Customer Reviews

ZAG: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands, Mobipocket

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a previous book, The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier explains how companies can bridge the gap between business strategy and customer experience, noting that brand-building isn't a series of isolated activities; rather, it is a complete system in which five disciplines - differentiation, collaboration, innovation, validation, and cultivation - "combine to produce a sustainable competitive advantage. " His intent in Zag "is to zoom in on differentiation to reveal the system within the system."

Initially, he observes that the human mind deals with clutter the best way it can: by blocking it out. As a result, "the newest barriers to competition are the mental walls that customers erect to keep out clutter. For the first time in history, the most powerful barriers to competition are not controlled by companies, but by customers. Those little boxes they build in their minds determine the boundaries of brands." (Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck also have much of value to say about these boundaries and barriers in The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business.) In his latest book, Neumeier explains how to overcome these barriers with radical innovation - "the engine for a high performance brand" - that requires mastery of four disciplines:

1. Finding your zag
2. Designing your zag
3. Building your zag
4. Renewing your zag

Everything begins with identifying the zag. That is, offering something that combines the qualities of both good and different. "When focus is paired with differentiation, supported by a trend, and surrounded by compelling communications, you have the basic ingredients of a zag."

OK, but how to do that? Neumeier provides a design process that consists of 17 checkpoints, each formulated as a question. He explains how to answer each of them correctly (i.e. an answer most appropriate to the given organization) by proceeding through a sequence of 17 checkpoints, each of which evokes a question to be answered correctly (i.e. appropriate to the given organization), with the first two previously posed as a trilogy in The Brand Gap: "Who are you?" and "What do you do?" Responding to them may prove far more difficult than it may first seem and a correct (i.e. appropriate) answer to each is essential to achieving radical innovation. The third question posed previously, "Why should I care?" creates an even greater challenge. Fortunately, a correct (i.e. appropriate) answer to that question will be revealed by carefully proceeding through the remaining 15 checkpoints.

It is truly remarkable how much substance and how many thought-provoking questions Neumeier provides within a narrative of less than 200 pages. With both rigor and eloquence, he explains how radical innovation can break through ever-increasing clutter in a competitive marketplace, whatever and wherever it may be. Special note should also be made of the book's production values. All of his core concepts, checklists, key points, observations, and recommendations are presented within a visually appealing context. The last time I checked, there are about 34,000 business books on the general subject of brands. Neumeier has written two of the most valuable among them. Bravo!

How do you know if you should read this book? Simple, finish this sentence:

Our brand is the only ____________that ______________.

If you completed that sentence with something only your brand can do then you don't need to bother. If not, stop reading and order now.

Although everyone says they are (probably) uniquely qualified to do whatever it is they do, few can actually plug the holes in the sentence. Zag will teach you how.

Zag teaches that the only way to differentiate yourself is to zag when everybody zigs. Go where no one else has gone before. Don't make it different - make it radically different! Don't worry, there is a 17-point checklist to walk you through it.

Like the Brand Gap, Neumeier has dropped the heft and delivered "easy-to-read, easy-to-use and easy-to-remember principles." No words or pages are wasted in Zag.

I give it my highest rating.

Positioning a brand to genuinely differ itself from the competition is one thing. This book goes beyond most branding books by providing a handbook that clearly identifies strategies to create a distinctive consumer experience (ZAG). Neumeier uses real world examples to demonstrate how brands ZAG using organically grown strategies and execution that is placed into their entire culture.

The book provides detailed explanations as well as charts for key themes such as Good and Different, Defining a brand, Market place clutter, Designing your ZAG, True lines that translate into real world Taglines, engagement, and how to create mutual loyalty programs that engage and challenge consumers rather than buy loyalty with discounts.

I guess if the author had stated clearly that this book was a pastitsio, or a mix of other marketing books, I could actually give it 4 stars. Indeed, it is a great short summary of marketing common sense, and one which I could easily refer students to. The core of the book is a check list from the company's mission to communication to the points of contact with the customer, much like a homework marketing managers should be doing already.

However, the book doesn't bring ONE new idea into the stage. They are all ideas from other authors, whom surprisingly recommend the book, when they should instead be suing Neumeier for plagiarism.

The very concept of ZAG, a catch word if there was ever one, is the same as Seth Godin's Purple Cow: a unique differentiation concept that would put you ahead of the competition. Then he spends a good time explaining how the consumer has a specific mind niche for each category, a concept that is present in the 1980 book "Positioning", by Ries and Trout. He uses Godin's "Tribes"concept a lot. Drop a little Aaker into the mix and you have ZAG.
I am mesmerized, because the author recommends these very books he got all the ideas from, in the end of his text.

