Truth About Creating Brands People Love, The

Product Author Bios

Dr. Brian D. Till is the Steber Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Marketing Department at Saint Louis University. He holds a B.S. in Advertising and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. His Ph.D. is from the University of South Carolina. At Saint Louis University, he teaches primarily marketing strategy and advertising courses to M.B.A. students. His research is in the areas of celebrity endorsements, associative learning, and brand equity. He has published in Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Sport Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Product & Brand Management, and Psychology & Marketing. Dr. Till serves on the editorial review boards of Journal of Advertising and Psychology & Marketing.

            Prior to his university career, Dr. Till worked in brand management at Purina. He continues to serve as a marketing strategy and advertising consultant. Previous clients include Energizer, Monsanto, AT&T, Boa Construction, Charter Communication, Concordia Publishing House, Squeaky Clean Car Wash, and Medicine Shoppe International. He is active in the community, with recent nonprofit board appointments with the Stella Maris Child Center (where he recently completed four years as board president) and Forest ReLeaf of Missouri. Dr. Till is also a founding principal of the Brand Cartography Group, a market research firm that specializes in research designed to provide strategic insight into the structure of brands.

            Dr. Till is single, and in his free time enjoys travel, his historic home, and outdoor activities such as running, flying, and motorcycle riding.

Donna Heckler is the Brand Strategy Lead for Monsanto, where she leads the company in its brand building and brand portfolio management. Ms Heckler has a B.A. in Zoology from DePauw University and an M.B.A. in Marketing from Indiana University.

            Ms. Heckler has provided strategic brand guidance for a variety of firms. She has worked for Energizer Batteries to lead brand efforts both domestically and internationally. She led the brand marketing domestically and internationally for a division of Cardinal Health. She also led brand activities for Kimball Office.

            Ms. Heckler had a brand strategy consulting firm for a number of years, where she supported such clients as The Clorox Company, Emerson Electric, Maritz, Inc., The American Red Cross, and Ralston Purina.

            Ms. Heckler is actively involved in the community and supports a number of art institutions. She currently serves on the Alumni Board for the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She is a board member for the Center for Brand Leadership and The International Institute of Greater St. Louis. She also sits on the Alumni Board for Indiana University.

            Ms. Heckler loves traveling, experiencing new cultures, and art. An avid animal lover, she lives with two cats–Honey and Muffin.

Branding: secrets revealed, best practices explained, pitfalls exposed!

• The truth about positioning brands and developing brand meaning

• The truth about brands as corporate profit drivers

• The truth about advertising, pricing, segmentation, and more

Simply the best thinking

the truth and nothing but the truth

This book reveals the 51 bite-size, easy-to-use techniques for building great brands–and keeping them great.

“I recommend this punchy, provocative book that uses vivid case studies to remind us of 51 truths about brands.”

DAVID AAKER, Vice-Chairman, Prophet and Author of Building Strong Brands and Spanning Silos

Online Sample Chapter

Why Managing Brands Is Not Common Sense

Sample Pages

Download the sample pages

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Truth 1 Managing brands is not common sense 1

Truth 2 No one loves your brand as much as you love it 5

Truth 3 The brand is not owned by marketing; everyone owns it 9

Truth 4 Making more by doing less 13

Truth 5 Does your brand keep its promise? 17

Truth 6 Price is the communication of the value of your brand 21

Truth 7 Brand personality is the emotional connection with your brand 25

Truth 8 Does your sales force know the difference between a product and a brand? 29

Truth 9 Beware of the discounting minefield 33

Truth 10 Packaging protects your product; great packaging protects your brand 37

Truth 11 Brand management is association management 41

Truth 12 The retail experience is the brand experience 45

Truth 13 Corporate ego: Danger ahead 49

Truth 14 Brand metrics: Best measure of success? 53

Truth 15 Customer complaints are a treasure 57

Truth 16 Brand stewardship begins at home 61

Truth 17 Market share doesn’t matter 65

Truth 18 Avoid the most common segmentation mistake 69

Truth 19 Public relations and damage control: The defining moment 73

Truth 20 Focus equals simplicity 77

Truth 21 Marketing is courtship, not combat 81

Truth 22 Don’t sacrifice brand focus for sales 85

Truth 23 The medium is not the message; the message is the message 89

Truth 24 Brand development and the small business 93

Truth 25 Imitation is an ineffective form of flattery 97

Truth 26 Positioning lives in the mind of your target customer 101

Truth 27 The value of brand loyalty 105

Truth 28 Quality is not an effective branding message 109

Truth 29 Effective use of celebrity endorsers: The fit’s the thing 113

Truth 30 Brand-building consumer promotion 117

Truth 31 Advertising built for the long run 121

Truth 32 A service brand is a personal brand 125

Truth 33 Is your brand the best at something? If so, be satisfied 129

Truth 34 Great positionings are enduring 133

Truth 35 Effective branding begins with the name 137

Truth 36 Your brand makes your company powerful, not the other way around 141

Truth 37 Be consistent but not complacent 145

Truth 38 Is your brand different? If not, why will someone buy it? 149

Truth 39 The three M’s of taglines: Meaningful, motivating, and memorable

Truth 40 Customer service is the touch point of your brand 157

Truth 41 Smaller targets are easier to hit 161

Truth 42 Beware of the allure of brand extensions 165

Truth 43 Keep advertising simple, but not simplistic 169

Truth 44 It’s a long walk from the focus group room to the cash register 173

Truth 45 Repositioning can be a fool’s chase 177

Truth 46 With advertising, don’t expect too much 181

Truth 47 Don’t let testing override judgment 185

Truth 48 Effective advertising is 90% what you say, 10% how you say it 189

Truth 49 Compromise can destroy a brand 193

Truth 50 Don’t let the pizazz outshine the brand 197

Truth 51 There are no commodity products, only commodity thinking 201

References 205

Acknowledgments 209

About the Authors 211