We all know there are books we should read to keep up with the latest ideas and theories in marketing, consumer behaviour and wider business issues. No one wants to be the only person in the meeting who hasn’t heard of the latest hot trend.
But who has time to keep track of them all. Fortunately for you, MediaCom does. As the UK’s favourite media agency, we need to keep on top of any new ideas that are concerned with the increasingly complex task of communicating with consumers.
Here are the latest three books that we think are worthy of your consideration. Click on the covers to read our summaries. Then add your own views in our Forum.
Our main choice this quarter is The Brand Innovation Manifesto, the latest work by one of our favourite thinkers, John Grant. The book is neatly defined by its subtitle, “how to build brands, redefine markets and defy convention”, and suggests ways to do all three. Our other choices are Millionaire Upgrade, which gives an insight into the mind of the successful entrepreneur, and Dealing with Darwin, which applies the theory of evolution to markets, while also offering guidance on how to ensure that your company is one of “the fittest” that survive.
The latest book by John Grant is both useful and inspirational which is no mean feat.
The subhead ‘ how to build brands, redefine markets and defy conventions’ is exciting in its scope and also, if you add in the title, covers just about any combination of words someone seeking a bit of inspiration in the marketing arena might put into a search engine (if next time he adds in ‘and making a fortune’ he’s got it covered totally!).
It’s in three parts: the first bit is inspiring and the second two parts help to put the inspirational bit into practice.
At the moment the world is once again full of headlines about media convergence, questions about the value of marketing communications and fear, uncertainty and doubt about the digital future.
Without a shadow of a doubt there will be winners and losers in the new marketing economy. To be a winner you will need to clearly understand the consumer in the new world. In part 1 Grant helps to explain a bit of theory about how the consumer has changed and what that means for brands.
So, for example, let’s be honest about advertising. Advertising doesn’t work in the same way that it used to (this by the way is not the same as saying that advertising doesn’t work). The reason for this is that after many many years of being exposed to a classic advertising model designed mid-way through the last century people have become clued up about advertising : ‘ less likely to take advertising at face value’.
Grant replaces the old theory of marketing with some new ideas about brands as a ‘cluster of strategic cultural ideas’ held together by ‘cultural logic’. In order to give your brand resonance in the new marketplace he claims you need to do something that fits that logic. It is no longer enough simply to claim emotional territory or talk about how your brand is supposed to make the consumer feel. There is a very interesting bit of theory about how new cultural ideas have particular resonance based on the idea that we humans like new ideas as part of evolution. Certainly any salesman will tell you that new news attracts attention.
Part two of the book contains many examples of different types of brand ideas. Based on a kind of periodic table John defines 32 headers with at least two examples in each case of how brands have acted. I think this part of the book is going to be useful over and over again as stimulus for brand development. So what we have here is a typology of cultural ideas and directions for a brand to take. There’s ‘new traditions’ illustrated by Nandos : “a key thing about this brand is that it also has a different take on the standard restaurant format. You order at the counter first and then your meal is brought to your table….. as a result it seems like a restaurant, not a fast food joint”. There’s ‘connecting’ illustrated by a MediaCom example : P+G’s Biomat detergent in Israel where the campaign targeted the orthodox Jewish community (unreachable by conventional media) by helping them to perform good deeds. The campaign asked people to bring old clothes to a Biomat truck. The clothes were then publically washed and distributed to the homeless. “In a subtle way you could call this product demonstration, but it also works by creating affinity, word of mouth and approval among an existing social network. And it took Biomat to brand leadership….”
Part three takes the reader through ways of working to develop the ideas in practice.
So, both inspiring and practical. Its easy to read either straight through or to dip in and out of. You won’t agree with all of it, (we sometimes work with John at MediaCom and we don’t always agree with him then either, but it’s always refreshing and challenging). However this book contains passages where the author absolutely shoots from the hip and debunks some sacred cows of our industry and anyone who shoots down outmoded and unproductive ways of working deserves both credit and applause.
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This is an ambitious book which attempts to deliver a unified theory of the evolution of markets based on the survival of the fittest. Back in the nineteenth century Darwin's theory changed the way humans saw themselves and their world. If one accepted that humans were descended from animals, it became clear that humans also are animals. The natural world took on a darker tinge in the minds of many, as animals in the wild are understood to be in a constant state of deadly competition with one another. The world was also seen in a less permanent fashion; since the world was apparently much different millions of years ago, it dawned on many that the impact of human beings would lessen and perhaps disappear altogether over time.
