The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design

Book Description

THE BRAND GAP is the first book to present a unified theory of brand. Whereas most books on branding are weighted toward either a strategic or creative approach, this book shows how both ways of thinking can unite to produce a âcharismatic brandââa brand that customers feel is essential to their lives. In an entertaining two-hour read you’ll learn:
• a new definition of brand

• the five essential disciplines of brand-building
• how branding is changing the dynamics of competition
• the three most powerful questions to ask about any brand
• why collaboration is the key to brand-building
• how design determines a customer’s experience
• how to test brand concepts quickly and cheaply
• the importance of managing brands from the inside

Also see: THE BRAND GAP second edition, which includes a 220-term brand glossary and premium softcover binding.

FROM THE BACK COVER

Not since McLuhan's THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE has a book compressed so many ideas into so few pages. Using the visual language of the boardroom, Neumeier presents the first unified theory of branding -- a set of five disciplines to help companies bridge the gap between brand strategy and brand execution. Those with a grasp of branding will be inspired by what they find here, and those who would like to understand it better will suddenly "get it." This deceptively simple book offers everyone in the company access to "the most powerful business tool since the spreadsheet."

"Finally, a book that cuts to the heart of what brand is all about -- connecting the rational and the emotional, the theoretical and the practical, the logical and the magical to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Everyone in the company should read this book, not just the three people with 'brand' in their titles." --Susan Rockrise, Worldwide Creative Director, Intel

"A pleasure to read. THE BRAND GAP consistently provides deep, practical insights in a light, visual way. Discover the power of imagery and the role of research in building a heavy-duty brand -- without the heavy-duty reading." --David Aaker, Author of "Brand Leadership" and "Building Strong Brands"

"Neumeier stands out among brand-savvy professionals. His experience as a designer, writer, and strategist lends realism to his five disciplines of brand-building. Anyone who needs a deeper understanding of the creation, management, and evolution of brands should grab this book with both hands and start reading." --Patrick Fricke, Manager of Print and New Media Design, Kodak

"This is not just another book on brand. This is the only book you'll need to read in business, engineering, and design school." --Clement Mok, Design enterprenuer/President of AIGA

"THE BRAND GAP is an original. It describes the full range of creative interdependencies that need to be managed in concert, but in a language so plain, crisp, and simple that you suddenly 'see' the concept of brand--and can act boldly on it." --Peter Van Naarden, Director of Global Brand for Hewlett-Packard Co.

"THE BRAND GAP couldn't be more timely. Just when we're at our most skeptical about corporate motives, along comes a book that shows how to evaluate and develop a brand in a straightforward and honest manner." --David Stuart, Brand Designer and Co-Founder of The Partners, London

"This is an important work, with just the right level of accessibility. Despite our overexposure to brand theory these days, THE BRAND GAP is the first book that seems fresh and relevant." --Richard Grefe, Executive Director, The American Institute of Graphic Arts

"A well-managed brand is the lifeblood of any successful company--and Neumeier shows us exactly how to do it. Read this book before your competitors do!" --Tom Kelley, General Manager of Ideo/Author of "The Art of Innovation"

Customer Reviews:

I love this book.......2007-10-10

Of all the marketing books I have, this one makes the most sense. More than just quips and anticdotes, it is actual research and experience. I recommend it to my friends and family.

A MUST read for ANYONE with a job... SERIOUSLY!.......2006-11-06

This is one of the best books ever written. It is insightful for consumers, for businesses, for marketing professionals and... well, anyone! It makes you think, it makes you see marketing and advertising in a whole new way, and it will make you smarter - period. I think this should be mandatory reading in high schools across the world.

Do not attempt to be a web designer, an advertising professional, or an enterpreneur until you read this book.

shortest treatise on branding .......2006-09-01

in existence, that still tells most important things about branding you need to know.
It said nothing new to me, but then again I have read the authors and branding / positioning gurus Marty Neumeier mentions and quotes plus two dozen other books on branding and strategy.
So instead of doing it the hard way, like I did, you CAN actually find out most you need to know about branding from this rather small book during a three hour flight.
One thing I don't like about this book is its "look and feel", layout and fonts.
Its like the author wanted to be SO COOL and innovative SO BAD that he took it overboard. I found it annoying, not cool at all.

