Table of Contents
Branding: A Reading List Compiled by Chris Olson, Chris Olson & Associates Books Articles & Papers Web Sites The Branding Resource Additional Resources from the Advertising & Marketing Division, SLA Articles & White Papers Case Studies Books
Branding: A Reading List Compiled by Chris Olson, Chris Olson & Associates February 2003
As a marketing consultant I maintain a personal library of materials and bookmarks devoted to marketing topics. This Reading List details some of the books, articles, papers and web sites in my branding collection which I find to be informative and useful. The list is not meant to be comprehensive. I share this list with colleagues who are interested in learning about branding while we plan marketing endeavors for their libraries and information services. You are invited to peruse and use whatever you find of interest. Chris Olson
Books
Some of my books are bursting with sticky notes marking passages, diagrams, quotes and points I don’t want to lose. Here are a few titles I find myself perusing again and again. Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name; David A. Aaker; The Free Press, 1991. I refer to this book time and time again.  A classic! Building Strong Brands; David A. Aaker; The Free Press, 1996. Expands on many points from his earlier Managing Brand Equity. A classic! Marketing Corporate Image: The Company as Your Number One Product; James R. Gregory; NTC Business Books, 1991. This is the book which reintroduced CEOs to the concept of the image brand. Leveraging the Corporate Brand; James R. Gregory; NTC Business Books, 1997. A quick read and good overview of branding strategies with examples. Strategic Brand Management: New Approaches to Creating and Evaluating Brand Equity; Jean-Noel Kapferer; The Free Press, 1992. This is not a light read and my book is packed with sticky notes. Table of Contents	4-D Branding: Cracking the Corporate Code of the Network Economy; Thomas Gad; Prentice Hall, 2001. The author provides a new perspective on branding and methodically lays out the case and approach for his own 4-D branding strategies. Thought-provoking. Strategic Brand Management and Best Practice In Branding Cases; Kevin Lane Keller; 2nd edition; Pearson Education, 2002. This textbook is a comprehensive treatment of building and managing brands. Provides tactical guidelines for planning, building, measuring, and managing brand equity. For the serious brand manager. Brand Leadership Concept Suite. If you don’t have the time to read all the books, this may be a viable alternative, depending on what you already know and need to know. The Concept Suite on branding provides 18 pages of excerpts from 12 branding books. Go to http://tinyurl.com/68zi or visit www.meansbusiness.com and explore the topic of branding in their Concept Suites or Concept Book Summaries service. United We Brand: How to Create a Cohesive Brand That’s Seen, Heard and Remembered; Mike Moser; Harvard Business School Press, February 13, 2003 (On the HBS web site: $27.50. After April 4th, buy it on Amazon for $19.25. Looks like a good one to pick up.
Articles & Papers
While books by marketing practitioners such as Kotler and Aaker can provide a solid grounding in marketing and branding, it’s the academic author who pushes the envelope and provides insights based on their research endeavors. Here are a few articles from my files which I think expand on basic branding concepts. The Brand Report Card by Kevin Lane Keller. Harvard Business Review, January-February, 2000. Reprint # R00104. Lists 10 common attributes of strong brands. Brand Architecture: Building Brand Portfolio Value by Michael Petromilli, Dan Morrison, and Michael Million. Strategy & Leadership, Volume 30, Number 5, 2002. The authors discuss brand portfolio organization and management. The Power of the Brand by Scott M. Davis. Strategy & Leadership, Volume 28, Number 4, 2000. This article outlines the steps that companies need to take to craft a customer model and differentiate their brands in an increasingly cluttered marketplace. Branding of Nonprofit Organizations: A Potential Solution in a Competitive Market by Hyojin Kim, 2001. Written in the style of a traditional academic research project, the author pulls together an impressive number of resources and compiles the major points. If you can handle all the intext references, this is a good overview of the literature with additional insights from the author. Table of Contents	Creating and Managing Brand Experience on the Internet by Bernd Schmitt. Design Management Institute Journal, Fall 2000. Schmitt analyzes the issues that contribute to an effective digital branding strategy, outlining how a web site that is well designed can be a powerful asset to the corporate brand. What Great Brands Do by Alan M. Webber. Fast Company, Issue 10, page 96 (August 1997). Interview with Scott Bedbury who shares his eight brand-building principles. Building A Strong Brand: Brand and Branding Basics by Dave Dolak.  A 2001 4 page white paper of branding which highlights the essentials. See Your Brands Through Your Customers’ Eyes by Chris Lederer and Sam Hill. Harvard Business Review, June 2001. Reprint # R0106J. Presents a three-dimensional approach to mapping brand portfolios. Three Questions You Need to Ask About Your Brand by Kevin Lane Keller, Brian Sternthal, Alice Tybout. Harvard Business Review, September 2002. Reprint # R0209F. Discusses brand positioning.
