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Edited by Geoffrey P. Lantos The New Strategic Brand Management: Creating and Sustaining Brand Equity Long Term Jean-Noël Kapferer Kogan Page London and Sterling, VA 2004 xiv + 497 pp. ISBN 0-7494-4383-2 US$35.00
Keywords Brand management, Brand equity, Marketing strategy
Review DOI: 10.1108/10610420610650909
This is a magisterial work on brands. It is a substantially expanded and largely rewritten sequel to Jean-Noël Kapferer's Strategic Brand Management (2nd ed., Kogan Page, London and Dover, NH, 1998), the first edition of which appeared in 1992 in French. From the first to the now third edition, which has been so thoroughly revised that the change in the title is truly warranted, the book has grown not only in volume but much more so in quality.
While perfectly useable as a textbook in classes on product management or branding, it has neither the systematic structure, nor the often sterile and scholastic style, nor the didactic ancillaries (chapter reviews, cases in inserted boxes, lists of key terms, discussion questions, etc.) of an American textbook. Though featuring numerous tables and graphs, it foregoes photos and color illustrations, which drive up textbook prices without, at least in business disciplines, adding much to the explanation of topics covered. Kapferer's book is meant for the serious reader, student, or professional, who not only wants to gain an excellent state-of-the-art overview of the research and discussion on branding but also to profit from a very original approach. While integrating many findings from the expansive literature on brands, the book does not cling to them and cite research papers in every paragraph. It tells its own story.
Kapferer's book consists of an introduction and 17 chapters, which are arranged in four parts. Part I deals with strategic issues of branding. It explains the nature of brands and of brand equity, and the relations between brands, products, and companies. The central issue in branding is really the relationship between products and brands. Brands are embodied in products (including services and places) and need them as "carrier objects"; moreover, each brand requires a "flagship product" to "express its spirit" (p. 44). Kapferer also warns against seeing...