The Brand Enigma - Decoding the Secrets of Your Brand

Brand Enigma provides a refreshing antidote to tired, conventional approaches to business development, marketing and innovation. The premise for this book is that the brand embodies the spirit of the business and, properly understood, can enable the enterprise to raise innovation, business development and performance to new levels. Based on a proven method for deconstructing and rebuilding brands, the book outlines an alternative but stimulating, and highly effective method of putting the brand at the centre of the business. At the heart of this approach is the Brand Dream Model. Developed and perfected over several years, the model has helped to generate breakthroughs for many of the world's leading brands and corporations. It has also been applied to educational establishments and as part of a strategy development programme for a government department. Using deceptively simple methods based on experiential, as opposed to analytical, techniques, the Brand Dream Process reveals the past strengths of the brand, its current characteristics and future potential. When the process involves everyone from the board to the marketing department and front line staff, it also generates a shared understanding of the business, its values and goals. Brand Enigma gives you the tools to put your brand and business in a class apart from the competition. "...for breaking the norm and looking at a brand from a team perspective, this is one of the best. There's no breakthrough point with more conventional approaches to brand development. This immerses you. It's a still-hidden gem that many other companies should try." Chris Priest, VP Marketing Europe Digital Appliances, LG "What an extraordinary learning experience for our company. The Brand Dream let us express ourselves and get to a meaningful result unlike any other event that I have ever been a part of." Kenny Kahn, Chief Strategic Officer, Iverify "We have never done anything like this before! We found the experience enlightening, our objective was our brand image, which we feel we achieved admirably. However the unexpected benefit was an emotional and adrenalin-filled roller coater of a team-building exercise." Andrew Jankel, Managing Director, Jankel Armouring "It brought people together in a way that other brand development approaches would not ...If you have a brand in the doldrums, it's an outstanding tool to reinvigorate it." Nick Shepherd, former senior marketing executive, Kraft Foods "When you give anyone a mechanism for analysing the world, you empower them. It's partly because the model is so simple that it is blindingly successful." David Bott, Director of Innovation Platforms, the Technology Strategy Board

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements. Prelude. Chapter 1: Getting the best from this book. Chapter 2: Nightmares and dreams: the new world of brands. Chapter 3: Enduring myths, new challenges and realities. Chapter 4: How the brand dream process took shape. Chapter 5: Fitting the pieces together: the brand dream model. Chapter 6: Taking the brand dream medicine. Chapter 7: Deconstructing brands: a new way of sussing out the competition. Chapter 8: Engaging staff in the employer brand. Chapter 9: A web of threats and opportunities. Chapter 10: An inspirational approach to innovation. Chapter 11: Renewing the dream. Index.

About the Author :
Duncan Bruce is Executive Creative Director and partner at The Brand Conspiracy ltd, a leading, international brand strategy and innovation consultancy. Duncan is also an architect of the Brand Dream Model which he has developed and applied in scores of client assignments in the US and Europe. He has extensive experience in brand strategy, development and innovation and has worked with many of the world's leading brands and corporations. Much of his work has been in the USA and Canada, He spends much of his time working with multinational companies with global brands. Duncan is also Chairman of The Youth Conspiracy, a brand strategy and development consultancy specializing in the youth market. David Harvey is Managing Director of Business Intelligence, a research, publishing and event company specialising in the exploration of innovative business and management practices. He is an experienced writer and journalist who has worked for and contributed to a range of publications including The Director magazine, The Observer, The Independent and other nationals, as well as business and specialist media. David has authored several titles for Business Intelligence and other publishers. As a consultant, he has worked with Duncan on Brand Dream assignments and has an inside understanding of the Brand Dream Model.

Review :
"There is strong analysis of good and bad brand management and interesting thoughts on innovation" (Director, February 2009)