Customer Reviews

Strategic Brand Management: Creating and Sustaining Brand Equity Long Term

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3 star:		(1)
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Unlike many brand experts who consider brand to be something that shifty marketers invent in dark rooms and then overlay on products, Kapferer suggests that there is an organic genesis to brand, having to do with the culture of the corporation that creates them. It's a refreshing concept, and one that is extremely valuable for the non-profit and service sectors, who don't usually create new products or services based on the latest market fad.

This is a much more conceptual approach to branding than I've seen in other works, and one that will serve as a good introduction to brand for someone who has no background in it. It's equally good, though, for someone who has trudged through other more tactical books, and even for someone who has a solid background in branding.

Nothing to see here...move along.

Kapferer promises "new approaches" and delivers the same tired pablum. Not worth the time it takes to read it--you won't find anything applicable in the book.

Kapferer's scholarly investigation of ways of creating and managing brand-equity should be a welcome addition to the office-shelves of both corporate brand managers and professors of business schools. This book fills a pressing need for a comprehensive text of Brand Management that is grounded in sound theoretical concepts. While the majority of previously-published books on brand management have relied solely on providing shining industry exemplars, their theory-development leaves much to be desired. Instead, Kapferer provides a systematic and rigorous treatment of brand-equity creation and management, that should be appreciated by all who have serious interest in this aspect of contemporary marketing. The author holds a Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University and is a respected professor at HEC, France. One caveat that I may offer prospective readers is the multiplicity of examples of French companies that may be somewhat unfamiliar to an American audience. However, this last-mentioned issue may also be seen as an advantage, insofar as it reveals the branding issues in a global marketplace.

Before brand image and positioning, other things are needed. Kapferer explains why these include : identity, vision/purpose, brand architecture and charter. All ways of integrating marketing as an organisation-wide learning process. Every brand owner needs a copy of this book. If you'd like to form a discussion group debating key lessons on branding (and when it is/isn't the most valuable corporate asset), please e-mail me at wcbn007@easynet.co.uk. Sincerely, Chris Macrae, author Brand Chartering Handbook & editor MELNET www.brad.ac.uk/branding/

This book is a comprehensive and holistic approach to brand architecture. The author presents an expanded view of the meaning and role of brands and gives a new dimension, deeper than the single, limited conceptualization of a brand as a product. The role of the organizational associations, of the culture values and the emotional imput is very well integrated to understand the multidimensional meaning of a brand. This book will help brand, marketing and/or commercialization managers to best leverage their corporate, range and product brands. Additionally, the insights presented to understand brand and company valuations are very well explained. This book, by Jean Noel Kapferer, can be complemented with books written by David Aaker.