Moore’s book provides an equally dark vision of company survival in the modern world :
So, adaptability, flexibility and innovation are key to longterm success. And past success is no guarantee of continued success and in fact might jeopardize a company’s will to innovate as the more one develops a legacy of past achievements the more anxiety might be generated about the ability to continue to change. Some companies get stuck on a particular kind of innovation and fail to adapt to market changes that diminish its impact. Others become anxious about growth and fund too many innovations creating an internal traffic jam to focussed progress.
Moore builds a framework for spotting where your company sits in terms of need for innovation, and then what kind of innovation to consider depending on where your company sits. The book contains a clear formula for tackling innovation and inertia in tandem and marshalling resources from business as usual to differentiating innovation. The book is full of examples of companies at each stage of the innovation curve. Based on the author’s extensive experience with Cisco during a period of change the book contains lots of that knowledge, but is all the richer for detailed examples from other industries and markets, from fmcg to business consulting and as diverse as you can get, from Disney and Marvel comics to Gillette, Avon, IBM and Ebay.
After taking us through types of markets and various roles for innovation (clearly set up but you really have to concentrate – blink and you miss a point), Chapter 8 sets out some rules for managing innovation in your enterprise:
This book is inspiring – it successfully I think explains when and how to innovate, and when to refocus. It analyses why a focus on short term targets can be deadly to a company’s longterm future. It is a complicated book on a complex subject but its packed full of easy to grasp examples and really informative diagrams. In the age of convergence and speed of development which we find ourselves it’s a necessary book. Lets finish on a quotation from the end of the book :
‘That’s what evolution is all about, a continual raising of the bar. It’s how countries raise their standard of living. It’s why new companies get formed every year. It’s why each of us must learn new skills throughout our careers. We may get tired, but we are not likely to get bored. Mostly we just have to perform. Welcome to the race.’
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The author wanted to find out first hand what made self made millionaires successful and so he interviewed 50 in an attempt to fathom their secrets of success. With the information he gleaned from these interviews he set about compiling the characteristics they shared and the techniques they employed to achieve high levels of success.
This book is not only aimed at would-be millionaires and budding entrepreneurs, but any one who wants to achieve success in business. We're told the difference between the uber successful and the lowly employee is not some kind of innate wisdom genetically transferred to a lucky few, but a number of key characteristics and traits that can be learnt and adopted by anyone.
The book tells the story of Tom, a frustrated computer software employee, who when embarking on a business flight gets upgraded to business class and sits next to a self made millionaire. Through the course of the flight the highly successful Michael Redford shares his secrets of success with Tom. Apparently the book was inspired by a true story of someone sitting next to Sir Richard Branson on a flight.
When I was a teenager my elder sister, then in her 20’s, liked to read self improvement books and I picked up a couple that lay on our bookshelves at home, books such as Dale Carnegie’s “How to Make Friends and Influence People” and “The Power of Thinking Big”. Millionaire Upgrade was a little reminiscent of these reads. The book is written with what I would call an American tone, the kind you’d get from an American sports star saying “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”. Phrases in the book like “self doubt is the death of an entrepreneur” could come from some of the over-confident contestants on BBC 2’s “The Apprentice”. Maybe at the age of 39 I’m just cynical that I’m not a self made millionaire or maybe I’m just a bit English.
Michael Redford is depicted as a kind of super hero, calm, totally in control but also polite and considerate to others. Not driven by greed, but a passion for his business. I couldn't help but think that his character was just a little too good to be true and dare I say it a bit sickly sweet.
Despite this, I did enjoy reading the book and I was happy to accept its slightly cheesy style, because I did find it motivating. Each chapter tackles one of the eight key principles that successful entrepreneurs share and I found these eight key characteristics to be very good pieces of advice.
And if you’re like me and struggle to find the time to read, you’ll be pleased to know it’s only one hundred pages and therefore a quick read.
So if you want to adopt the mind-set of an entrepreneur or CEO and not a lowly employee, get yourself a Millionaire Upgrade.
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