A little over a year ago, Todd Sattersten sent me a copy of his (then) new book, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You, coauthored by Jack Covert. In exchange for the book, I was supposed to provide feedback. For a variety of reasons I took a hiatus from blogging about the same time and never got around to posting my thoughts. So this is long overdue. My apologies to Todd and Jack.

As anyone who has browsed the Business section of the bookstore knows, there are far more books than anyone can possibly read. If you took all the business books published in 2007 and stacked them on top of each other, they’d easily reach the top of a nine-story building. And that’s just one year’s worth of books. What about the years since then, and the years before? How can anyone sift through that enormous pile and find the books that solve their problem or strengthen their particular weakness? That’s the challenge that Todd and Jack’s book sets out to meet.

And for the most part, The 100 Best Books fulfills its promise. Organized into 12 chapters covering subjects like leadership, strategy, management, innovation, and big ideas, each review identifies the major concepts presented in a “best” book, plus a short section recommending still more books for readers who want to go beyond the basics (this is my favorite feature of the book).

I found myself nodding in agreement with many of the recommendations, books like The Innovator’s Dilemma, Execution, Influence, Positioning, The Art of The Start, Made to Stick, and my personal favorite “business” book of all time, Orbiting the Giant Hairball.  I also found myself making a list of books that I have not read yet, but need to.

The book’s only weakness is also its genius. Unlike the best business books, it doesn’t focus on and flesh out any great ideas. Instead it usefully points you to the books that do explore the ideas you want to know more about. If you want to learn more about entrepreneurship or marketing, this isn’t the book to read. But it is the book you would check to find the books to read.

On the whole, The 100 Best Books of All Time is a pretty comprehensive reading list for anyone who wants to learn more about 12 business subjects (it’s almost a do-it-yourself MBA). And while there are certainly hundreds of worthy books not included in this volume, it’s still a pretty good place to start. It can be read cover to cover, or used as a topical reference for those who want to learn more about a particular subject. It’s worth having close by as a reference for those times you need the right book to read.

Worth a recommendation. Buy it here.

Welcome to the new (and quite possibly, improved) Brandstory blog.

After taking significant time off to pursue a master’s degree and then to settle back into life, it feels like the time is right for me to return to writing about marketing, advertising, strategy, and story. But with a small twist. The blog has a new location, look, and feel.

If you included the old Brandstory in your blog roll in the past, I would be forever grateful if you would update the link to the new blog. And if you haven’t included Brandstory in your blog roll, I would be even more grateful if you decided to do that now. (Yes, I know, blog rolls are a little passé, but it can’t hurt to ask). You can also add Brandstory to your RSS feed by clicking this link so you’ll never miss a post.

While I’ve got a few ideas of the things I’d like to write about it the future, in a lot of ways, I’m starting all over again. I’m busily porting over a few of my favorite “legacy” posts and I’ll soon be adding new content and ideas. Hopefully the things I have to share here will be worth your while.

This entry was originally posted on December 28, 2007 at the old Brandstory blog.

One of my favorite web logs is David Taylor’s BrandGymBlog. David’s no-nonsense approach to marketing is one that really appeals to me, so I’m a regular visitor to his site. A couple of months ago I got a copy of David’s latest book, Where’s the Sausage: Branding based on Substance not Spin. It’s a serious marketing book wrapped in a short parable.

Though I really like David’s thinking, I’m generally not a fan of business parables. Too often they use silly characters, absurd situations, and overly simple solutions that don’t always transfer well to real business situations–like this book. Books like this include a lot of “what”, but not a lot of “how”. And when I heard that WTS? was a parable, that’s what I expected to get. But then, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

To be sure, the story isn’t high literature. But this book contains a generous helping of useful marketing ideas, ways to get insights from your customers, and smart thinking (the how in addition to the what). And the characters ring true more often than not.

It’s the story of Bob Jones, salesman at Simpton’s Sausages who is asked to spend a year as a brand consultant before being promoted to Sales Director. He’s unenthusiastic about the opportunity and immediately sees through the typical marketing BS that comes from his boss and agency contacts. Rejecting their approach to branding (and rebranding), he finds his own way as he manages the neglected sausage brand. He records his feelings several times a month (in a blog or journal) and includes much of what he is learning from his experience. The story is okay, but the real power of the book is in the chapter summaries and ideas Bob uses to rethink his product—all of which (I assume) come from the BrandGym play book.

Among the observations Bob makes:

• A brand should drive the whole business, not just the image wrapper of communication
and brand identity.
• A new logo can’t cover up the shortcomings of a poor product.
• Many brand extensions are brand ego trips offering nothing new.
• True insight doesn’t come from focus groups, it comes from immersing yourself in your
consumer’s world.
• Having little or no funds for conventional marketing can be a great stimulus for creativity.
• Communication that has only emotional sizzle and not product sausage is ‘sponsored
entertainment’.

