Customer Reviews

What Makes Winning Brands Different: The Hidden Method Behind the World's Most Successful Brands

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Over the past few months I have received several SPAM emails from the book authors' consulting firm say that this book contains newly discovered principles that can be applied like scientific formulas to solve seemingly "hopeless" brand problems. I bought the book and now I'm writing this review in the hope I save others some time and money. This book contains no scientific principles and no trustworthy findings.

The book's marketing principles were apparently discovered after the authors spent a little more than six years studying 1045 brands who were all in the top fifth percentile of their industry in terms of consistent growth. The research was supposed to identify the characteristics that separate these winning brands from others. Yet the authors did not look at non-winning brands.

Oddly, the book gives almost no information on this major "research" programme and how the winning brands were studied. But it alludes to in-depth development of case studies, and the book is littered with little example case studies. This is rather amazing productivity since simple maths tells us that the authors had little more than two days per brand. Just a few days to uncover the reasons behind each brand's success. Reasons that had apparently previously remained secret for many years, certainly at least to all of these brands many many competitors.

The book presents 26 supposedly universal laws that winning brands are said to adhere to. AIncredibily all of these refer to re-positioning the brand through a change in advertising campaign. Apparently, distribution, pricing and product strategies were not responsible for the growth success of any of the brands the authors' studied. Which reminds me of that old joke about how advertising agencies react to marketing problems (the book's authors work for an advertising agency): "I'm not sure what the problem really is, but the solution is definitely advertising".

None of the so called "principles" are extraordinarily new or radical (as the emails promised). These 26 principles are things like:
The magic principle - capture the `intriguing implausibility' within your brand that makes your competitors look boring.
The spirit principle - add a spirit to your brand that implies superior quality (the `right' spirit) and polarizes your competitors (the `wrong' spirit).

In spite of all the talk of universal laws that are easily applied, these "principles" are not expressed in terms of scientific laws, ie, "if this...then this". Nor are they expressed in terms of normative principles, ie, "in this situation a firm should do x". Just how a manager is supposed to use them is not well described - the hint is obvious, employ the authors, they know how.

It is perhaps not surprising that a book which consists largely of anecdotes and marketing "war stories" would contain many contradictions. Folk-lore often does: "many hands make light work" and yet "too many cooks spoil the broth". In addition to such inconsistencies this book contains faulty logic and out-right errors.

On page one the book begins with a humdinger. It attempts to describe the challenges that modern marketers face including that "low or negative birthrates in the United States, Europe and Japan will reduce the number of consumers by half in the next two generations". That half the population of the developed world is about to disappear should be of great concern, and not just to marketers !

On page two the authors claim that generic brands are experiencing the strongest growth worldwide. Yet the book lists no generic brands amongst its `winners'.

The authors begin by saying you can apply their discovered principles "to any product...in any industry to increase sales and market share reliably". But soon they back away from stating that this book has all the answers: "there are no guarantees in life and none in marketing" (p.13); and yet on the very next page they state that "the growth codes in this book point to sure-fire strategies". The authors seem to have a unique and flexible interpretation of the word "sure-fire".

This book make bold claims and, not surprisingly, it massively under-delivers. At its worst it is nothing more than a blatant attempt to sell the advertising and consulting services of a particular company. It offers no real insight into what makes some brands more successful than others.

What it does offer is a long list, for a short book, of stories about brands that changed their advertising message in an attempt to `cut through' and/or reposition the brand. How reliable these stories are is anyone's guess. Especially the claims of achieved results. Some of the stories are entertaining, but there are too many and even these short cases begin to bore, and there are a surprising number of anecdotes about the Prussian army. So readers beware.

The whole marketing and advertising world seems to be obsessed by the concept of "benefits", be it rational or emotional.
The authors of this book choose an entirely different approach: the empirical discipline of behavioral science. They show that you come up with compelling and strikingly different kinds of brand strategies, if you forget the "benefit dogma" for a minute and use the broader spectrum of behavioral triggers to drive the sales of your brand. - Simply the best and most scientific book I have ever read on branding.

A very lucid & insightful book illuminating how to revive and grow brands in the saturated marketplace.You will learn a systematic way of looking at consumers'inner desire and/or perceputual tendencies that provides a simple and powerful approach to brand-building.A must read for account planners & brand builders.

In business, there is rarely a place for silver medals. You're either at the top or you're moving backwards quickly. Andreas Buchholz and Wolfram Wordemann understand this and show how products get to the top quickly and stay there using laws and principles so clear, straightforward, and simple that the book cannot be put down until read cover to cover. After each chapter I found myself asking - "Why didn't I think of that?" I have read numerous books on marketing and would trade them all for this one. Insightful, clearly thought out, direct and without equal. Read it and prosper.

Robert T. Murray

A lot of the books that are being sold as "business bestsellers" do not really fulfill the promises they hold. This one is different! The two authors got to the core of the success business and analyze in a comprehensive and profound manner what lies behind a success story. This gives the reader a good look behind the scenes of how success is constructed, i.e. by analyzing the 'pros & cons' of products and how individual traits (which form the basis for market penetration) for a product or service need to be highlighted in order to make it big time! I found it very entertaining and I think most others who will pick this interesting title up will feel the same. One thing's for sure this book will make you rethink how things are really run to get your message across.

The whole marketing and advertising world seems to be obsessed by the concept of "benefits", be it rational or emotional.
The authors of this book choose an entirely different approach: the empirical discipline of behavioral science. They show that you come up with compelling and strikingly different kinds of brand strategies, if you forget the "benefit dogma" for a minute and use the broader spectrum of behavioral triggers to drive the sales of your brand. - Simply the best and most scientific book I have ever read on branding.

When this book was originally published 2 years ago in Germany I wrote a short review on it. I don't think it is outdated, in fact the English version is even improved, so here are my comments again: 'a provocative analysis of the different types of winning strategies with fascinating examples. Useful for all practitioners in the field, particularly the breaking down of what is often lumped together as image advertising'.

That's right! I was so hooked on this book.. I met Andreas and Wolfgang! I did. We had lunch and a great conversation. The thing is, to the benefit of my clients, I've spent considerable time addressing the arguements surrounding brand analysis, but nowhere have I found a book on this subject more specific, more focused, and generally more telling than what I found here! For those who are interested in the heart and soul of [what makes a winning brand different], look no further. Buchholz and Wordemann have done it!

Newton discovered one of the laws of nature, in the book "What makes Winning Brands Different", Adreas Buchholz and Wolfram Wördemann have discovered 23 laws of marketing.

WINNING BRANDS is a winner in the new Millennium marketplace. Don't build your brand without it!