Is Marketing Suffering A Mid-Life Crisis?

New book FusionBranding details how customer equity, operational excellence and accountability will drive branding in the customer economy and beyond

ATLANTA (Oct. 8, 2002) -- Why do more than 90% of new products fail? Why do so many branding efforts never create a blip on consumer and business radar screens?

    The reason: Many companies -- especially those selling to other businesses --

are failing to brand today because they are using the one-way marketing tactics of the 1970s, such as "positioning."

    That's the premise of a controversial new book from Accountability Press, FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand For The Future, by brand futurist Nick Wreden. The book argues that companies need to start preparing now for the branding imperatives of the next decade, which will be substantially different from the marketing requirements of the past 30 years.

    The imperatives will be based on a new "brandscape" that will incorporate dramatic advances in wireless and other technologies, new production and distribution capabilities, and expanded measurement capabilities. Techniques that worked well in the mass economy won't succeed in today's customer economy and the emerging demand economy of 2005 and beyond. Instead, building brands that customers will embrace requires an emphasis on customer equity, operational excellence and accountability that extends from the CEO to production workers at supplier firms. Most important, companies require the ability to do business on customer terms.

    By distilling the successes of today's -- and tomorrow's -- top brands, FusionBranding

helps companies avoid expensive mistakes caused by dated marketing myths. It also provides operational, merchandising and marketing road maps that ensure customers receive continuing economic and psychic value from brands. FusionBranding is based on 10 core principles that any company -- not just large companies selling to consumers -- can use to establish a perpetual brand.

    These principles include:

    •    Brands are built by organizations and supply chains, not marketing departments.

    •    Everyday operational excellence is key. Before you can establish a relationship with a customer, you have to be a company the customer wants to have a relationship with.

    •    Branding demands and delivers accountability.

    •    Brands must establish unified relationships with five core constituencies: customer, investors, employees, suppliers and media/analysts.

    •    Customer equity is more important than brand equity

    "FusionBranding is not another marketing book based on personal experiences or dated practices. For example, many have focused on the Internet as a tool to establish 'e-brands,' even though it is often counterproductive from the customer's point of view. While the Internet does open new communications and sales channels, its true branding value lies in its ability to unite relationship enterprises and enable business on customer terms," says Wreden. "Instead of ads, logos and slogans, companies building a 21st century brand must focus on reach, immediacy and personalization."

    The book has endorsements from U.S. Sen. Max Cleland; Thomas Gad, author of 4-D Branding and Managing Brand Me; Michael Corcoran, Chief Communications Office at Information Builders Inc.; and Nick Morgan, editor of Harvard Management Communication Letter, a publication of Harvard Business School Publishing.

    Chapters also feature a "FutureView," which looks at branding in 2005 and beyond, "Takeaways," in-depth questions that can help apply FusionBranding principles to your brands, and "Resources" that feature books and Web sites about FusionBranding principles. Finally, key vendors are listed. The book is complemented by an comprehensive Web sites that offer information, resources, newsletters and continuing insights about the future of branding.

    Wreden is a brand futurist and knowledge agent with 20 years of cross-disciplinary experience in branding, supply chains and operations. He has been extensively published by Harvard Business School Publishing, InformationWeek and numerous other publications. An insightful consultant and dynamic speaker, Nick has an MA in journalism and an MS in technology management.

    The book costs US$29.95; CAN$39.95. The ISBN for FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand For The Future is 0-9717442-0-3. Hardcover, 400 pages, indexed.

    To order, call 888-554-3320. Copies (with quantity discounts) may also be purchased at fusionbrand.com. The book is also available at Amazon.com or the Barnes & Noble web site (bn.com).

    (Ed. note: A media kit with graphics is available online at fusionbrand.com. For review copies, email info@fusionbrand.com. Excerpts are available for publication in print or Web sites. For author interviews, call 770-582-6791; email: fusionbrand@earthlink.net.)