BrandSimple: How the Best Brands Keep it Simple and Succeed

Allen Adamson's "BrandSimple," without a doubt, holds up to its title. I have read many books on brand and they all seem to be very process-oriented and heavy with terminology. In my opinion, this book gets to the core of a brand and reaches Adamson's goal of simplifying the brand process. Adamson starts with simple definitions of "brand", "branding," "branding signals," etc.; then, he introduces what I consider the key concept of the book, the "brand idea." For many marketers the "brand idea" is somewhat of an "a-ha "or "duh" moment. It is "the simple, differentiated, and relevant meaning you establish for your brand. [It] is what a brand stands for in people's minds." These three characteristics, "simple, differentiated, and relevant" are all words we have probably attributed to building brands, but Adamson's straightforward approach and commitment to these characteristics truly simplifies the brand meaning. He says it best in the book's introduction, "When your brand is based on a simple, clearly defined idea aligned with a clearly defined business strategy it makes it easier for your brand organization to effectively signal to consumers what makes it different and why this difference is worth caring about."This book not only illustrates "why brands built on simple ideas are the most successful brands," but it also provides clear instruction on how to create a "BrandSimple" or positioning framework, how to capture your "brand idea" and reduce it to a single phrase or sentence, how to chose an effective brand name, how and when to create branding signals; and, it is rich with first-hand examples and accounts of brands that have both succeeded and failed in all these areas. Adamson uses his 20 years of experience with Ogilvy & Mather, Lever, Landor Associates, and other prominent companies to bring his concepts to life. He provides informative and useful brand stories from Black & Decker, Snuggle, Country Time Lemonade, HBO, Nikon, Johnson & Johnson, GE and more. Adamson can't and doesn't give you a silver bullet to building and selling your brand, but he provides a strong framework to defining your core difference and he simplifies the process in a way that is easy to follow and implement. This book is so sincere in its delivery, and compelling in its content, it is a must read for anyone working with brands.

--- Summary ---BrandSimple is an excellent book about brands and the branding process. The book clearly defines the meaning of brand, branding, brand idea, brand strategy, and brand signals.It is not the easiest book to read, but it remains very funny thanks to the concrete examples, which are presented all along the book.--- Model / Concepts ---The book presents in deep details the following concepts:1. Understand that brand (associations/feelings) and branding (process) are different concepts.2. Establish a differentiated meaning for your brand that the consumers you want to reach care about.3. Know exactly who you want to talk to.4. To find a different and relevant brand idea, look for the obvious.5. Make sure your brand idea aligns with your business strategy.6. Capture the essence of your brand idea in a brand driver-a simple statement of what your brand stands for.7. Draw a map of the customer's journey with your brand.8. Pick your battles: Invest in customer interactions with the greatest potential to drive consumer perception.9. Remember, only the paranoid survive and don’t lose the center.10. Remember that brand building is a marathon event.--- Impact ---The impact is important both for beginners as well as for experts. The presented concepts are simple to put in place and the given examples are inspiring.--- Rating ---rating Amazon – 4.7/5.0 (64 reviews)my rating - 4.0/5.0fun factor - 4.0/5.0simplicity - 3.5/5.0impact - 4.0/5.0

BrandSimple is a refreshingly easy read that boils the essence of brands and branding down to, well, their simplest but most important basics. Anyone involved in business management of any kind should read this book.Adamson reminds us throughout the book that a brand is a very different thing than branding and that marketers cannot be great at branding without first creating a great brand.The best brands are different. They promise something different and unique and deliver on that promise every time. They also find a way to simplify their brand message so that just about everyone instantly "gets it" and that the "it" resonates and seems obvious after the fact. Getting to that simplicity can require a lot of hard work and thinking, but making it seem so simple, obvious and intuitive is the key.As Managing Director of Landor Associates, Allen Adamson peppers the book with real-world examples from his work at Landor and from his previous positions. His case studies show how the best brands work tirelessly to emerge with a simple promise and a simple message that is easily communicated in just a few words.The real examples are brief yet clearly show the challenges and ultimate solutions from brands like Compaq, Visa, Apple, Aquafina, Baby Einstein, BlackBerry, JetBlue, Timberland, Pixar and many more. He uses these brands to show that often a simple insight that makes your product different is the real power in building a great brand -- as long as that difference is important and relevant to your potential customers.The book is written at an easy reading level so that any business manager will be able to readily breeze through it without tons of technical branding terminology and grasp the important concepts. This in turn will inspire them to reevaluate and transform their own brands. The book is straight-forward, simple and highly insightful and useful.On my "Professional Marketer Investment Scale";($-Poor investment, $$$$$-Great investment)Rating: $$$$$

Super awesome