How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding

Rating:
Summary: Planning to be an Icon, not Hoping it will Happen
Review: A few, a very few products make it to icon status: Coke, Volkswagen and Harley-Davidson to name a few. And these have come about more by chance than by planning. In their time the marketing managers of these companies were just trying to establish next quarters sales.

This is one of the first books I've seen that approaches branding from a view of this kind of permanence, this kind of cultural approach. Most clear is the message that following trends can never build an iconic brand.

I'm not so sure that todays management, focused on this quarter, and maybe next is really ready for thinking about forming a brand that will endure for generations. Yet you do see companies with the kind of foresight to do just that. When Microsoft went into Russia, they went in with the view to establish their brand as the defacto standard. The immediate profits were basically ignored, but next year, and the year after that....

This is a book that has to get above the marketing manager, the CEO needs to provide the direction to say that we want to be the next Klenex.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Information for Lasting Success
Review: Douglas B. Holt did an outstanding job in bringing people with a passion for their work a way to "brand" themselves, their company, and their efforts in such a way that they will live on permanently.
This book is a breath of fresh air for those that are positively focused, and determined to make a difference. It is well written with outstanding strategies that will not reduce you to an old fear-based "competition" paradigm. It will, however, bring you the information and examples you need to create a brand to remember. An Excellent Book!