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The Breakaway Brand: How
great brands stand out
By Francis J. Kelly III and
Barry Silverstein
Brand Prototyping: Developing
meaningful brands
Read enough about brand successes and you’ll
see the same batch of winners: Nike, Starbucks,
Apple, Google, Target. The authors (one of
whom is a brandchannel contributor) call these
“breakaway brands”—brands that stand out not
only in their own product categories, but also
among nearly all other brands.
What makes a brand break away? It’s not
as simple as spending a mint of money on
a smothering ad campaign. Brands must be
willing to develop a distinctive voice, take risks,
have internal champions (like Steve Jobs, who
led Apple to “think different”), and deliver on its
promises to customers.
Carl Jung, brand strategist? Author Michel Jansen
argues that the Swiss psychiatrist’s theory of
archetypes—that human behavior can be traced
to instinctive urges—can be applied to brand
identity.
Jansen introduces a dozen Jungian archetypes—
such as sage, creator, jester, and lover—along
with examples of brands from each. A brand’s
archetype relates to (and provides a way to
maintain and further develop) the customer’s
relationship with the brand—without confusing or
alienating that customer.
By Michel Jansen
Brand It Yourself: The fast,
focused way to marketing
magic
Branding for Dummies
In this “Dummies” take on our favorite subject, the
authors—a business strategist and a brandingfirm founder—deliver a branding overview and
step-by-step instructions on building, launching,
maintaining, and protecting your brand.
Those who know the basics can skip to the
section listing branding truths (“experiences
trump messages”), mistakes (“asking your brand
to stretch too far”), and traits of the world’s
most valuable brands (“allegiance from the top
down”). The book concludes with an appendix of
resources that includes the website you happen
to be surfing.
By Lynn Altman
By Bill Chiaravalle and
Barbara Findlay Schenck
Brand Hijack: Marketing
without marketing
By Alex Wipperfürth
In advising brands to “let go of the fallacy
that your brand belongs to you. It belongs to
the market,” the author endorses embracing
consumers who shape the meaning of a brand
beyond its origins—that is, hijack the brand. The
strength of a brand such as Dr. Martens shoes,
for example, comes from loyal consumers outside
its original market. The author also discusses
“overnight success” brands, such as Red Bull, that
were actually the result of cautious, under-theradar planning that took place well in advance.
In each case, the brand was flexible, patient, and
respectful of its audience—as if the consumer
were a co-creator of the brand. But lest you
consider firing your marketing department and
throwing your brand completely to the whims of
the market, he cautions, “let consumers fine-tune
products, not create them.”
Dread that upcoming brainstorming session?
Altman’s book details productive techniques—
the
“Brandmaker
Express”
process—that
promise results, not appointmen