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Rating: 
Summary: Shifting into the future, the right way!
Review: A book, a philosophy, a plan for the future - and one after my own heart...In an age where many business fear for the future, claiming that customers are jaded, and even anti-business, Gobé presents the situation in more than a constructive manner, he gives a hopeful one. Rather than throwing his hands up to the sky, pointing to groups that plan 'Don't Buy Anything' days as the end of it all, he shows us that commerce is not over, it is evolving. More than heart-warming, I think he is right. (He sure has described me as a consumer!) And I know I want to run my business by these ethics, goals & philosophies. However, his message is more than an uplifting moment, or one of personal identification for me - he gives concrete examples of how businesses can connect with today's customers. If you can invest in only one branding book this year, this is the one to get.
Rating:
Summary: A definite winner!
Review: A fantastic and very useful book--a must read for any marketing professional today. This book is about far more than how to build effective "cause marketing" campaigns. It is nothing short of a revolutionary/revelatory new approach to business in our difficult era! Gobe is a branding visionary with a very insightful and inspiring approach to building strong brands. While I enjoyed and appreciated his last book, Emotional Branding, I am even more impressed with this one. He proposes here a whole new shift in thinking that is of course-- in a post-Enron, et al.. world-- very a propos today. He argues that a holistic, consumer-centric and ethics grounded approach to both business and marketing strategies is not only "good" but also good business--it's the new expectation (and biggest opportunity as many will fail to recognize the changed landscape...). This is something I have believed strongly and observed in action for many years as a marketing executive for a global corporation with major consumer brands and it's rewarding to see these ideas put forth in such a fresh and engaging manner. But besides giving us a provocative new way of looking at marketing strategies from a big picture perspective, the book also has a lot of value from a very practical, hands on point of view. It is full of useful information, such as highly original insight into the latest consumer trends and demographics research, lots of well thought out and unsually interesting case studes and examples of what the most innovative branding professionals are doing. Most of all, the book gives marketers a practical detailed process for how a brand can become a "Citizen Brand" for consumers today and continues the theme of his last book giving insight on how marketers can touch consumers on an emotional level that will inspire that rarity of all rarities--brand loyalty!
Rating: 
Summary: "Interesting" but not "good".
Review: I found this book less brilliant than his previous title ¡§Emotional branding¡¨. Gobe is simply repeating himself in a loosely knit 10-chapters format. There are many interesting case studies, but the author does not focus them tight enough to make those examples relevant to the chapter title. For instance in chapter 2 he talks about trust and cause marketing, but he cannot solidly tie the two together; as trust does not always equal well-carried cause marketing campaigns, what IS trust in terms of branding? What are the mechanisms of ¡§trust¡¨? I think he should give us a global definition before diving into the subject. There are numerous examples of such poorly related text in the book, I would advise you to read his first book ¡§Emotional branding¡¨ and skip this one.
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