Good read, makes you think.......2006-08-18

Brand Gap was a quick airplane read. It's layout and common sense language made it an easy read. The book had very good points about brands versus logos and some real world mistakes that companies make. I read the book four weeks ago and I'm still thinking about it! Somewhat shotty construction, though - my book binding fell apart.

Full of information, very insightful.......2006-08-13

This is a delightful little book, easy to read, in easy to understand langauage.

More importantly, it is very insightful. One of the biggest problems in marketing is the concept that buying is a rational decision. Neumeier makes it easy to understand that the first step in the buying process is emotional connection. This concept is not new. As Neumeier quotes Ben Franklin, "Would you persuade, speak of interest, not reason."

The author makes a good case for importance of marketing (rational) and advertising (creative) working together to make 1 + 1 = 11. He also show the way of the future for busniess with bringing together teams of the best in field rather than trying to employ all under on roof. He takes a lesson from Hollywood to demonstrate this concept.

His insight into the misuse of focus groups is worth the price of the book times ten.

All in all you will find this book delightful to read and very insightful in many different facets of busiess. He does not bore you with the details and therein lies a bit of danger - that many people will miss some valuable concepts. It should be read often to keep the ideas and concepts fresh in mind.

The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System

Average customer rating:

good yet unclear ideas
Infostructure in geopardy?
Are The Libraries Safe Anymore For Decent Folks?
Anarchy for thee, not for me.
Not very original

The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Culture | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Government | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Privacy | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Hacking | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Network Security | Networking | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0465089844
Release Date: 2004-05-04

Book Description

From Napster to Total Information Awareness to flash mobs, the debates over who gets to control information and technology has revolved around a single question: How closely do we want the virtual world to resemble the real world? But while we weren't looking, the opposite has happened: The real world has started imitating the virtual world--in some alarming ways. More and more of our social, political, and religious activities are modeling themselves after the World Wide Web, along the lines of either anarchy or oligarchy, total freedom vs. complete control. And battle lines are being drawn.

On one side, trying to maintain control of information, are corporations, judges, the military, and global institutions. On the other side, trying to liberate information, are educators, hackers, civil libertarians, artists, consumers, and political dissidents. The Anarchist in the Library, by the rising young academic star Siva Vaidhyanathan, is a radically original look at how this battle will define one of the major fault lines of twenty-first century civilization.

The recording industry has sued the music downloaders into submission, but as a model of communication, their effects still echo around the world. The proliferation of such peer-to-peer networks may appear to threaten many established institutions, and the backlash against them could be even worse than the problems they create. Their effects--good and bad--resonate far beyond markets for music. They are altering our sense of the possible, extending our cultural and political imaginations.

Unregulated networks of communication have existed as long as gossip has. But with the rise of electronic communication, they are exponentially more important. And they are drawing the outlines of a battle for information that will determine much of the culture and politics of our century, from unauthorized fan edits of Star Wars to terrorist organizations' reliance on "leaderless resistance." The Anarchist in the Library is the first guide to one of the most important cultural and economic battlegrounds of the twenty-first century.

Customer Reviews:

good yet unclear ideas.......2007-09-02

The author brings up very interesting ideas, discussing how culture and technologies are inherently anarchistic, and how oligarchies are constantly trying to harness these for control & profit, which may end up damaging or destroying them in the process. The 'anything goes' trading of Napster wasn't good for artist and content produces, but the tied-down DRM world is even worse in the long run.

He definitely knows his material, but the writing just isn't that clear. He compares things to "Anarchistic Libertarianism" like I'm supposed to instantly know the ramifications of the term. I'd read a paragrah and realize I have no idea what he was trying to say.

There's a great argument to make here, I just don't think Siva Vaidhyanathan presents it very well.

Infostructure in geopardy?.......2006-03-01

This is a book is on, the most unexpected subjects: Information anarchy in utopia, Information anarchy in dystopia and Information utopia?