Add to that the simple exercises and processes that Bob takes his brand through (and that the reader can do with their own brand) and you have a decent little marketing book. Thanks David.

If you’re looking for a quick read peppered with smart thinking, you’ll like Where’s the Sausage.

More Where’s the Sausage? Links:
Other reviews of the book can be found here and here.
David’s description of the book is here.
Buy it at Amazon.
Read the BrandGym blog.
Video of Hugo Gaines (the book’s star marketing,um, expert).
Video of David talking about the book.

This entry was originally posted on September 5, 2008 on the old Brandstory blog.

Today at the Brains of Fire blog, Robbin posted a short movie well worth six minutes of your day. It perfectly illustrates that how you tell your story is just as important as having a story to tell. Watch for yourself:

A version of this entry was originally posted on August 6, 2008 at the old Brandstory blog. Bob’s blog is still one of my favorites.

A month or so ago, I stumbled upon Bob Hoffman’s blog called The Ad Contrarian. It has quickly become one of my favorites. He’s not much for advertising as entertainment. He doesn’t appear to like ad planners. He’s not big on Internet advertising, the long tail, or conversations. He’s an unabashed defender of the power and effectiveness of traditional, interruptive advertising. His blog is worth a read.

But best of all, if you want a copy, you can download a free copy of his book (PDF), described by his agency’s president as “mercifully short.”

Written more like a short collection of blog posts (actually that’s exactly what it is), the book’s a pretty good snapshot of what’s wrong with the advertising world. But it doesn’t take the “end-of-advertising-as-we-know-it” approach that so many others keep talking about. Lots of interesting thinking, criticism, and ideas packed into 65 pages.

Of course, there is a catch. The last four chapters detail Hoffman’s (and his agency’s) approach to advertising, something he calls Performance-based Advertising. So it’s a bit of a promotional piece for his agency. Still, the principles are good:

1. Advertising is most effective when it is focused on changing behavior, not attitudes.
2. Advertising messages should be created for, and directed at, the heavy using, high-yield customers in your category.
3. We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand, we get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product.

I like Bob’s approach. My favorite chapter can be found here. Check out his blog and book.

This entry was originally posted on March 26, 2008 at the old Brandstory blog.

Does your logo get the reaction you want? Do customers think differently or act differently when they see your logo as opposed to your competitor? Should it?

While I firmly believe that a logo can trigger an emotional response attached to a brand, this goes a little farther than I would have expected: According to this post in the Wall Street Journal Business Technology blog, researchers at Duke have found that exposure to a particular logo (in this case, Apple or IBM) can result in behavioral changes. People who were flashed the Apple logo for 30 milliseconds (too fast to be consciously seen) performed more creatively than those who saw the IBM logo.

You can read the study here.

This begs the question–will thinking about the Nike logo make you run faster? Will thinking of the Harvard University logo make you smarter? Will pondering the Weight Watchers logo help you lose weight? Sign me up as a test subject for
all of the above.

Others offer thoughts about the power of Apple’s logo to help you think differently:
Brand Noise.
Fake Steve Jobs.

This entry was originally posted on August 7, 2007 at the old Brandstory blog.

As if we needed more proof that branding works…

A report in the New Scientist details a recent study revealing that pre-school kids prefer foods wrapped in McDonald’s packaging over foods served in unwrapped packaging. Most parents are thinking, no duh. From the report:

“Dina Borzekowski at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health in Baltimore, Maryland, US, and her colleagues asked 63 preschoolers, aged three to five, to sample two meals, each consisting of a chicken nugget, a quarter of a hamburger, french fries, two baby carrots and a small cup of milk.

Although both meals came from a local McDonald’s, only one of them appeared in its original packaging. Researchers presented items from the other meal in plain wrappers, which lacked the company’s distinctive logo.

In most cases children said they tasted a difference between the two meals, and they overwhelmingly preferred the McDonalds-branded foods.”

Interesting. Kids preferred McDonald’s branded carrots by a margin of 2 to 1. Same carrots. Different packaging. They preferred the french fries 73% to 13%. All because of the golden arches. It’s not like we don’t know that branding/marketing/advertising works. After all, we spend well over $10 billion a year marketing products to kids. And billions more to advertise to adults. But it is somewhat disturbing to see the affects on kids as young as three.

Of course McDonald’s has known this for more than 10 years—watch the proof here.

Might be time to unplug the television.

This entry was originally posted on July 27, 2007 at the old Brandstory blog.

