Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8617 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-07
• Released on: 2007-08-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
True to such observations as "Simple trumps everything," Adamson boils down his 25-plus years of experience in brand development to provide six clear steps to understanding what makes a good brand. Along the way, the current managing director for Landor Associates (a firm within Young & Rubicam) discusses how to sync branding signals with the "brand idea" to serve a company's business strategy. Using examples such as Apple and FedEx, he explains how the brand idea can be turned into an internal rallying cry so that the message is reinforced in the packaging and employees pass it along to current and potential customers. Throughout, he provides a dynamic first-person commentary on the thought process and activities that went into creating and repositioning iconic brands like American Express, HBO and eBay, though it can be odd in cases where he wasn't personally involved. Unlike other branding gurus, Adamson doesn't celebrate the industry's mystique and keeps his discussion jargon-free. The charts and graphs are immediately understandable and the exercises doable. The result is an unusually readable how-to book that will help anyone involved with branding understand what works and why. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"'Allen Adamson reminds us that a product is out there but a brand is in our mind. A great brand is based on a simple idea that is unique and relevant. He supplies guidelines and dozens of examples that will inspire the reader who is hoping to develop a breakthrough brand idea.' - Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, USA 'In this highly informative and entertaining book, Adamson cuts to the chase about what does and doesn't matter with branding. From his unique vantage point as a leader of the world's premier brand consultancy, he offers a wealth of examples to cogently argue that less can be more. Any marketer will enjoy and learn from this engaging book.' - Kevin Keller, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, USA 'It takes a long time to build a brand and a long time to kill one, so it pays to know what you're doing. If someone asked me for one book to read on brands - what they are and how to build them, I'd direct him or her to BrandSimple. Allen Adamson has captured basic and enduring brand concepts, explained them lucidly, and demonstrated their validity with lots of relevant case histories. The book lives up to its title.' - Kenneth Roman, Former Chairman/CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide 'In the new economic world order dominated by excess supply and a powerful drive toward commoditization, the future product and service winners will be the stronger brands. Allen Adamson's BrandSimple paves the way to the building of enduring, powerful brands. A must-read from the leader of the world's greatest brand consultancy.' - Peter Georgescu, Former Chairman/CEO of Young & Rubicam and author of The Source of Success: Five Enduring Principles at the Heart of Real Leadership 'In a world of communication bombardment, excessive choice, and increasingly rapid change, there is a large premium in effectively managing the signals that define a brand. The author draws from his rich experience and from examples in multiple industries to distill the simple principles that can make manageable the most complex marketing issues.' - Toni Belloni, COO, LVMH Group"

Review
"In a world of information overload and lack of trust in major institutions, the power of a simple idea conveyed through branding is more important than ever."--Richard Edelman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Edelman Worldwide "An unusually readable how-to book that will help anyone involved in branding understand what works and why."--Publishers Weekly "Allen Adamson reminds us that a product is out there but a brand is in our mind. A great brand is based on a simple idea that is unique and relevant. He supplies guidelines and dozens of examples that will inspire the reader who is hoping to develop a breakthrough brand idea."--Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management "BrandSimple is a must-read for building and maintaining a powerful brand. Adamson cuts to the chase on what's important for brand success."--Eric Kessler, President, Sales and Marketing, HBO "In this wonderfully engaging book, Allen Adamson explains why the best, most successful brands are based on ideas that are simple to understand. In a world inundated with brands, Allen makes it clear how and why the most powerful brands know the secret is simple."--Beth Comstock, President, Digital Media, NBC Universal "It takes a long time to build a brand and a long time to kill one, so it pays to know what you're doing. If someone asked me for one book to read on brands--what they are and how to build them, I'd direct him or her to BrandSimple. Allen Adamson has captured basic and enduring brand concepts, explained them lucidly, and demonstrated their validity with lots of relevant case histories. The book lives up to its title."--Kenneth Roman, Former Chairman/CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide "In this highly informative and entertaining book, Adamson cuts to the chase about what does and doesn't matter with branding. From his unique vantage point as a leader of the world's premier brand consultancy, he offers a wealth of examples to cogently argue that less can be more. Any marketer will enjoy and learn from this engaging book."--Kevin Keller, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth "This book will help you see that the greatest brand opportunity might be right in front of your nose, but maybe too close to see. It illustrates how the simplest of notions will translate to a complex set of expectations that a true brand must live up to. And it is written in a way that is elegantly simple--a book that both veterans and novices will delight in."--Ed Faruolo, VP, Brand Strategy & Integration, CIGNA Corporation "In the new economic world order dominated by excess supply and a powerful drive toward commoditization, the future product and service winners will be the stronger brands. Allen Adamson's BrandSimple paves the way to the building of enduring, powerful brands. A must-read from one of the leaders of the world's greatest brand consultancy."--Peter Georgescu, former Chairman/CEO of Young & Rubicam and author of The Source of Success: Five Enduring Principles at the Heart of Real Leadership "In a world of communication bombardment, excessive choice, and increasingly rapid change, there is a large premium in effectively managing the signals that define a brand. The author draws from his rich experience and from examples in multiple industries to distill the simple principles that can make manageable the most complex marketing issues."--Toni Belloni, COO, LVMH Group "Difficult is easy. Simple is tough. With BrandSimple, Adamson delivers the goods simply and directly--a tough and daring thing to do."
--Joel Saltzman, author of Shake That Brain!: How to Create Winning Solutions and Have Fun While You're at It.

