Branding is ultimately the way you differentiate your product from the competition. Whether you’re selling a celebrity image, automobiles, or a financial service, your goal is to make your brand the most recognizable by the consumer. But there’s much more to effective branding than a memorable slogan and ubiquitous advertising—public relations is becoming key to the entire strategy. PR is much more than just damage control for when something goes wrong; it’s an effective way to communicate the story of your brand through media outlets that the public trusts.
Filled with engaging stories and nuts-and-bolts tips for leveraging PR to build brands and communicate brand identity to consumers, A Branded World shows marketers and brand managers how to tap into the power of PR to build stronger brands.
This insider's glimpse into the manipulative world of branding is sedately delivered by reader Lloyd James in a bland, occasionally smirking tone. This seems appropriate, as author Levine, a marketing guru, has "handled" movie star and rock star clients (Michael Jackson, among others), corporate public relations disasters, and major product launches. He's rather smug about it all. James walks us through the creation and cold-blooded branding of a fictional brand of ice cream to illustrate the "creation of a superbrand," a quasi- psy-ops project that requires marketers to second-guess every nuance of public response. While full of useful pointers, A BRANDED WORLD suffers from its manipulative approach to marketing. D.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
