Emotional Branding : How Successful Brands Gain the Irrational Edge

Rating:
Summary: Simple Truths In A Complex Economy
Review: A great book for anyone who wants to be someone. For whether we want to or not, we carry our own brand, good or bad.

The book is witty, sagacious and some times irreverent in the spirit of that roué Harry. Fun to read yet thought provoking.

We learn that it is what we evoke, not what we promote that brands us. Learn how you can improve your brand, it is bound to pay-off.

Louis H. Lafontaine, Eng. Independent Business Owner

Rating:
Summary: Nothing New
Review: As the glut of companies rises to a feverish pitch, all vying for attention with the same dull messages for e-commerce ranking,this book comes as a welcome relief.Very few books focus on what truly motivates the consumer to take action. Many of them offer quantifiable analysis which although helpful, still leaves a void.It might be tempting to dismiss Emotional Branding as much fluff but a closer look would reveal considerable substance.Written in a light hearted prose it delivers the central question: How does it make you feel? This at once causes the reader to ponder the effect of all of our suppositions and disarm many of them.This part of the equation needs to be addressed more extensively by Internet marketers.If brand building on the Internet is truly about creating lasting,long-term relationships, then appealing to the emotional side is essential for our messages to be heard in the transparent world of cyberspace.

Rating:
Summary: The ESSENSE Of Branding...
Review: Emotional Branding hits the bullseye on what true branding is all about...what promises do you make to your customers? what values do your company live by? and how do your truly serve your customers? Without this foundation, a brand is built on quicksand.

This book cuts through the fluff of superficial advertising, logos and corporate images and authentically connects a company's beliefs and behaviors to its customers. I loved it!

Rating:
Summary: It's Almost Everything
Review: Emotional Branding is many things, but it's not everything. It's not boring. It's not without insight. It's not heavy (weight-wise, that is). It doesn't even give you the impression that you're trudging through another business book. It's definitely not disappointing.

Daryl Travis spins his anecdotes about successful - and not so successful - brands and his encounters with Harry into a web of inspiring lessons that teaches you how to win and keep customers. He shows you how brand promises can soar as high as a hot-air balloon, or sit idle on the tarmac like a broke-down plane. If you're a marketing professional, picking up and sharing any number of Travis's examples with your clients will strengthen your pitch and make you look smart. And if looking smart and being successful are important to you, you really ought to read Emotional Branding.

Emotional Branding is exciting. It's insightful. It's practical. It's deep in a fun way. It's an easy read. It makes you feel good. It's worth every minute you spend learning from it.

Rating:
Summary: Emotional Branding
Review: This is a brave book that goes where many others don't dare ... into the realm of emotions. Daryl Travis gets it right when he says that the key question about a brand is, how does it make you feel?

This is a wonderful book with great anecdotes from Travis' years in advertising. It's sprinkled with lively banter from his friend Harry, making it a fun as well as interesting read.

Rating:
Summary: The ESSENSE Of Branding...
Review: This was one of many brand books I read this year, and I his narrative style made this a quick read. Mr. Travis used an imaginary 'cohost' to illustrate the logic and lack of logic used in branding. The basic case studies and stories were right on target with good branding best practices. I think Mr. Travis could focus on additional case studies for a future book as that area is where his skills are best used. I would have enjoyed seeing more on peripheral brands and industries, and I think a follow up could cover this. All in all, a good, readable branding book.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Travis explains how "how successful brands gain the irrational edge." His material is carefully organized within nine Parts, with the last providing a "Summary" of his key ideas and final thoughts.

Feelings, Brands...and Profits

What Brands Are and Why They Matter

Brand Building: Foundations

Building Brands with Meaning

Brand Building in the Digital Era

Brand Building: Key Elements

Managing Your Brand

Branding Beyond the Obvious

My own opinion is that his excellent discussion of "Key Elements" should have been placed earlier in the book. In this chapter, he focuses on the power of the name, logos and other elements of style, advertising ("Telling the Brand story to Customers"), telling the brand story to other stakeholders, and integrated marketing ("There's No Better Time to Meet the Future than Now"). Throughout the book, Travis provides numerous insights which I found thought-provoking. For example:

* "A brand is more than a symbol. A brand, hopefully your brand, behaves like a guarantee."

* "Being a great listener who can hear between the lines is the secret to finding the great little sweet spots in customer wants and needs."

* "Businesses that fail to engage the eyes, ears, minds, and emotions of every individual will find themselves overrun by obsolescence or crushed by competition."

NOTE: I highly recommend three other books which provide invaluable insights directly relevant to the previous comment. They are Schmitt's Experiential Marketing, Pine & Gilmore's The Experience Economy, and Wolf's The Entertainment Economy.

* "A brand that wants to be a little of everything will eventually amount to a lot of nothing."

* "The fact is that as a leader, you don't have to have all the answers. You only have to know where to look for them."

* "It is important to react quickly to change. but it is better to create it. Staying ahead of the game is what powerful brands do, and they do it by listening."

Throughout my own extensive experience with corporate clients, helping them to solve various problems with branding, I have become convinced that the most powerful brands make and then keep only those promises which are most important to their customers. Unlike so many other subtitles of books I have read recently, the subtitle for this one makes a promise which is kept. Travis really does explain -- and explain brilliantly -- "how successful brands gain the irrational edge." So can yours.