Living Brands: Collaboration + Innovation = Customer Fascination (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: digital labeling, consumer collaboration, living brands, Ketel One, New York, Genius Insight (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A new approach to branding for the 21st century.

Nadeau, advertising and branding pioneer extraordinaire, starts with a simple and reasonable premise: The job of advertisers should not be to invent consumer needs, but to fill existing desires. The advent of technology, he argues, has created an empowered consumer that has more say than ever in how brands are created and evolve. Drawing from his own set of diverse experiences in the business, as well as those of his eclectic and creative industry friends, he reveals the six "secrets" of connecting with consumers and establishing your brand as a personal part of their lives and identities. Through interviews, case studies and a keen observation of cultural trends and human psychology, Nadeau shows the reader what works in advertising and marketing, what doesn't, and why. What differentiates this book from other "advertising guru" books on the market is both Nadeau's incredible pop-culture savvy, and his thoughtful, intellectual and ethical treatment of his subject.

A smart, fun and inspirational read that will change the way you look at marketing.--Kirkus Reviews

(Kirkus Reviews )

Product Description

A Brand-New Approach to Brand-Building.

For Consumers. For Companies. For Life.

If you want to build and strengthen your brand in the twenty-first century, you need more than clever grassroots promotions and hip guerrilla marketing. You need Living Brands, Raymond Nadeau's dynamic, groundbreaking approach to branding that shows you, in six simple steps, how to become an integral part of your consumers' lives.

Living Brands is based on a passion for understanding consumers' lives and their existing needs. It uses the latest strategies of consumer collaboration to create a more culturally evolved, emotionally engaged, holistic connection to consumers. As one of the marketing industry's global pioneers, Raymond Nadeau has seen how the marketing world has changed. He provides examples of what works and what doesn't in today's consumer-savvy market. Packed with interviews from today's finest creative and cultural minds, he reveals six secrets to creating brands that truly fascinate and fulfill consumers' needs. You'll learn about

• Five Top Global Trend Agencies, which come together for the first time to provide insight into customer collaboration
• Culture Casting, a new model of consumer segmentation
• Consumer as Creator, a new concept of brand-building based on actual lifestyles, as well as creating what Nadeau calls brand biospheres
• Megatrends, the four must-have ingredients for living brands
• The Focus Group Hoax, the difference between what consumers say and what they really mean

Living Brands gives you all the tools you need to adapt your brand to an ever-changing world of consumers, options, and interests. It's the intelligent way to respond to consumers' realities-and the only true way to build stellar brands that will stand the test of time.

(20060928)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071466142
• ISBN-13: 978-0071466141
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #207,058 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ethical marketing: Who knew?, December 30, 2007

By	Kay M. Gilbert "Exec. Dir., Cultivating Susta... (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Raymond Nadeau's Living Brands really opened my eyes. I'm a professional environmentalist: before reading this book, I assumed that environmentalists stood in opposition to marketers: regarding consumption, we're trying to stem the outbreak, and they're driving the monkey to the airport. I was wrong
Living Brands describes "participatory branding" as the future of marketing: people who use and love a product help create the brand, in some cases directly (homemade ads on YouTube), in others by incorporating the product into their lifestyle and value system (choosing products because their makers donate money to breast-cancer care and research).
What most shook my preconceptions is the way Nadeau advocates "ethical branding," equal parts interactivity, good design, uncompromising craftsmanship, fascinating marketing and products that create positive social change on scales from local to global.
The book benefits as much from Nadeau's writing style as from its content. Some examples of his elegant, provocative prose:
"Just as brands will be cocreated by consumers, so too will consumer ethics become, not a marketing point of differentiation, but an absolute minimum cost of doing business." (176).
"Today we are increasingly equipped with nothing less than the potential for nearly complete, permission-based, two-way consumer interaction. However, as we hurl head first toward this thrilling, seemingly limitless technology-enabled world, we must remember that knowledge and wisdom are different." (129)
"However, if you want a true marriage between your customer and your brand, one with enduring respect, you will have to choose between a relationship and an affair. An ethical marriage of equals may be intimidating at first. Meaningful commitments usually are." (210)
"You often may find yourself a lone voice raging against an infrastructure based on last century's marketing models and morals. You may get fired a few times. But I implore you to have courage." (211)
Two recent books are good companion reads for Living Brands, providing fuller context and alternate perspectives. One, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas, looks at the globalization, democratization and inevitable commodification of formerly exclusive goods. The other, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, by James Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II (), posits a "Polonius test" of whether a business is true to itself and true to what it says it is. Under that test, Nadeau's book is an object lesson in "real-real" marketing that meets both standards.
For all that I respect Raymond A. Nadeau and Living Brands, I must quibble on a couple points. Fabio is a style icon? I haven't even seen the man in the new millennium, so I think not. And, I'm sorry, quoting Nikki Sixx changes nothing: Iggy Pop's selling "Lust for Life" to Carnival Cruises was not art "staying true to itself." For Carnival, it was deeply cynical; for Iggy, it was just pathetic.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for brand owners-how to think like & be a brand leader. M, Alfandari, Pres. MODA International Marketing/Licensing, March 27, 2007

By	Michelle Alfandari "Int'l Brand/Technology L... (New York, N.Y.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Raymond Nadeau articulates the sociological frame of reference necessary for marketing a brand. He puts into words the web of information and analysis that is integral to developing and executing a brand strategy. He makes clear that marketers must employ both sociological and, anthropological reality checks to achieve a brand's success and sustain its cultural connection and relevance over time. Those of us in the business of building brands and brand extensions, appreciate seeing, perhaps for the very first time, something in black and white that confirms what we know intuitively and what is in our heads and hearts. He affirms that for great marketers, seeing and listening to the consumer is the best consumer market research. Bravo to Raymond for un-muddling a process that is both academic and intuitive, something simple that business is often guilty of having made overly complex.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerfully Thought Provoking, January 20, 2007

By	T. Young (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A must read for anyone in brand management, advertising or general marketing. Today's culture is all about brands, what they mean to consumers and how they must be nutured by marketers. The book captures this dynamic in a thought provoking manner. Simply powerful.