Relevance: Making Stuff that Matters

Citation

Ratten, V. (2009), "Relevance: Making Stuff that Matters", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 159-159. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420910949077

This book has a very catchy title that immediately appealed to me. The book started off with a quote “as long as I have strawberries, I feel prosperous” (preamble), which made me want to read the book straight away as I too enjoy strawberries but am also interested in the emotive side of marketing in terms of creating buyer appeal for diverse customer segments. As the main idea conveyed in this book is that companies need to be relevant and stay up to date with current thinking, the introduction stresses the importance of being relevant for brands. Here, three best practices for marketing are stated, which are: demographics are dead, fashion is passé and advertising smells funny. The author also highlights that relevant brands understand the following principles: insight, innovation, investment, design, experience, and value. The book is extremely well written, very topical and funny. The book is divided into three main parts.

Part one, titled “Relevant problems,” includes three chapters. Each of the chapter titles is provocative and makes you want to read more. Each of the sections in the book first discuss company marketing examples and then in bold letters state the lesson learnt for marketers. In chapter 1 on demographics the author states how it is important for marketers to think outside the box but at the same time stay relevant by appealing to consumers. A good example used is the “brokeback strategy” based on the movie Brokeback Mountain's marketing strategy of appealing to women by emphasizing the love story between the two male actors. This made the movie move from being an art‐house movie to a mainstream blockbuster hit. Chapter 2 provides examples of aspirational behavior in consumers by giving the example of Dunkin' Donuts, which changed its coffee cups back to a simple design from flirting with more stylish coffee cups and also utilized market research to identify that customers were more happy with simple designs that the company has. In chapter 3, which discusses advertising, the example of Marlboro is given as it has achieved a better return on investment on its marketing expenditures by spending less on marketing. The example is given of Netflix, which obtains 85 percent of their new subscribers through word of mouth rather than traditional media channels, demonstrating that marketers need to take into account a variety of different communication mechanisms when designing their marketing campaigns.

Part two of the book is titled “Relevant solutions” and includes six chapters. Chapter 4 on insights makes an interesting point: American Idol became popular from creating the illusion of consumer empowerment despite the fact that the majority of people who watched the show did not vote for their favorite singers. The importance of conversing with customers is illustrated by Dell, which created sites like IdeaStorm.com, allowing customers to blog and tell the company what to do. Another illustration is that of the National Football League giving consumers the ability to create their own ads. Chapter 5 on innovation has some great linkages to other fields that impact marketing. For example, the creation of Newman's Own is discussed, which innovated outsourcing but also linked marketing to charities and non‐profit initiatives.

Each of the chapters throughout the book begin with a quote. Chapter 6 is titled “Investment: spare no expense” and begins with the quote “There is always someone who will say that you could sell just as much without spending the extra money” (Donna Sturgess, p. 136). Chapter 7 on design also begins with a quote by Lance Armstrong on how “yellow wakes me up in the morning” (p. 155). The chapter then states how the color yellow is the color of the Tour de France winner's jersey, and it has motivated him to be a social marketer through his Live Strong campaign. A number of different car company examples are given in this chapter, including the Citroen rendezvous, vintage Volvos and Harley's throwback.

Part three of the book is titled “relevant outcomes” and includes two chapters. Chapter 10 discusses how Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, believes that the blurring of lines between work and play are good for business. The key growth drivers of brand management and innovation are stated for GlaxoSmithKline, Dunkin' Donuts, and Meridian Consulting Grou. An interesting point is made in this chapter that despite shoppers preferring Lowe's to Home Depot, more money is spent on Home Deport because their stores are more convenient. There is a short summary section included at the end of the book titled “Coda‐what's the point?” that discusses the importance of remembering what the point is that you are trying to make. There is also a short section on the secrets of relevant brands.

Overall, the book is written for people interested in brand marketing and will suit both people who want to read an interesting book on brand marketing and academics or practitioners wanting useful examples and excitement on company experiences. The important contribution of this book is that companies need to continually stay relevant by innovating and experimenting with different brand messages. The strength of this book is that it includes a lot of great examples that illustrate different marketing strategies. The book is extremely useful as it will help managers with their decision‐making in terms of what to spend their advertising money and time on. The ideas presented in this book are new as they demonstrate the constantly changing environment of brand marketing.