Sage Publications Brands and Branding

A fun and humorous introductory book, written in Stephen Brown′s entertaining and highly distinctive style, that introduces curious readers to the key components of brands and helps them to begin to make sense of them - what they are, what they do, why and how - using plenty of examples and references drawn from a wide range brands such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Gucci, Nike, Nintendo, Starbucks, Swatch and The Worst Hotel in the World. With 3,000 branding books published each year, why would you (or your students) want to read Brands & Branding?Here are seven reasons why:It’s introductory, aimed at undergraduate students or postgrads without a bachelor degree in business and assumes nothing more than readers’ awareness of high profile brands such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Chanel It’s indicative, focusing on the basics and thus being a more reliable revision aid than Lucozade It’s immersive, taking readers on a journey and, working on the assumption that they have smartphones or tablet computers to hand, the print text links to images, articles and academic publications to give emphasis and context where appropriate. It’s inclusive, considering articles and reports but also blogs, novels, newspapers,  reviews, social media and other sources It’s irreverent – branding is not always a deadly serious business! It’s intimate, Stephen speaks to you directly and together you will pick your way through the sometimes weird and unfailingly wonderful world of brands and branding using examples rather than abstract ideas to illustrate points. It’s inspirational, celebrating the curious and successful stories of brands from Cillit Bang to Cacharel Suitable for first and second year marketing or advertising students, and for those new to or interested in branding and who are keen to know more. Review Brown′s Ten Commandments of Branding offer a concise roadmap of dos and don′ts for brand success! [The book] devotes chapters to the components of brands (logos, names), their roles (they tell stories), their lives (brands are alive!), etc. Along with offering helpful reading lists at the end of each chapter, [and] "brand task" exercises to get you to think about brands from a variety of perspectives. One of my favorite passages is his overview of Robert Cialdini′s views on persuasion and how they are relevant to brands. -- Joe Rydholm About the Author Stephen Brown is Professor of Marketing Research at Ulster University, UK. He has written numerous books including Fail Better, Free Gift Inside and Wizard: Harry Potter’s Brand Magic, the last of which was translated into twelve languages. Once described as ‘the Antichrist of marketing’, his articles have appeared in the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Consumer Research and theHarvard Business Review, among many others. A life-long jogger, who believes Nike is second to none, he writes comic novels in his spare time.