Powerful lessons on how to build and sustain your own "killer brand"
Creating and sustaining a good brand is the most complex and perilous task any business will ever face, yet nothing is as misunderstood. Under the direction of marketing wizard David D’Alessandro, John Hancock transformed itself from a sleepy old life insurer into a leading financial services giant, with a sustained 20% annual rate of growth. In Brand Warfare, D'Alessandro draws on his personal experience as a brand-builder and examples from America's smartest and most foolish corporations, developing principles that you can use in any market. At the same time, he creates an entertaining picture of the marketing business with anecdotes that convey a keen sense of the absurdities of corporate life, balanced by a tremendous respect for the consumer.
This tough-minded, funny, and refreshingly candid book gives you a proven roadmap for marketing success as you learn:
*Why every business needs a good brand to compete
*Why consumers need good brands as much as good brands need them
*Why sycophancy from the agency and meddling from inside the company will sink your campaign every time
*About sponsorship: how to avoid being taken, and how to make the investment pay for your brand
*Why it's as important to market your brand to your employees as it is to your customers
*Why every business decision should be filtered through the prism of the brand
Business Today Is A Battle of the Brands. If You Don't Know The Rules, You're Entering The Field Unarmed.
"D'Alessandro's book is witty, irreverent, and intensely practical. It is more than a book about brands, and contains many sound lessons for strategy and the role of leaders."
Michael E. Porter
Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School
"D'Alessandro pulls no punches. Funny one minute, fiercely competitive the next, Brand Warfare is filled with priceless lessons for any company that cares about its image."
John J. Dooner, Jr.
"With its engaging voice and pull-no-punches tone, this book stands out from the marketing crowd."
Harvard Business Review
"Practical, psychologically astute and clearly written, this book has much to offer businessfolk of all stripes."
Publishers Weekly
"D'Alessandro is that refreshing rarity: a businessman who tells it like it is. And he does just that in his gripping new page-turner."
Chicago Sun-Times
Chairman and CEO, Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc.
"This is a book after my own heart. It is a blunt, entertaining, provocative, relentless, and no-holds barred account of how to build a great image or brand. Few people have done it better than D'Alessandro has, and Brand Warfare tells the story in a way you'll never forget."
James Carville
Author and Democratic Strategist
"Long before most people in corporate America, D'Alessandro recognized the value of sports and event marketing in building a world-class brand. This book is like D'Alessandro himself: insightful, great fun, and to-the-point."
Lesa Ukman
President, IEG, Inc.
"David D'Alessandro can best be described as a leader, a visionary, and a decision-maker. Brand Warfare is an informative and entertaining reflection of David's thoughts and modus operandi, and a wonderful resource in brand building and brand management."
Paul Beeston
President and COO, Major League Baseball
In a world in which consumers have infinite choices, it is almost impossible to compete without a compelling brand. Creating and sustaining a good brand, however, is the most complex and perilous task any business will ever face. It requires vision, daring, and the ability to understand the mindset of the consumers you intend to conquer. It also requires an appetite for risk, cold discipline, and a willingness to accept some casualties for the sake of the empire. Above all, brand-building requires knowledge of both the pitfalls and the opportunities lurking in every business decision you make. The care and feeding of brands is a battle without end; Brand Warfare will give you the strategic ammunition you need to win.
A movie star like Tom Hanks talks openly about the importance of protecting the Tom Hanks brand. The State of Vermont thinks it's a brand, too and wants to keep out-of-state companies from borrowing the name "Vermont." Even the official exorcist of the Cathedral of Notre Dame believes he does a lot of business because Notre Dame has "a certain brand name."
It's brand mania. And if you try to tell any professional anywhere in the world that brand matters, you are probably preaching to the converted.
At the same time, nothing is as misunderstood in American business as the question of how to use a brand. Businesses routinely sink their brands with ill-considered mergers and acquisitions, mishandled scandals, and embarrassing sponsorships. Even brand-savvy companies like Nike and Coca-Cola occasionally stumble because they fail to recognize that a brand is everything a company does -- the information you want to communicate to consumers and the information you communicate despite yourself.
In Brand Warfare, master brand-builder David D'Alessandro demonstrates definitively how brands should be handled and where many companies go wrong. At the same time, he creates a delightfully entertaining picture of the marketing business with anecdotes that include everything from trained crows to raw sides of beef. D'Alessandro has a keen sense of the absurdities of corporate life, balanced by a tremendous respect for the consumer. Together, these two qualities yield one of the most enjoyable and useful marketing books of recent memory.
In Brand Warfare, D'Alessandro draws on his own remarkable run as a brand-builder, as well as the examples offered by America's smartest and most foolish corporations, to develop a series of simple principles that brand-builders can use in any market: *
It's the brand, stupid: why every business needs a good brand to compete; *
Co-dependency can be beautiful: why consumers need good brands as much as good brands need them; *
There are two great threats to good advertising: why sycophancy from the agency and meddling from inside the company will sink your campaign every time; *
Sponsorship is often a sucker's game: how to avoid being taken and how to make the investment pay for your brand; *
Why it's as important to market your brand to your employees as it is to your customers; *
Why every business decision should be filtered through the prism of the brand.
Tough-minded, funny, and refreshingly candid, Brand Warfare offers a road-map for success in a marketplace dominated by consumers who expect to be charmed by the products they buy, as well as served.
