Building the Brand‐driven Business: Operationalize Your Brand to Drive Profitable Growth

Citation

Jevons, C. (2005), "Building the Brand‐driven Business: Operationalize Your Brand to Drive Profitable Growth", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 213-213. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420510601102

First impressions are important in branding as in so many other areas. So when the acknowledgements in a book effusively thank the author's dog and contain clumsy expressions like “additive to the already incredible rich body of brand work that exists today” (p. xiii) a reader could easily be discouraged. However, things get better – much better – very soon. On the verso of the first page of the text proper is the paradigmatic statement:

The black T‐shirt on the front cover, which is 100 percent cotton and of the highest quality, can be either a $3 T‐shirt or a $30 T‐shirt. It can be sold in either a deep‐discount retail store or a high‐end, prestigious retail store. That black T‐shirt's ultimate value is directly linked to the brand name found on the T‐shirt's inside collar, the company behind it, and the employees who support it.

While the statement about the T‐shirt reproduced above could at first blush be seen as from the rip‐off school of branding – take a $3 product, sew a smart label on it and then sell it for $30 – the book offers much more than that. Again, the first impression is deceptively poor. Printed on the inside collar label of the T‐shirt on the cover are the words “Foreword by David Aaker”. Indeed, the authors are top executives at Prophet, the consultancy business of which Aaker is vice‐chairman, and the book is a practically useful, soundly‐based and stimulating read.

A more representative quotation from the book is on the inside front jacket flap:

Every time an employee gets to touch a customer or a customer gets to touch the brand, that company gets the opportunity to either reinforce its brand promise or totally denigrate it.

This is much more like it. The authors show, through detailed and high‐quality examples from their own consultancy experience, how the brand can be a unifying mechanism for a business, even one that does not consider itself brand‐based. For instance, “At TXU, a global energy provider, the word brand clearly did not work; people's eyes glazed over and the conversation shut down whenever it was brought up. But when the brand team started to speak to people in terms of ‘aligning inside behaviors with the personality of the company’ people started to understand” (p. 51).

This use of the brand as a unifying mechanism has some parallels with the concept of “brand reality” explored in the (UK) Journal of Marketing Management (see, for example, Macrae, 1999). This reviewer, coming from a third continent, finds it unfortunate that many good ideas from one side of the Atlantic Ocean seem to have great difficulty in making it across to the other side in either direction, and this is particularly noticeable in the branding literature in general. As such, this is not a particular criticism of this book or its authors; indeed, it is unequivocally American‐centric, as witness the blurb comment that the authors are “two of the nation's foremost experts on brands” – there's only one nation that refers to itself as “the nation”! Of course a great deal of brand practice globally is quite rightly rooted in the American tradition, and the advice and insights contained in this book have obvious worldwide significance.

Regardless of cultural background, this book is a very valuable contribution. Founded on leading‐edge research, with the acknowledged assistance of David Aaker, it uses detailed examples from major businesses, such as General Electric, Xerox, and Visa. Kodak is also used, but readers should not be put off by its recent troubles; clear insights are provided, which have been validated by events since the book was published. Kodak's attempts to redefine their brand are included in a section that considers retirement of brands that are no longer relevant (p. 38). The trend from traditional film to digital imaging may have happened faster than Kodak anticipated, but Prophet and the authors of this book should not take the blame for that: they could argue that they should have been consulted earlier. As with so many strategic issues, the problem is not in getting the right answers to questions, but asking the right questions in the first place. There is a classic example of this at the start of Chapter 3. An eerily realistic scenario is painted of a senior executive meeting where no less than 33 different ways are identified in which a particular brand (Whirlpool, in this case) interacts with the market. Then the killer question: How are we managing these interactions to maximize our performance? The awkward silence that would almost inevitably follow such a question is described so well it is almost palpable! This exemplifies the accessible and highly practical focus of the book.

The book is divided into three distinct parts. In its first part, it argues clearly that operationalizing the brand should be the new mantra of any business. It shows clearly that holistic management of the brand is more vital than ever, and provides a very cogent argument for brand strategy and business strategy being the same thing. Easy to say, of course, but more difficult in practice for most of us. This book provides plentiful examples of how the authors have helped their clients actually do this.

In the second section, the concept of brand touchpoints – every interaction that a customer or stakeholder has with a brand – is introduced. Those familiar with the concept of “moments of truth” from the services marketing literature will find useful parallels here. Importantly, from a practitioner viewpoint, ways of identifying and prioritizing these brand touchpoints along the purchase cycle are clearly described and exemplified. The circular nature of the process – where a satisfactory set of pre‐purchase, purchase and post‐purchase experiences by a customer (involving a wide range of “departments” within a traditional business) strengthen the brand, and therefore the business as a whole – is neatly presented diagrammatically as a brand touchpoint wheel.

In the third part of the book readers are shown how companies can provide a consistently desirable experience for current and potential customers by bringing the brand to life internally, focusing on those who are most responsible for delivering the brand promise – not just the senior executives, but the entire employee base. Yes, it explains how to train up to thousands of employees. Obviously Prophet would expect a call on their consulting expertise at some stage, but this book provides a considerable amount of help and strategic advice for readers at any level of any organization that recognizes the need to build a brand‐driven business. This book is highly recommended for all forward‐thinking executives – and those aiming to join that group.