So, is it ok now to almost cut & paste other works as long as you mention them in the appendix ? Is this an editorial marketing ploy ?
If you are not bothered by this, then go ahead and buy the book. It is an easy read and the ideas are useful.

I purchased this book at the same time as the Brand Gap, being confident in the fact they'd both be helpful, well-written, yet densely packed tomes of information - and I was right!

Zag hones in on one element discussed in the Brand Gap - differentiation - and expands it into a 200-so page book. According to Neumeier, differentiation, or creating zag, is one of the most important elements of branding - and it needs to happen at every step of the way, from conception to naming to marketing.

The great thing about Zag is the way it presents the information - much like in the Brand Gap it follows a 'whiteboard', graphic-heavy, basic (but important) facts. This time around however, it pairs the basic format with a strong, easy-to-follow example through the faux development of an educational wine bar chain.

Neumeier then takes the reader through 17 steps (including some helpful exercises) you should take as a business owner, venture capitalist, or advertising professional when determining whether your product is zagworthy - or how to make it so it is.

In terms of why I gave the book 4 stars as opposed to 5...The last section of the book - once the 17 steps are completed and the wine bar is 'fully developed' - is a little bit dense/doesn't seem to flow as well as the rest of the book/series.

Also there is a decent amount of repetition between Zag and the Brand Gap, and I am hesitant in believing that people would pick up one without the other. Although it makes sense to reinforce the principles (and sell more books I'm sure) in some cases, it almost made it hard to differentiate some of the messages between the books, making me feel a bit cheated in that I paid money to read the same pages over.

I have a hunch Neumeier might take the 5 main principles found in The Brand gap and expand each of them into books like Zag did for differentiation - and I can't fault him for doing so. Zag is definitely an improvement on The Brand Gap in that it offers a focused "here's exactly what you can do" strategy, but it still remains general enough that virtually any level of professional (student, beginner, executive etc.) can sit down and walk away a couple of hours later feeling like they learned something.

So much has been written about branding... and so much of it is so dry, it's boring.

What Marty Neumeier has done is to make this essential discipline fun, exciting, practical, and reachable for us all.

If you only read one book on branding, this one will serve you well.

You have to read Zag like you read the bible- it tells a great story but you often are better served not delving too deeply into the statements made by the author to support his points (i.e. the fact that 11 million people went to Europe in 2006 versus 8 million in 1964 as evidence of a shift in American society- though as a percent of the population it is almost no change at all in Americans traveling abroad).

Such is the nature of writing about a topic where 1) the author makes his money selling branding services; 2) he doesn't believe in hard numbers to prove points, harboring the predictable anti-research position that is both a great strength and weakness of this book and books like this (i.e. Blink). It also may be the most acceptable way to write a book that is not so dry and academic that nobody would want to read it.

But the story being told is a great one and it is really well told. Neumeier needs to get a lot of credit for presenting ideas simply (not simplistically) which many other authors would make very complicated. The book is also just really well thought out so that it is thoroughly enjoyable to read even as you get into some pretty important topics that others might get bogged down in jargon or overly long explanations. The book also gets high markst for not only discussing what a "zag" is but also showing you how you can get there if you follow his clearly outlined process.

So while the book is clearly a campaign for what he believes versus an objective look at branding, it is great read and I would recommend it for anyone working in marketing/branding that wants a refresher or reminder about what you should be thinking about in our ever-changing world.

Knocked this one out in a single flight. Well written, easy to follow. Maybe a little too easy. Would have liked a little more meat. Consider this the Cliff's Notes to Differentiate or Die. Both great books, this is easier to digest. Neumeier is a brand genius, he gets it and he can present it well in a concise format.

Zagging is not a new concept. If you like business and performance management readings, probably you are familiar with it already, especially if you've read books by authors like Jim Collins (hedgehog concept), Chan Kim (blue ocean) or Seth Godin (purple cow).

This book provides a unique approach from a marketer's point of view to the concept of real differentiation in the marketplace. "When everybody zigs, zag". Stop being a follower, an imitator, and start being different, start zagging.

You can't stop reading this book, once you get started. It will take you one or two hours, which doesn't mean the author is not providing details and deep insights. In fact, he gives what it takes to make his points clear, captivating, and consistent.

David Aaker says in the back cover of this book: "The presentation alone is worth the price of the book". He is absolutely right. This book zags.

This is the first review I've ever written on Amazon even though I'm an avid reader. I felt compelled to write this review as a sign of my appreciation for this top notch book. I've read several books on Branding, Identity, Marketing and none compare to this book. If you buy only one book on any of these categories, this should be the book.

Marty's illustrations alone are worth the price for the book. But it was his definition of Branding that brought everything into focus for me. I can't say enough about the book.