BOOK REVIEW: BRAND WARRIORS

Wednesday, 29 November 2006 09:01

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Even though the book was first published almost a decade ago, it is still relevant today. The perspectives offered in the book are based on proven success of world class brands as told by top executives writes Tom Sitati in this review Brand Warriors.

“Corporate Leaders Share their Winning Strategies”. This phrase that features prominently on the cover of the book, Brand Warriors, edited by Fiona Gilmore is an apt summary of what the book is about. Even though the book was first published almost a decade ago, it is still relevant today. The perspectives offered in the book are based on proven success of world class brands as told by top executives. It is said that experience is the best teacher but with a book like Brand Warriors, which is a collection of brand triumphs and tribulations, your brand needn’t experience everything to get ahead. The book is rich with experiences every brand custodian would do well to take note of. Brand Warriors takes the reader through seventeen brands, from ASDA, the UK superstore to the Vodafone Group, a global market leader in mobile telephony.

Contributors to this book are of high profile in the corporate world. In the current brand conscious world, this is most appropriate as brands are no longer the preserve of middle level managers but the chief executive. The book has a British bias and despite the lofty positions occupied by all the contributors, I could only recognize Richard Branson.

Fiona Gilmore’s introduction, entitled “Brand Championship” is a gem. “Business is war”, she writes, “the objective is competitor destruction through superior industrial economies. Brand warfare is different: the brand warrior identifies the key conquest as the customer, not the rival”. She then proceeds to extol the virtues and necessity of branding before addressing other issues such as the much debated economic value of branding, brand architecture, the issue of keeping brands relevant, creativity, living the brand and the future of branding.

Each of the seventeen brands is handled in its own unique way. As the editor puts it, “brands are about people and ideas”. Each brand has its own idea of how to reach people and therefore has a different story to tell. In this way, Brand Warriors proves to be a rich reservoir of tried and tested brand knowledge.

I got the feeling the book’s selection of brands didn’t quite meet any discernable criteria even though after reading through each brand’s story I did find useful insights in every case. The fact that the story is told in a candid way where both negatives and positives are highlighted is a good departure from the often pompous posturing of many brand stories.

First published in SOKONI magazine