Summary

How to use brands to gain and sustain competitive advantage

Companies today face a dilemma in marketing. The tried-and-trueformulas to create sales and market share behind brands arebecoming irrelevant and losing traction with consumers. In thisbook, Gerzema and LeBar offer credible evidence--drawn from adetailed analysis of a decade's worth of brand and financial datausing Y&R's Brand Asset Valuator (BAV), the largest database ofbrands in the world--that business is riding on yet another bubblethat is ready to burst--a brand bubble. While most managers stillsee metrics like trust and awareness as the backbone of how brandsare built, Gerzema asserts they're dead wrong--these metrics do notadd to increased asset value. In fact, by following them, theyactually hasten the declining value of their brands.

Using a five-stage model, The Brand Bubble reveals howtoday's successful brands--and tomorrow's--have an insatiableappetite for creativity and change. These brands offer consumers apalpable sense of movement and direction thanks to a powerful"energized differentiation." Gerzema reveals how brands withenergized differentiation achieve better financial performance thantraditional brands have. Plus, Gerzema helps readers developenergized differentiation in their own brands, creatingconsumer-centric and sustainable organizations.

Library Journal Review

These authors both hold senior positions at Young & Rubicam (Y&R), part of the largest ad agency holding company in the world, WPP Group. Their book sounds an alarm based on a gap in value between how consumers and investors perceive brands. The authors have a proprietary research tool that they use to measure value, and they've found that investors reward companies with greater brand awareness, even if consumers don't see much utility. The book presents recommendations on how to close the gap between consumer and company perceptions. Many other books present theories about branding. Al and Laura Ries's The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding offers a hands-on approach to branding, focusing on what works and not necessarily why, while Janelle Barlow and Paul Stewart's Branded Customer Service attacks the problem of branding from the view of the customer experience. David A. Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler's Brand Leadership's more quantitative approach and academic perspective can be compared most closely to this new book. The Brand Bubble is appropriate for a business school or corporate library and will be useful to marketers as well as investors.--Stephen E. Turner, Turner Devaughn Network, Abington, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.