Customer Reviews

Average
Nutshell review - As is often the case with these types of books they are fluffed up with too much page-filling case studies to highlight the various points being made. That wouldn't be so bad except that there is nothing really new here that has not been covered elsewhere, most notably by Jack Trout and Al Ries. The basic message is differentiate, keep it simple, make it relevant, positioning, have sufficient resources. Chapter 9 is a two page summary and pretty much covers it in point form. An average book in this genre.

Brand-do-do bigtime
I can't take it anymore, I'm only on pg 73, this guy is driving me up the wall.

he keeps confusing product design (egg) and branding (chicken) as the samething and their not. what comes first, type of problem, the chicken or the egg.. (I can hear Adamson saying it the samething dummy)

This book, is his resume, he has to be looking for work

on pg 71 he makes a reference to VCR, u can't even buy one, much less use one....so why bring that up....i'm guessing, he pushed his old note.

if your still confused after reading the book, hire his agency so they can pick your pocket clean...brand-broke

the reason I didn't give it one star, u might think i'm some nut
I bet $20 he used his friends to pump the 4.5 rating

update:
finished the book and tossed it in the garbage can

Great approach to the topic of branding with solid information
BrandSimple is a refreshingly easy read that boils the essence of brands and branding down to, well, their simplest but most important basics. Anyone involved in business management of any kind should read this book.

Adamson reminds us throughout the book that a brand is a very different thing than branding and that marketers cannot be great at branding without first creating a great brand.

The best brands are different. They promise something different and unique and deliver on that promise every time. They also find a way to simplify their brand message so that just about everyone instantly "gets it" and that the "it" resonates and seems obvious after the fact. Getting to that simplicity can require a lot of hard work and thinking, but making it seem so simple, obvious and intuitive is the key.

As Managing Director of Landor Associates, Allen Adamson peppers the book with real-world examples from his work at Landor and from his previous positions. His case studies show how the best brands work tirelessly to emerge with a simple promise and a simple message that is easily communicated in just a few words.

The real examples are brief yet clearly show the challenges and ultimate solutions from brands like Compaq, Visa, Apple, Aquafina, Baby Einstein, BlackBerry, JetBlue, Timberland, Pixar and many more. He uses these brands to show that often a simple insight that makes your product different is the real power in building a great brand -- as long as that difference is important and relevant to your potential customers.

The book is written at an easy reading level so that any business manager will be able to readily breeze through it without tons of technical branding terminology and grasp the important concepts. This in turn will inspire them to reevaluate and transform their own brands. The book is straight-forward, simple and highly insightful and useful.


On my "Professional Marketer Investment Scale";
($-Poor investment, $$$$$-Great investment)

Rating: $$$$$