Building Strong Brands - by David A Aaker (Hardcover)

About the Book

In Aaker's pathbreaking book, Managing Brand Equity, managers discovered the value of a brand as a strategic asset and a company's primary source of competitive advantage. Now Aaker uses real brand-building cases from Saturn, GE, Kodak, and others to demonstrate how the best brand managers create brand equity.

Book Synopsis

In this compelling work, Aaker uses real brand-building cases from Saturn, General Electric, Kodak, Healthy Choice, McDonald's, and others to demonstrate how strong brands have been created and managed.

As industries turn increasingly hostile, it is clear that strong brand-building skills are needed to survive and prosper. In David Aaker's pathbreaking book, Managing Brand Equity, managers discovered the value of a brand as a strategic asset and a company's primary source of competitive advantage. Now, in this compelling new work, Aaker uses real brand-building cases from Saturn, General Electric, Kodak, Healthy Choice, McDonald's, and others to demonstrate how strong brands have been created and managed.

A common pitfall of brand strategists is to focus on brand attributes. Aaker shows how to break out of the box by considering emotional and self-expressive benefits and by introducing the brand-as-person, brand-as-organization, and brand-as-symbol perspectives. The twin concepts of brand identity (the brand image that brand strategists aspire to create or maintain) and brand position (that part of the brand identity that is to be actively communicated) play a key role in managing the "out-of-the-box" brand.

A second pitfall is to ignore the fact that individual brands are part of a larger system consisting of many intertwined and overlapping brands and subbrands. Aaker shows how to manage the "brand system" to achieve clarity and synergy, to adapt to a changing environment, and to leverage brand assets into new markets and products.

Aaker also addresses practical management issues, introducing a set of brand equity measures, termed the brand equity ten, to help those who measure and track brand equity across products and markets. He presents and analyzes brand-nurturing organizational forms that are responsive to the challenges of coordinated brands across markets, products, roles, and contexts. Potentially destructive organizational pressures to change a brand's identity and position are also discussed.

As executives in a wide range of industries seek to prevent their products and services from becoming commodities, they are recommitting themselves to brands as a foundation of business strategy. This new work will be essential reading for the battle-ready.

From the Back Cover

As industries turn increasingly hostile, it is clear that strong brand-building skills are needed to survive and prosper. In David Aaker's book, Managing Brand Equity, managers discovered the value of a brand as a strategic asset and a company's primary source of competitve advantage. Now, in this compelling new work, Aaker uses real brand-building cases from Saturn, General Electric, Kodak, Healthy Choice, McDonald's, and others to demonstrate how strong brands have been created and managed.

Review Quotes

Peter A. Georgescu Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Young & Rubicam Inc. Aaker's "brand system" and his discussion of brand equity measurement should fundamentally change our perspectives on marketing.

Robert A. Lutz President and Chief Operating Officer, Chrysler Corporation A failure to maintain strong brands is one of the key reasons the American auto industry encountered a "lost generation" of customers in the 1970"s and 1980"s. And one of our fundamental problems was mistaking "brand identity" (what we wanted to be) for "brand image" (what we really were)--just one of the many issues explored in this insightful book. Every American company could benefit from the kind of soul-searching about brands that Professor Aaker advocates.

Joe Weller Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nestle USA, Inc. Managing Brand Equity established the baseline. This book builds on that solid foundation.

Joseph W. Tripoli Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, Products and Services, MasterCard International Incorporated Rarely is the sequel as good as the original. This time it's better! With compelling case studies and insightful discussion, Aaker extends the concepts put forth in Managing Brand Equity to create the first true owner's manual for brand managers. Aaker is the brand name in brand management!

Tom Peters Author of The Pursuit of WOW! A masterpiece...sophisticated, practical, and readable. It applies to the Big Guys....and makes sense for start-ups as well. Brand loyalty is anything but dead: Believe it!

Dennis Carter Vice President, Director of Marketing, Intel Corporation A must for all marketing people.

Peter Sealey, PH. D. Former Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company; presently Executive Consultant to the President, Sony New Technologies Inc. A must read...will take us to a new level of understanding...a treasure!

Stephen P. Weisz Senior Vice President, Lodging Brands, Marriott Lodging Group A breakthrough work on the strategic value of brands...required reading for anyone who must maximize the profitability of their brands.