Web Sites
A search on the internet will turn up hundreds of web sites devoted to branding and all aspects of it. Many sites hawk the latest and greatest branding strategies sure to work, if you just pay the $49.95 for the book/tape/seminar. Other sites are gold mines of insights and practical knowledge. Here are a few of my favorites. Brandchannel Glossary. A list of common branding terms and their definitions. Prophet, a branding company. Their Knowledge Center is filled with articles, book references, and white papers on all aspects of branding. Many are written by Prophet’s director, Scott Davis, the author of Brand Asset Management. David Aaker has recently joined the firm as a consultant. Brandweek Both print and electronic brandweek provides information and insights into America’s top brands and marketing executives. Special emphasis is placed on breakthrough campaigns and new advertising/promotional spending – locally, nationally and globally. This is an industry “rag” for ad agency information collections. Fast Company You never know what you’re going to find on the Fast Company web site. Branding is a frequent topic and most of the big names in branding and marketing show up on the pages eventually. Sign up for their free e-mail newsletter, FastTake. Brandchannel Billed as the “world’s only online exchange about branding” this web site is produced by Interbrand, a branding consultancy. Brandchannel offers plenty of papers on all aspects of branding. All free, albeit many are thinly veiled promotions for branding consultants. They also have a free weekly e-mail alert service. McKinsey Quarterly (McKinsey Quarterly section on marketing/branding articles) McKinsey Quarterly carries articles on branding. Paying subscribers get access to all their articles, including an entire section devoted to marketing/branding topics. Design Management Institute The Design Management Institute includes among its topic areas the design and management of visual brand components. The web site offers a discussion forum on the design aspects of branding and the Institute’s Journal usually includes articles on branding programs, branding design challenges and related brand topics. This is a good site to monitor from the perspective of brand design. Articles and a free e-bulletin are available. Table of Contents	MarketingProfs.com An excellent web site which covers all aspects of marketing. To quote from their description they provide “...strategic and tactical marketing know how to Internet and offline marketing professionals through a combination of provocative articles and commentary. Drawing on both the cutting edge marketing know-how of a broad array of analysts, marketing professionals, and professors who can bridge the gap between cutting-edge theory and business practice...” Offers a free e-newsletter. Bookmark this site! Tom Peters Leave it to Tom to take advantage of the web—including the sale of short e-booklets. The Heart of Branding is one such booklet. Nineteen pages of a typographer’s nightmare. It’s got good points if you can handle the typefaces. Fans of Tom should click on “Join the Fray” at the top right of the home page to receive the monthly Tom Peters Times. MarketingPower.com This is the web site of the American Marketing Association. Although most resources are for members, a quick search on branding will yield some good, free resources, including a 4 page overview of branding. Marketing Sherpa Although many of the resources on this site carry a price tag, it does offer brief “how-we-did-it” stories devoted to a range of marketing topics. If thinking outside of the box is one of your talents, then this site may give you ideas and insights for adapting to an information service brand. Offers a free e-newsletter. Management First The international publisher of management journals, Emerald, provides internet access to its database of abstracts and reviews at www.emeraldinsight.com. The database contains a sizeable collection of marketing articles. Management First is Emerald’s management community where you will find discussions and resources, including free sample articles and subject-oriented bundles such as Learning Curves. There’s a Learning Curve package on “Building A Brand.” When you become a member of Management First (free), you can select a free article to download. Social Science Research Network The SSRN has a section on marketing topics. This is a good site to monitor for emerging research results, ideas and trends in brand topic areas. Working papers are available from their Electronic Paper Collection.