These insights are from an expert who visualizes the effects of hacking, cracking and whacking in the world in general. And how such a scenario creates chaos in libraries. See for instance, computer filters (p. 38), effect of total acces (121-122), and terrorism (118-120, 122).

Contextually, this books sounds as a sequel to the earlier title by the same author, i.e., "Copyrights and Copywrongs." In considering structurally as a sequel, I am not in anyways special. Because, The Chronicle of Higher Education, in 2004, said it precisely in the following article: "In the Copyright Wars, This Scholar Sides With the Anarchists." (see: http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i13/13a02901.htm)

Nevertheless, Anarchist in the Library adds value to the existing literature on safety, security, and emergency preparedness.

Interestingly, The Anarchist in the Library deals with clashes and the limits of freedom in a world that continues to converge - in electronic, media and digital domains.

The Anarchist in the Library is a good reading for policy makers to consider issues in public governance in a situation that is loaded with smart-internet, as well as, friendly-access environment.

Are The Libraries Safe Anymore For Decent Folks?.......2005-07-04

Anarchy is a governing system that eschews authority. Oligarchy governs from, through, and for authorities. These ideologies feed off each other dialectically; they are rapidly remaking our global information ecosystem: the increasing speed and amount of information and the basic paradox of the digital world onto the real world.

Libraries are never as placid as they appear. They are sources of controversy and conflict. After it was confirmed that some of the terrorists had used public computers in Virginia and Florida, the government decided they want access fo patron reading habits and Internet use. Thus, the USA Patriot Act came into existence.

The Patriot Act, signed by President Bush II, in October 2001, has turned into an intrusion in the privacy of library users and those who check out books. Anyone pretending to be FBI can check your account and no one will inform you.

The FBI is notorious for overstepping its bounds. This intrusion into patrons' privacy is against the Constitution. We are being denied our inalienable rights. The library is not just functionally important to communities all over the world, the doors should be open to everybody. Librarians are being forced to choose between their values, but they are supposed to support and protect the patrons. We are not to be intimidated by the choice of books we choose to read. I am using a diverse study among the nonfiction (simply because they are new), clearly not my choice of reading material, but folks on Amazon. com seem to prefer the newer books for their reviews.

As with Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, unclassified technical reports have disappeared from the Los Alamos National Lab web site. How is that possible? It never should have been put online in the first place.

Anarchy for thee, not for me........2005-04-05

While many academics do tend to "fog" their arguments I think this book by Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan of New York University is a fresh, provocative, and extremely readable discourse on the nature of freedom and control in a world awash with technology that is often over-hyped and under-analyzed. Prof. Vaidhyanathan is a fresh voice analyzing the extremely important issue of, in his words, the "availability and accessibility of the substance of expression and thus the possibility of public discussion and creativity" (185). As a veteran of the culture wars spawned by punk rock's initial social (and later in a watered-down form) commercial success, I have seen the reliance on empty sloganeering and naive calls for anarchy from punks who couldn't organize taking out the trash if they had all week. Prof. Vaidhyanathan rejects simplistic calls for decentralization and anarchy, and instead provides a rich and nuanced historical context for why we should return to what he calls "Civic Republicanism," a return to the idea of public trust and mutual dependency that many Americans have lost sight of in the rather simplistic way most debates have been framed in the battle over public control of information. One of the virtues of Prof. Vaidhyanathan's book is that he does not provide any easy answer or EFF manifestos, just a reliance on the basic responsibility of human beings to engage in meaningful dialogue about the Faustian bargains involved in new technologies. And in an age that promises unparalleled control and unparalleled, resistance, a call for a meaningful and participatory dialogue is a breath of fresh air.

Not very original.......2005-02-28

If you've been reading Slashdot, EFF's newsletter, or similar news sources, you have already read most of the valuable ideas that are in this book.
If you know very little about the political issues raised by recent changes in technology, the first three quarters of this book might be as good a place as any to introduce yourself to the discussions that have been floating around the net.
The last quarter of the book deals with broader political issues where the author has no more expertise than a typical reporter, and is at least as superficial as what you'd find in a typical newspaper article. For instance, he says "The World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which exercise wide-ranging influence over the lives of billions of people in developing nations, clearly work for the interests of the developed nations." I say that they work for a much narrower set of interests, and are probably somewhat harmful to developed nations as a whole.

