We've just had a nice review of Beyond Branding in Argent, the journal of the Financial Services Forum in the UK.

..challenges, in a very practical way, the narrow, short-termist, shareholder-focused approach to marketing that drives many companies today.

... The message is blunt: brands are in trouble. They still act as shorthand for the often complex ideas that are combined as the manifestation of a company, its products and its interactions with its customers, but their power in also conveying trust to customers is failing.... The real concern is that, every day, brands strain the trust and credibility of customers by not doing what they say – or, in banking terms, words and figures do not match.

...Reading this book won’t give you all the answers – the authors would surely argue that you must work those out for yourselves in your own contexts – but it should stimulate some pretty searching questions about your approach to business, and illuminate the other side (arguably the real-life side) of the usual marketing perspective.

You can read the whole review (pdf) here. posted by Johnnie M, 7:32 PM  permalink