Product Description

Using real brand-building cases studies, this groundbreaking book describes how companies can increase brand identity by thinking 'out-of-the-box'. As industries turn increasingly hostile, it is clear that strong brand-building skills are needed to survive and prosper. In David Aaker's pathbreaking book, Managing Brand Equity, managers discovered the value of a brand as a strategic asset and a company's primary source of competitive advantage. Now, in this compelling new work, 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-organisation, and brand-as-symbol perspectives. 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 subbrands. 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. 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17965 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 380 pages

About the Author
David A. Aaker is the E.T. Grether Professor of Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a consultant to dozens of companies, including AT&T, Coca Cola, MasterCard, and General Motors. He is the cofounder, with Erich Joachimsthaler of the firm Aaker-Joachimsthaler Prophet Brand Strategy. His previous books include Brand Leadership and Managing Brand Equity, both published by The Free Press.

Customer Reviews

Probably better for US based readers
The content of the book was thought provoking and generally useful. It has put the Brand at the centre of my business plans. However, the vast majority of case examples are of US brands that are relatively unknown outside of the USA making understanding difficult.

Fantastic.
Branding appears to be a mushy, unquantifiable subject. Before I bought this book I read through countless articles on the subject that just didn't make much sense. Reading Aaker's book provided the opposite experience: crystal clear, a compelling argument for why brand matters and how best to build one.

Excellent, thought provoking, brilliantly clear
Required reading for anyone interested in building, maintaining or growing a brand. Stop what you are doing now to build a brand until you have read this book. No marketing education program should be without this knowledge. Dr Aaker's students at Berkeley are among the most fortunate in the country.