Advanced Brand Management: From Vision to Valuation
By Paul Temporal
This book is mistitled. It is not particularly ‘advanced,’ in the sense of delving deeper into well-charted territory. It is more comprehensive than advanced. Temporal has given us an outstanding primer on all things brand, and a credible resource of checklists, examples and case studies that belongs on the shelf of every corporate strategist and marketer.
That Advanced Brand Management is credible is evidenced by the list of jacket liner endorsers. Marketing gurus Philip Kotler, David A. Aaker, Al Ries, etc., all throw their weight behind the book, probably because Temporal is less an innovator than a master implementer. Shying away from developing yet another Universal Theory of Everything, he sticks to applying the strong thinking of the true heavyweights. He does so with countless examples and cases, many of which are from non-North American contexts, a fact which focuses the reader on the merits of each case. Hearing the usual, trite Nike/Coke arguments in the context of Singapore Airlines, for example, helps one to sit up and take notice. It also makes it easier to transfer the learnings to one’s own brand experiences.
Chapter Nine may be new to some marketers. Going a step beyond qualitative benchmarking measures, this chapter lucidly explains the financial valuation methodology pioneered by the good people at Brand Finance (www.brandfinance.com).
This writer has gone on record as stating that marketers risk abdicating their role as champions of the customer to the extent they fail to speak to the financial return on their efforts. Anyone who calls him/herself a marketer should understand this methodology and be fully conversant in it, so that the next time the budget cutters come for your budget you can fight fire with fire.
This book is an outstanding reference that you’ll want to keep near your desk at all times.
BookMark Rating: 5 out of 5
Mark Szabo is a strategist with Parallel in Calgary. He can be reached at mark.szabo@parallel.ca. To reach Brand Finance, contact Barry Hepburn at b.hepburn@brandfinance.com.