The Branding Resource Compiled by the Advertising & Marketing Division, SLA March 2003
ARTICLES & WHITE PAPERS
In the Enterprise: Whatchamacallit What’s in a Name? by Bill Laberis, March 1, 2001, Technology Marketing. Examines the question: “Should a company have to spend a lot of time and scarce resources just explaining what its name means?” Naming Newsletter, a quarterly report on the strategies and tactics of naming, 1st Quarter 2003. Acronyms: A High  Degree Of Difficulty Table of Contents	Management: The Name Game, by Bill Roberts, Electronic Business, November 1, 1999. Nine Ways to Fix a Broken Brand, by Scott Bedbury, Fast Company, Issue 55, February 2002. Successful Brand Repositioning, McKinsey & Company, April 2001. Successfully Navigating a Name Change, by Yannis Kavounis, Interbrand.
CASE STUDIES
Abbreviated Monikers FedEx Knows Brand Equity, by Todd N. Lebor, The Motley Fool, May 2, 2001. HP’s New Image Has Abbreviated Role for Founders, by Tracy Seipel, The Mercury News, May 17, 2002. From SiliconValley.com. POSCO Moves Forward With New Company Name, Steel News, March 19, 2002. The company argues that “by excluding the industry-specific term ‘steel’ from the official name, POSCO expects the negative preconceptions and restrictions on future growth…to be removed.” Name Changes & Repositioning Accenture Name Change Repositioning American Humane American Humane Empowered, by Robin D. Rusch, Brandchannel.com, February 24, 2003. The organization lists the reasons why they found it necessary to rebrand themselves. Among their reasons, confusion over its name and inconsistency in their representation. Catalyst Connection The Time for Change is Now, by Steven G. Zylstra, TEQ, May 2002. The new name is intended to “shed the current perception of serving only old-line, traditional manufacturers.” Table of Contents	Factiva Factiva: The New Name for Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive, by Barbara Quint, Information Today, November 8, 1999. KPMG KPMG Consulting Becomes BearingPoint, by Juan Carlos Perez, ITworld.com, October 2, 2002. PwC Monday Name Change for PwC, BBC News, June 10, 2002. Includes responses from many PwC employees voicing their opinions on the name change. Target Target Name Change Hits Bull’s-Eye with Analysts, by Matt Valley, National Real Estate Investor, February 1, 2000. Consequences of shedding a venerable name for something new and very different. Recognizing that such changes are often very emotional issues. Verizon The Truth Behind Name Games, by Kate Gerwig, CommWeb.com, May 1, 2000. Both sides of the issue – risks involved in “throwing away the inherent value that’s locked up in established brand names” or acknowledging that “old names can be a liability.” The ultimate goal – choose a name that is “relevant to the businesses at hand.”
BOOKS
The Brand Marketing Book: Creating, Managing and Extending the Value of Your Brand, by Joe Marconi, NTC Business Books, Lincolnwood, IL. 2000. Chapter 1: The Right Name Is a Good Way to Start Chapter 4: When a Brand Gets into Trouble Brand Warfare: 10 Rules for Building the Killer Brand, by David F. D’Alessandro, Mc-Graw Hill, New York, NY. 2001. Rule 3: A Great Brand Message is Like a Bucking Bronco – Once You’re On, Don’t Let Go  - Contains “A Strong Brand Message Requires Two Kinds of Knowledge and One Kind of Discipline” The Omnipowerful Brand, by Frank Delano, AMACOM, New York, NY. 1999. Part I: In Pursuit of a Great Brand Name – Includes “A Brand Name With No Boundaries,” “A New Understanding: The Brand Name as King,” “Secrets to Naming Products and Companies” and “The Seven Proven Principles” Part II: Building a Great Brand Name Into the Omnipowerful Brand: Lessons From American and European Companies – Includes “Building the Brand Through People” and “Staying Consistent With the Brand Name’s Image” Table of Contents	Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, by Al Ries and Jack Trout, Warner Books, New York, NY. 1986. Chapter 9: The Power of the Name -  The most important marketing decision you can make is what to name the product. Chapter 10: The No-Name Trap – Companies with long, complex names have tried to shorten them by using initials. Why some work, while others fail. The Turnaround Prescription: Repositioning Troubled Companies, by Mark R. Goldston, The Free Press, New York, NY. 1992. Part II: Engineering a Marketing Turnaround: Concepts and Cases