Branding, demonstrates in no short manner why.

It remains the great mystery of business: how to get consumers to recognise the value of your product over others, such that they are willing to recognise this in the price they pay for it. Innovation in product design is not businesses greatest challenge today, making it pay is.

This book has plenty of great examples of companies that have managed to pull this off, some of these examples should be relevant to your business, and give practical examples of how ot make it work. More importantly, the articles, or chapters, give a step by step process to help your company create unique solutions.

My only real recommendation is not to tell your competitors about this book.