Average customer rating:

good read about building a space elevator
Interesting but gets sidetracked.
Sheffield is Kirkwood?
Tense, stretched, he spins a good yarn...
Good charecters, weak plot.

The Web Between The Worlds
Charles Sheffield , and Arthur C. Clarke
Manufacturer: Baen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Adventure | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

High Tech | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0671319736

Book Description

"WHAT SF SHOULD BE ALL ABOUT." -- Kliatt

Rob Merlin was the best engineer who had ever lived. That was why "The King of Space" had to have him for the most spectacular construction project ever -- even though Rob was a potentially fatal threat to his power...

Thus begins a breakthrough novel by the former President of the American Astronautical Society, about an idea whose time has come: a shimmering bridge between Earth and space that mankind will climb to the stars!

Sound like fantasy? The concept has been in the literature of physics for over three decades, but only a writer with the scientific background of a Sheffield or a Clarke could bring the idea to life.

Customer Reviews:

good read about building a space elevator.......2006-01-01

This book tackles the engineering and manufactoring effort required to build a space elevator. Nice intro by Arthur C. Clarke saying that his idea was not plagarized. The story also delves into bioengineering and some of the possibilities thereof. Including some severe issues about the moralities of bioengineering.

Interesting but gets sidetracked........2005-10-02

Some good info on building a space elevator complete with mad industrialist with more money than god. There are misc other subplots though which were completely unecessary and uninteresting. Worth reading at a used price but not full retail.

Sheffield is Kirkwood?.......2005-03-11

"mybluemake" says in his review that "Charles Sheffield is (or was) actually pulitzer prize winning author James Kirkwood." I don't think that that's true. Sheffield did use "James Kirkwood" as a pen-name a few times, but there's another author of that name who did win a Pulitzer for "A Chorus Line" and died in 1989. Sheffield died in 2002.

As for the book itself, GREAT. However, it was wrong about how the Space Elevator will be built. It'll be a thin ribbon a meter wide and the thickness of saran wrap, not a cylinder the size of a Sequoia. Not a big deal, as far as the story goes.

Tense, stretched, he spins a good yarn..........2002-02-02

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that burning vast quantities of combustible fuel to move an object from here out into orbit, let alone out into the solar system, is phenomenally expensive and dangerous. Science Fiction authors have, for decades, tried to come up with all manner of workarounds, from gravitation drives to Star Trek style transporters.

One proposal that, until the late seventies, didn't attract a lot of attention was the idea of a cable stretching from the Earth into space, held in place by some form of geosynchronous structure. It's probably the least sexy technology available, nothing more than a really, really, strong, long, cable with objects climbing up and down it using whatever means fit the designer's imagination.

Two science fiction authors, Arthur C. Clarke and Charles Sheffield, decided to raise the idea of such a cable at roughly the same time (Clarke's book, The Fountains of Paradise, was published two weeks before Sheffield's), and at once the obvious simplicity and advantages of the idea captured the public imagination. Well, sort of, currently there is no known material strong enough to withstand the tension a useful cable would carry, but we're probably not far off.

This book is a treat. As well as the story itself, mostly a thriller centered around an engineer (who builds the cable, 'natch), a billionaire solar system miner, and a dubious amoral biologist, the book comes with a contribution from Arthur C Clarke on the history of the how the idea was brought to press, and a long appendix detailing the physics involved in building a "beanstalk" (Sheffield's name for the thing.) It was this part I personally found most interesting - it covered how such a thing would be built, other designs centered around the same principle, advantages the cable would have such as the ability to slingshot ships from the end, using the Earth's own rotation to move objects to anywhere in the solar system.

