David Aaker - Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles That Drive Success

AAKER ON BRANDING

Praise for

AAKER ON BRANDING

Provocative, rooted in substance, a guiding star for modern marketers!

Steven Althaus, Director of Brand Management, BMW

David Aaker provides 20 core principles and practical steps to create, enhance and leverage powerful brand asset, which can bring sustainable growth. It is a must read for businessman who want to find a key to future success led by power of brand.

Sue Shim, Global CMO, Samsung Electronics

David Aaker has created a must-read review of enduring principles and current challenges for 21st Century marketers.

Larry Light, Former CMO McDonalds

David Aakers many books have been helpful guideposts for my career in business and marketing. Here is a great book that succinctly summarizes what he has learned in his storied career about building enduring, successful brands. Apply Davids 20 principles: your brand will be more successful, and you will be a better leaderguaranteed!

Jim Stengel, Former Global Marketing Officer, P&G

I found the book to be compelling reading for any CMO in this ever changing time and world. It touched raw nerves of challenges we are facing as a company and increased my to do list. And it connected the dots of the evolving role of marketers in organizations.

John Wallis, CMO Hyatt Hotels Corp

The real test of marketing genius is not to produce a successful product but to build a lasting brand. Dave Aaker has done more to help us understand brand building than anyone else.

Philip Kotler, co-author of Marketing Management, 14th ed.

No enterprise can be successful today without embracing the principles articulated so clearly by Professor Aaker. This is the ultimate tour de force of his collective genius in the critical discipline of brand management.

Joseph V. Tripodi, Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer, Coca-Cola

Davids new book is for learners and experts alike a knowledge center for branding principles and strategies every marketer needs to know and practice. Why go anywhere else?

Elisa Steele, CMO Consumer Apps and Service, Microsoft

Also by David Aaker

Consumerism: Search for the Consumer Interest 4th Edition (co-edited with George Day)

Multivariate Analysis in Marketing: Theory and Applications 2nd Edition (editor)

Advertising Management 5th Edition (with Rajeev Batra and John Myers)

Marketing Research 11th Edition (with V Kumar, Robert Leone, and George Day)

Strategic Market Management 10th Edition

Managing Brand Equity

Brand Equity and Advertising (edited with Alex Biel)

Building Strong Brands

Brand Leadership (with Erich Joachimsthaler)

Brand Portfolio Strategy

From Fargo to the World of Brands: My Story So Far

Spanning Silos: The New CMO Imperative

Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant

Three Threats to Brand Relevance: Strategies that Work. (e-book)

DAVID AAKER

AAKER ON BRANDING

20 Principles That Drive Success

2014 DAVID AAKER.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other,except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James and The Entrepreneurial Publisher are trademarks of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

The Morgan James Speakers Group can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event visit The Morgan James Speakers Group at www.TheMorganJamesSpeakersGroup.com.

FREE eBook edition for your existing eReader with purchase

_______________________________________________

PRINT NAME ABOVE

ISBN 978-1-61448-832-3 paperback
ISBN 978-1-61448-833-0 eBook
ISBN 978-1-61448-834-7 audio
ISBN 978-1-61448-870-5 hardcover
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013945748

Cover Design by:
Paul Wang

Chris Treccani
www.3dogdesign.net

Interior Design by:
Bonnie Bushman

In an effort to support local communities, raise awareness and funds, Morgan James Publishing donates a percentage of all book sales for the life of each book to Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg.

To my wife Kay and
my daughters Jennifer, Jan, and Jolyn and their families.
They all support and inspire.

Introduction:

WHY THIS BOOK?

What is a brand? Far more than a name and logo, it is an organizations promise to a customer to deliver what the brand stands for not only in terms of functional benefits but also emotional, self-expressive, and social benefits. But a brand is more than delivering on a promise. It is also a journey, an evolving relationship based on the perceptions and experiences that a customer has every time he or she connects to the brand.

Brands are powerful. They serve as the core of a customer relationship, a platform for strategic options, and a force that affects financials, including stock return. Consider the most compelling brands and their brand essences. Google is associated with competence and dominance in search engines and more, Harley-Davidson with emotional and self-expressive benefits, IBM with competent solutions-oriented computer services, Singapore Airlines with special service, Mercedes for those who appreciate the best, American Express with incredible customer satisfaction and ability to connect through digital programs, and Patagonia with sustainability. The strength of these brands has led to customer loyalty, business success, resilience despite product problems, and the basis for moving into new products or markets.

Additionally, brands and brand strategy are simply fun and interesting. Many a time has a CEO allocated half an hour to a brand strategy session and end up staying for hours affirming on their way out that the session was the most fun time working in months. It is fascinating to know what brand positions succeed, what brand-building programs get traction, how a brand is successfully leveraged into new markets, and so on. The creativity and diversity in brand strategy can be an endless source of conversation.

One objective of this book is to provide an extremely compact presentation of several dozen of the most useful branding concepts and practices organized into the 20 essential principles of branding. These principles provide a broad understanding of brands, brand strategy, brand portfolios, and brand building that all business, marketing, and brand strategists should know. This exposition of branding principles should be useful for those who would like a refresh as well as for those who lack a background in branding and would like to get up to speed quickly.