United We Brand

Rating:
Summary: Easy steps to branding! MUST READ.
Review: Defining the brand is often a company's hardest task in marketing anything from computers to social services. Mike Moser presents an easy-to-read, easy-to-follow guide to developing and defining a powerful brand in today's marketplace. This book is essential for any businessperson who is either trying to understand the complexity/process of branding or attempting to assist in developing a company or individual brand.

Rating:
Summary: Clarity, Cohesion, and Impact
Review: Several hundred books on marketing and branding have been published since Ted Levitt's seminal article ""Marketing Myopia" appeared in the Harvard Business Review (September 1, 1975). He later wrote The Marketing Imagination (1986) which remains "must reading" for anyone directly or indirectly involved with marketing. There are several excellent recently published books on brand management and this is certainly one of the best. As its subtitle correctly indicates, Moser explains "how to create a cohesive brand that's seen, heard, and remembered." In the proverbial nutshell, that has become one of brand managers' primary objectives: To create a multi-sensory experience for the consumer which increases, enhances, and sustains the appeal of the given brand. Moser draws upon more than 25 years of experience in the agency world, having worked closely with a number of major corporations (e.g. Kia Motors, Cisco Systems, and Dell) to formulate a "brand road map" based on a template which, until now, has been inaccessible to most organizations. What he offers in this book is a step-by-step process by which to create cohesive brand strategies.

As Moser explains with meticulous care, citing examples along the way, there are four components of a brand: Core values (the foundation of any organization), brand message (the overall key message which must be communicated effectively), brand personality (the overall tone and attitude with which to deliver the brand message), and finally, brand icons (executional tools which help to deliver the brand message...all of the various elements that make all of an organization's marketing materials uniquely its own). These four components provide the foundation of a "brand road map" which, like all other roadways, requires conscientious maintenance to ensure expeditious delivery of the brand message to its destination.

Moser leaves no doubt whatsoever that this process is very difficult, requires an abundance of time and energy, and is subject to all manner of perils such as internal resistance which Jim O'Toole characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Why bother? "Capturing the essence of your brand [whatever or whoever it may be] and putting it into a form that's clear and concise will help ensure that your brand has the tools necessary to be seen heard, and remembered in the marketplace for years to come." Presumably Moser agrees with this follow-up thought which I now share: Even if Levitt and Moser personally worked closely with you and your associates on the formulation of a "road map" for your organization, it will be essentially worthless unless and until your brand (be it a product or service or both) is of the highest possible quality.

Readers of this brilliant book will be pleased and relieved that Moser's approach is eminently practical. His text is mercifully free of jargon. He seems determined to help any and all who would otherwise not have access to a step-by-step process which has been used for years by large corporations, branding experts, and brand consultancies as well as by multinational corporate identity firms and advertising agencies. Understanding this process will help those who read his book to achieve some of the same brand insights, brand focus, and brand consistency now delivered by various proprietary formulas.

Rating:
Summary: The New Bible, by Mike Moser
Review: Smart, relevant and witty.
And written for just about everyone at every level
of the communications business. Whether you're a Jr.
Copywriter, or a C.E.O. Moser gets to the heart
(and soul) of turning any business into a household word.
Finally, someone has written about the most difficult
task in advertising and made it incredibly clear, and
even more startling, incredibly easy.
The first textbook on branding that doesn't read
like a textbook.
And to think it was written by an Art Director.
Amen.

Rating:
Summary: The New Bible, by Mike Moser
Review: Smart, relevant and witty.
And written for just about everyone at every level
of the communications business. Whether you're a Jr.
Copywriter, or a C.E.O. Moser gets to the heart
(and soul) of turning any business into a household word.
Finally, someone has written about the most difficult
task in advertising and made it incredibly clear, and
even more startling, incredibly easy.
The first textbook on branding that doesn't read
like a textbook.
And to think it was written by an Art Director.
Amen.

Rating:
Summary: Easy steps to branding! MUST READ.
Review: The message delivered in Mike Moser's wonderfully insightful book has a wide application. Perhaps even wider than the author intended.

Moser deftly distills some very powerful marketing insights into an easily comprehensible form, while providing practical tools to create more impactful brand communications. Not only are those tools relevant to companies striving to better define/articulate their distinctive positioning in the marketplace, Mike Moser's message will resonate with folks, such as myself, trying to "brand themselves" as we seek employment in today's highly competitive and overly "commoditized" workplace.

Rating:
Summary: A great business plan, but not a great read
Review: This book is definitely a useful tool for a business owner. It's got all of the information you'll need to set the direction and focus of your company. I, however, do not own a company. This book has been highly recommended by people, and rightfully so, but it's not really a book that everyone interested in marketing/branding/advertising can really sink their teeth into. I will fully agree that this is a fantastic tool for those who need it, but it's not the casual business book I was expecting just to further my knowledge of the subject. Not "beach reading" by any means. In short, it's a great book, but it's written for a very specific audience.