The novel itself is a multi-layered story which is centered so much around a sub-plot that the beanstalk itself is almost an afterthought. In a pinch, Merlin, the main character, investigates the death of his parents and why they were murdered, after the new project he's hired to lead unexpectedly brings him into contact with people who were involved or knew the reasons. The Science in the Fiction includes the beanstalk (obviously), genetic engineering, the mining of asteroids and other trips around the solar system. About my only grouse is that the characters are a little wooden and come across in that kind of pseudo-machismo usually associated with salesman culture and office politics, something that ought not to have irritated me to the extent that it did.

A wonderful book though, proposing a wonderful idea that, if ever implemented, will probably mean more for mankind's eventual exploration of space than the moon landings themselves.

Good charecters, weak plot........2001-08-29

First of all - don't mistake this book with "Between the strokes of night" which deals with life-prolongation by altering the body's metabolic speed and time sense. Now, the reason everybody are so dissapointed, I believe, is that the book lacks Sheffield's usual giant scope, and therefore highly advenced thechnolegy, with the setting in the far future. (allthough thet description is'nt compatiblle with the wonderfull "Proteus" series). But the plot did waver a bit. the climax was not all that. I do think though that all the charecters were excellent, and developed through the book. Not a bad story, it's only the higher expectations of the readers from sheffield.

Average customer rating:

The Web Between the Worlds
Charles Sheffield
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GRALJC

Average customer rating:

THE WEB BETWEEN THE WORLDS.

Manufacturer: ACE (USA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HIO0C4

And counting.(Between The Lines ... a Website tracks the costs of U.S. occupation of Iraq): An article from: World Watch

Average customer rating:

And counting.(Between The Lines ... a Website tracks the costs of U.S. occupation of Iraq): An article from: World Watch

Manufacturer: Worldwatch Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from World Watch, published by Worldwatch Institute on November 1, 2003. The length of the article is 794 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: And counting.(Between The Lines ... a Website tracks the costs of U.S. occupation of Iraq)
Publication: World Watch (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2003
Publisher: Worldwatch Institute
Volume: 16 Issue: 6 Page: 30(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

La lucha entre el bien y el mal, por Internet.(TT: The battle between good and evil, via Internet): An article from: Proceso

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La lucha entre el bien y el mal, por Internet.(TT: The battle between good and evil, via Internet): An article from: Proceso
María Scherer Ibarra
Manufacturer: CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00097KXT2
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Proceso, published by CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V. on March 23, 1997. The length of the article is 783 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: La lucha entre el bien y el mal, por Internet.(TT: The battle between good and evil, via Internet)
Author: María Scherer Ibarra
Publication: Proceso (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 23, 1997
Publisher: CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V.
Issue: n1064 Page: p32(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Web site helps with taxing problem of deciding between charities.(Columns)(Column): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

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Web site helps with taxing problem of deciding between charities.(Columns)(Column): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)
Gale Reference Team
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000PLX2PE
Release Date: 2007-04-16

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by Thomson Gale on April 10, 2007. The length of the article is 663 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Web site helps with taxing problem of deciding between charities.(Columns)(Column)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: April 10, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: C1

Article Type: Column

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Website practices: A comparison between the top 1000 companies in the US and Taiwan [An article from: International Journal of Information Management]

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Website practices: A comparison between the top 1000 companies in the US and Taiwan [An article from: International Journal of Information Management]
C. Liao , P.L. To , and M.L. Shih
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from International Journal of Information Management, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
In the global Web environment, understanding the practices of Web adoption in various countries is becoming increasingly important. This study compares the similarities and differences of Web sites across two different countries: the US and Taiwan. The similarities and differences in terms of Web adoption, Web comprehensiveness, and electronic commerce comprehensiveness are presented. The study also investigates whether revenue and industry types play crucial roles in determining the adoption and implementation of Web technology. Data was collected through thorough content analysis of Web sites in the top 1000 companies of the two countries. The results indicate that Web technology has become well integrated into almost all types of industries in the US. US companies are leading in the use of Web technology to conduct business. However, some Taiwanese companies are still at the premature stage of Web adoption: especially those companies in traditional industries or companies in the lower revenue category. Detailed findings are presented.

A comparison of changes of school web site characteristics between 1997 and 2000

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A comparison of changes of school web site characteristics between 1997 and 2000
Debra Ann Ennen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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