Steve McKee’s
“Power Branding” and
why brands can’t forget
about humans
James daSilva
“Branding” has a way of bringing out the cynicism in people,
especially when it comes to personal branding (see how the
not-so-similar sites Gawker and Harvard Business Review
recently gave the side eye to Tom Peters’ manifesto “The Brand
Called You“). Branding from a corporate standpoint doesn’t
necessarily fare much better, with consumers considering
most brands to be nonessential and lacking in honesty.
Part of this is that branding often comes across as impersonal.
It’s not an exchange; it’s a tactic marketers use to separate
you from your dollars. The target is just a data point, or a
collection of data points, a thing to be acquired or ignored
depending on how it matches the brand’s goals. It’s an
exercise ostensibly involving humans but lacking humanity.
Steve McKee‘s book, “Power Branding: Leveraging the
Success of the World’s Best Brands” (January 2014, Palgrave
Macmillan), isn’t going to solve those problems — that’s up to
us. But his book rightly aims to refocus branding and brands
on the importance of humans and humanity. Throughout,
you’re reminded that humans are doing the marketing,
brands are a reflection of human effort, actions and emotions,
and that brands are worth nothing if they don’t connect with
and excite humans — and do so in legitimate ways that are
respectful of the customer’s intellect and boundaries.
So, what does the book actually say about branding? McKee
starts with the value of brands, how they can appreciate over
time despite being intangible, and how B2B brands such as
IBM and Cisco can be as valuable as the better-known B2C
brands such as Coca-Cola.
If there is a thesis statement for why a book on better branding
— and better branding IQ — is needed, McKee provides it in
the introduction:
Branding is anything but lightweight, but too few
companies intentionally manage their brands as
the valuable corporate assets they are. Sure, all
organizations do their best to be honest, to offer highquality products, to provide responsive service, and
to do whatever else will enhance their reputation,
knowing that the way they do business affects the
value of their company. But not all understand that the
way they manage their brands can significantly impact
the value of their business.
The book is heavy with examples of branding done right
— or wrong — but generally avoids the common mistake
of leaping from the specific (this company did this!) to the
general (all companies should do this!). If you’re skeptical
of anecdotal accounts, you may object to certain examples,
but the leaps are small and infrequent, and the citing of data
and research is plentiful.
The book is also helpfully divided into the main questions
of journalism — who, what, when, where, why and how.
McKee reorders them, starting with brands asking the
question “Why?” and divides the book into sections on the
other questions. Each section has short chapters to address
the wide landscape of branding, specific best practices and
examples. And if you are prone to schadenfreude, the last
section, “Whoops,” details plenty of big-time branding
mistakes — as well as what lessons you should take away
after you’re done laughing.
The layout of themed sections with short chapters is a good
tactic and helps smooth the read, though when I saw there
were 70-something chapters, I initially felt a bit overwhelmed.
In a sense, this may not be a book to read cover to cover in
one sitting; it’s a book that’s available as situations arise or
as you reach different stages of your own branding process.
I’m not a salesman or a marketer, and so I can’t evaluate
the book or the arguments as an insider. But like millions of
other professionals, I’m not divorced from those camps. Every
day, my job is, through my editing, to persuade audiences
of professionals to open SmartBrief e-mail newsletters, to
click on the links (and the ads!) and to continue to trust that
when you get a SmartBrief newsletter, you’re getting the
best selection of need-to-know news, and quickly. That is a
relationship of trust in a brand, difficult to gain and more
difficult to regain if lost.
Marketing may be a necessary evil; branding may be
a buzzword. But what I got from McKee’s writing is that
marketing and branding can be more than that. Done right,
they can be the expression of people’s actions and values,
of product quality and business intelligence. After all, we all
want customers, we should want the right customers, and we
need them to not only repeat their bu 6