UNITED WE BRAND: How to Create a Cohesive Brand That's Seen, Heard, and Remembered

Ad exec Moser, a veteran of some of the industry's highest profile campaigns, has composed an admirably simple guide for creating a powerful and enduring brand. This is a hands-on, forward-thinking workbook for executives who want a fast, clear primer on the basics of contemporary brand marketing, told in plain language rather than B-school jargon, mixing checklists and exercises with Moser's firsthand observations of what works. His focus is entirely on the initial stages of the branding process—defining what your brand stands for and the best way to tell customers about it—in which advertising agencies typically play a key role. His ideas aren't revolutionary; indeed, experienced marketers will recognize most as industry standards. Companies are assigned human values and personality traits, which in turn shape the way they sell and communicate. Or, as Moser exhorts, "Poof! You're a person, not a company," one who can be characterized as "honest," "aggressive," "nurturing" or "passionate." Those traits then establish an emotionally charged core message, to be echoed in the brand's name, logo and advertising. It's this holistic approach, in which a company's vision becomes part of the product itself, that's propelled brands like Nike, Apple and Saturn to superstardom. While Moser's book makes little attempt to explore the messy business of implementing this approach, it remains a delightfully breezy introduction to how marketers transform an ordinary sneaker into a statement of who we are and who we want to be. (Apr. 4)