B2B Brand Management (Hardcover)

by Philip Kotler (Author), Waldemar Pfoertsch (Author), I. Michi (Contributor) "When talking about brands most people think of Coca Cola, Apple, Ikea, Starbucks, Nokia, and maybe Harley Davidson..." (more)
Key Phrases: waldemar pfoertsch, branding pitfalls, brand relationship spectrum, United States, New York, Business Week (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
From the reviews:

"Just received my copy of B2B Brand Management - what a beautiful piece of work! Thank you for this advancement to our practice! (Ralph A. Oliva, Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Business Markets Professor of Marketing, Smeal College of Business, Penn State University)

"Proliferation of similar products, increasing complexity of customer needs (moving from stand-alone products to solutions), and high price pressures will force b2b marketers to focus on brand building. If you are a b2b marketer already thinking along those lines, then this book is the weightiest corroboration you could have asked for." (TMCnet, October 2006)

"When it comes to marketing, there is no name bigger than Phillip Kotler. a ] In this book, co-authored with a ] Professor Waldemar Pfoertsch, Kotler makes a case for brand management in business-to-business (b2b) marketing as well. a ] The core proposition in the book is that in the new globalized world a ~being knowna (TM) rather than a ~being one of manya (TM) is the need of the hour. a ] How does branding help in overcoming a ] challenges? The authors offer a huge list-it helps with differentiation a ] ." (Business Today, October, 2006)

Product Description
As products become increasingly similar, companies are turning to branding as a way to create a preference for their offerings. Branding has been the essential factor in the success of well-known consumer goods such as Coca Cola, McDonald's, Kodak, and Mercedes. Now it is time for more industrial companies to start using branding in a sophisticated way. Some industrial companies have led the way... Caterpillar, DuPont, Siemens, GE. But industrial companies must understand that branding goes far beyond building names for a set of offerings. Branding is about promising that the company's offering will create and deliver a certain level of performance. The promise behind the brand becomes the motivating force for all the activities of the company and its partners. Our book is one of the first to probe deeply into the art and science of branding industrial products. We provide the concepts, the theory, and dozens of cases illustrating the successful branding of industrial goods.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 357 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3540253602
• ISBN-13: 978-3540253600
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #54,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for inspiration, hard for practise, August 6, 2007

By	CLAUDIO SAAVEDRA GONZALE "Claudio Saavedra, M... (Chile) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is good to have, finally, professional efforts to grasp the notion of B2B branding. I find that the Kotler-Pfoertsch book is worth buying, reading and studying. B2B practitioners will find new and useful concepts, but i would recommend a few ideas for the following editions:
1. The book needs to organize the myriad of terms and definitions that are spread all around the chapters. I counted more than 50 different terms for branding management just placed somewhere and highlighted in bold case. It is a bit disconcerting.
2. B2B examples need to be real hard core industrial ones. Most of the examples come from "retail-close-enough" marketing efforts that are much easier to work since they are closer to the final consumer (Samsung, Fedex, Intel, Michelin, Phillips, Domino's Pizza, UPS, Citibank, UBS, DHL, Caterpillar, Bosch, Mercedes, Marriott, etc). However, Tata steel is an excellent case, as well as some German ones. I wonder about replacing some examples with a few that are far back in the industrial chain: Codelco (cupper), Gerdau (Steel), Alcan (alumminum), etc.
3. I have often wondered why branding theory, in particular branding positioning, tries to run in parallel with the company's overall positioning. It is as if having "a life on its own", which in industrial markets is a dangerous thing to propose.

Claudio Saavedra, MBA., PhD
Professor of Industrial Marketing
Santiago - Chile

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Less than promised, June 16, 2008

By	jayme kopke - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Given the lack of good content on B2B marketing, not to mention B2B branding, and Mr Kotler's reputation, I was expecting much from this book. It was a disappointment. As said by a previous reviewer, the book doesn't really concentrate on the B2B field, using many well known examples of consumer brands. This wouldn't be a problem if these cases were used to present a contrast to the real B2B ones, helping to clarify the specificities of B2B branding, but I couldn't find anything like this in the book. The application of branding concepts (mostly derived from D. Aaker's work) to the B2B arena remains superficial. And many typos and inconsistencies show a less than rigorous edition work.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but dry textbook, November 14, 2008

By	S. Inouye - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It was easier to buy this product online than in school, so I did. It's a pretty cut and dry textbook with lots of case studies so if that helps you study then its good. It does talk a lot about business to business branding, but many of the concepts covered are also basic advertising stuff. It just delves a little deeper.