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After setting out much of what has become the conventional thinking on branding in two seminal earlier works, David A. Aaker is ready to offer a more updated and unifled theory in his latest book, Brand Leadership (The Free Press).
In Brand Leadership, which is based on .300-odd case studies around the world along with insights gleaned through their consulting assignments, Aaker and his consulting partner and co-author Erich Joachimsthaler, describe how established brand management systems-notably those following the structure outlined by a mid-level Procter & Gamble exec seven decades ago-are giving way to a new paradigm of "strategic brand leadership "that is less reactive in focus, that empowers brand custodians and that harnesses the power of brands to encompass multiple products and markets.
In detailing how organizations must transform themselves to accommodate this change, Aaker and Joachimsthaler examine the issues involved in developing an effective brand architecture, including the roles brands (and sub-brands and endorsed brands) should play within a broader brand system. The authors also decry the clutter of conventional advertising media and make the case for two underanalyzed brand-building vehicles: sponsorship and the Internet.
Aaker is one of the most familiar names in brand strategy, in large part thanks to the success of his best-selling Managing Brand Equity (1991) and Building Strong Brands (1996), also from The Free Press. The first argued that brands are a company @ key assets, and the second offered methods for cohesively building those brands. Aaker suggests that Brand Leadership should be regarded as the third volume of a trilogy, with the other two books.
Aaker is vice chairman of Prophet Brand Strategy and professor emeritus of marketing at the Haas School of Business at the University of California in Berkeley Joachimsthaler is visiting professor of business administration at the University of Virginia's Darden School and has served as CEO of Aaker-Joachimsthaler & Partners, a decade-old brand strategy and executive education consulting partnership whose clients have included AT&T,Adidas,Audi, Compaq, Levi-Strauss, MasterCard and PepsiCo. Putting their branding precepts to work for themselves, Aaker and Joachimsthaler have just relaunched the partnership as The Brand Leadership Co., and relocated it to New York from Charlottesville, Va.
In the following pages, Brandweek excerpts the opening chapter of Brand Leadership, starting with...