Summary

In his book, “Building Strong Brands,” 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 sub-brands. 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.

“Building Strong Brands” is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, or wherever books are sold.

Endorsements

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!”

Peter A. Georgescu
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Young & Rubicam Inc.

“Rarely is the sequel as good as the original. This time it’s better! With compelling case Aaker’s “brand system” and his discussion of brand equity measurement should fundamentally change our perspectives on marketing.”

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!”

About the Author

David Aaker, is the author of over one hundred articles and 18 books on marketing, business strategy, and branding that have sold over one million copies. A recognized authority on branding, he has developed concepts and methods on brand building that are used by organizations around the world.

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