Michelle Miller at WonderBranding points us to a terrific (so far) series on effective copy writing from the geniuses—Jeff Sexton in particular—at FutureNow. I’ve had the opportunity to work with the FutureNow team. They know what they’re talking about.

The first segment is about how to choose between writing from an intellectual perspective or an emotional one. It’s very good stuff. Here’s a follow-up.

The second installment (or is it the 6th?) deals with using positive or negative imagery: “worries trump daydreams.” Check out how this applies to VW’s recent ads for Jetta.

The Third Installment focuses on intensity and involvement. The fourth should be up on Monday.

This is very good stuff. Not just the advice, but the copy examples are also stellar.

Check it out at Grokdotcom.

And if you like that, here’s another favorite: How to Write Better Ads. Great advice that most writers have forgotten (or never learned).

This entry was originally posted on July 6, 2007 at the old Brandstory blog.

I recently finished reading Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath (I know, I’m a little late to this party). Anyone involved in telling brand stories (marketers, advertisers, customer service agents, CEOs, PR people, bloggers) should not only read, but ingest, what the Heaths have to say about communicating messages in a way that makes them “sticky”.

They retell a variety of stories to make their points: from urban legends to familiar advertising tales like Subway’s Jared and The American Legacy Foundation’s Truth campaign.

In crafting stories that stick, the authors recommend that you create messages that are Simple (not dumb, but the core of the idea), Unexpected, Concrete (using details to hook the message into memory), Credible, Emotional (the need for analysis is the enemy of stickiness), and follow a Story line. The use the acronym SUCCESS to help you remember the steps.

From the book:

“[Stories] …naturally embody most of the SUCCESSs framework. Stories are almost always Concrete. Most of them have Emotional and Unexpected elements. The hardest part of using stories effectively is making sure that they’re Simple—that they reflect your core message. It’s not enough to tell a great story; the story has to reflect your agenda… Stories have the amazing dual power to simulate and to inspire. And most of the time we don’t even have to use much creativity to harness these powers—we just need to be ready to spot the good ones that life generates every day.”

Chip and Dan note three types of story plots that resonate best. They are: 1. The Challenge Plot (underdog, rags to riches, willpower): think Southwest Airlines, Pepsi Challenge, or Richard Branson. 2. The Connection Plot: think Coke’s Mean Joe Green or Hallmark. 3. The Creativity Plot (solving problems in new ways): think ZipCar or Post-its.

Great stuff. I highly recommend this book.

From a branding standpoint, don’t miss what the Heaths have to say about the curse of knowledge and how to overcome it. Hint: well-told stories can help.

Check out these other Made to Stick links:
1. Good PDF summary of the main points of the book.
2. Chip and Dan’s Blog.
3. You can read a book excerpt here.
4. Reviews from Brand Autopsy, Time, USNews, BusinessPundit. One more here.
5. Podcasts from HBR, Ducttape Marketing.
6. An interviews from Guy Kawasaki. Another interview here.
7. The Made to Stick Change This manifesto.
8. The Made to Stick SlideShare.
9. And of course, you can buy the book here (recommended).

This entry was originally posted on May 11, 2007 at the old Brandstory blog.

I have been a fan of Blue Nile ever since I received a booklet from them six or seven years ago. The booklet, really a direct mail piece, explained how to do different “guy” things like carve a turkey, mix a gimlet, and get a good table at a restaurant. It was well written and well illustrated. Sprinkled in with these other tid bits was advice about how to buy a diamond ring. It was brilliant. Probably the most engaging mailer I’ve ever received. One of my coworkers at the time must have agreed because it disappeared from my office a few weeks later.

Shifting gears (sort of)…

A recent (very short) article in Fortune magazine profiled Mark Vadon, the founder and CEO of Blue Nile and asked him about his management style. Mark notes:

“I’m obsessed with Starbucks. I was talking to one of its executives and asked him why they have grown so much when other people have tried and haven’t. And he said, ‘Well, there are 1000 little things that impact the customer where we’re 10% better than anybody else.’ I think that’s exactly what we’re trying to do: stay focused on all the tiny little details that matter to our customers.”

Is Blue Nile 100% better than Tiffany’s or Zales? Probably not. But by being a little more accessible, providing more information than their competitors (they do a great job educating customers on their site), and offering service that’s a little better, they have created a very successful company and brand. By focusing on getting the small things right, the company grows.

Side Note: Blue Nile has a very common brand story—Mark was frustrated by his experience buying a diamond at a retail store and thought, “there has got to be a better way.” Today there is.

Unfortunately you can’t find the Blue Nile story on their site (missed opportunity), but you can read more about the Blue Nile brand story here.