A sensory guide to the branding experience
From Amazon
Author Martin Lindstrom deserves credit for this original contribution to the overworked discipline of branding. He makes the case for involving all five senses - as well as emotions of nearly religious depth - in branding. While this may not work for every industry (it would be hard to make financial services tactile, aromatic or beloved, for example), it is a provocative idea that expands the branding discussion. We find that Lindstrom makes a logical case for exploiting the power of the senses and emotions as he weaves in data based on a 24-nation study by research firm Millward Brown. The research explored "to what extent the religious factor - faith, belief and community - could serve as a model for the future of branding." It also examined how taste, touch, hearing, smell and sight can create links between buyers and brands, and paid incisive attention to actual branding stories. Though some repetition crops up, Lindstrom generally keeps the book moving along with new facts that propel each chapter. He makes it clear that greater sensory emphasis could boost many brands - and, perhaps, the careers of many brand managers.
wonderful
From Amazon
this is a wonderful book. i am a marketing student and I can see the importance of lindstrom's 5 senses branding. he also makes it very easy to understand, because he writes in a very simple way, making enjoyable the hole book.
Interesting and quick read on brand management
From Amazon
If you are interested in consumer brands, the kind that huge MNCs can produce, then you could find this useful. The premise of this book is that brand marketing should involve all five senses whereas typically marketing has involved only sight and/or sound. Lindstrom suggests that marketing should involve the full five senses of taste, smell and touch.
Most medium and small businesses would find this very suggestion hard to implement. Firstly because involving all five senses is extremely difficult to achieve in the case of many products or services. Secondly the limited budget available for many small businesses would limit their attempts to involve all five senses in the branding process. Yet if these business could simply catch up on Lindstrom's clue that a brand is much more than the logo, they would reap benefits.
If you represent a large MNC or small company with a limited budget there are two very useful tools in this book - smashing your brand and sensory audit or sensory branding authenticity test. These are not groundbreaking ideas which have not appeared before but they have been put very clearly. Though the many examples given in the book are from large corporations like Singapore Airlines or Sony, even smaller business can benefit from these. The question of why many brands do not succeed in the market hasn't been explored here in depth with examples and this drawback detracts from the usefulness of this book. Also the effect of culture on branding hasn't been mentioned. This is a major factor of brands succeeding or failing ignominiously in the market.
Overall, this book is a good and quick read with some useful information to come back to later.
The Interdependence of Branding and Sensory Awareness
From Amazon
As Philip Kotler explains in an especially perceptive Foreword, "distinctive brands...have to be powered up to deliver a full sensory experience. It is not enough to present a product or service visually in an ad...The combination of visual and audio stimuli delivers a 2 + 2 = 5 impact. It pays even more to trigger other sensory channels - taste, touch, smell - to enhance the total impact. This is Martin Lindstrom's basis message, and he illustrates it beautifully through numerous cases with compelling arguments." Bernd Schmitt is among others who make precisely the same point. In Experiential Marketing (1997), for example, he and Alex Simonson assert that "most of marketing is limited because of its focus on features and benefits." They then presented what they characterized as "a framework" for managing those experiences. In Experiential Marketing (1999), Schmitt provides a much more detailed exposition of the limitations of traditional features-and-benefits marketing. Moreover, he moves beyond the sensory "framework" into several new dimensions, introducing what he calls "a new model" which will enable marketers to manage "all types of experiences, integrating them into holistic experiences" while "addressing key structural, strategic, and organizational challenges."
In Brand Sense, Lindstrom provides a comprehensive, cohesive, and cost-effective methodology by which to plan, implement, and then sustain effective sensory marketing. As he correctly points out, approaches to marketing have changed significantly in recent years. In the 1950s, branding belonged to the unique selling proposition (USP); by the 1960s, a focus on the emotional selling proposition (ESP) emerged; then in the 1980s, many brand managers adopted the organizational selling proposition (OSP); by the 1990s, "brands had gained enormous strength bin their own right, and the Brand Selling Proposition (BSP) took over." Inevitably, it now seems, the me selling proposition (MSP) emerged. What's next? Again I quote Lindstrom:
"There's every indication that branding will move beyond the MSP, into an even more sophisticated realm - reflecting a brave new world where the customer desperately needs something to believe in - and where brands very well might provide the answer. I call this realm HSP - the Holistic Selling proposition."
With meticulous care, Lindstrom explains how and why the methodology he recommends will enable all organizations (regardless of size or nature) to drive sales and profits with a commitment to the HSP. To his credit, he devotes far more attention to the "how" and "why" than to the "what," although he duly acknowledges the importance of creating or increasing demand for a worthy product or service.
Readers will especially appreciate Lindstrom's provision of a set of "Action Points" at the conclusion of most chapters. These will suggest how to apply the material to which they refer, and, will facilitate and expedite a periodic review later to ensure that effective follow-through has been accomplished. Obviously, it would be foolish to attempt to implement all of Lindstrom's suggestions. It remains for each reader to determine what is most appropriate to her or his organization's immediate and imminent needs. However, whether committing to Lindstrom's methodology or to any other, it is important to understand and - yes--appreciate the barriers to change initiatives when introducing any methodology which challenges, as James O'Toole so aptly characterizes them, "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom."
Stimulate our thinking
From Amazon
This book is great in a way that it stimulates our thinking and looks at the branding concepts in a brand new way. It also encourages curiosity and creativity in this professional filed. A Must-Read!