Sunday, April 28, 2013

The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier

"Excellent book about the power of branding."

Summary
The brand gap is an excellent book about the power of branding. It defines and presents what brand and branding is with simple yet powerful definitions and concepts.
The book points out that a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company. It is therefore not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is.
The brand gap is between strategies, marketing, and creative, between analytical, logical, linear, and intuitive, emotional, between concrete, numerical and spatial, visual.

Model / Concepts
The book presents the five disciplines of branding:
  1. Differentiate – Who are you? What do you do? Why does it matter?
  2. Collaborate – Outsource vs. internally with an integrated marketing team.
  3. Innovate – Passion is magic, not logic: Creativity, naming, icons/avatars instead of logos, packaging.
  4. Validate – Test distinctiveness, relevance, memorability, extendibility, depth.
  5. Cultivate – Every person in the company has to be involved in the branding process. No decision should be made without asking: “Will this help or hurt the brand?”

Impact
If you are a new comer in branding, this book is worth gold: The basic definitions of branding and the clear focus into the branding exercise are key factors to bring a company into the market.
If you are a branding expert, I think that the book still brings you valuable information, especially with the disciplines and the virtuous circle created by them.

Rating
  • rating Amazon – 4.5/5.0 (89 reviews)
  • my rating - 4.5/5.0
  • fun factor – 4.5/5.0
  • simplicity - 4.5/5.0
  • impact - 4.5/5.0