Branding Only Works on Cattle The New Way to Get Known (and Drive your Competitors Crazy)

Most people don’t know it yet, but branding is dead. Of course, we need to know about the things we want to buy, but the billions of pounds spent on logos, sponsorships, and jingles have little – if anything – to do with consumer behaviour. For example:

-Dinosaur-headed execs in Microsoft ads didn't help sell software.
-Citibank's artsy "live richly" billboards didn't prompt a single new account.
-United Airlines' animated TV commercials didn't fill more seats on airplanes.

In Branding Only Works on Cattle, branding guru Jonathan Salem Baskin reveals that modern consumers are harder to find, more difficult to convince, and even harder to retain. They make decisions based on experience – so what matters isn’t how creative, cool, or memorable the advertising is, but how companies can affect consumer behaviour. Marketing communications, distribution strategies, and customer service are all contributing to the new branding. This book will be the essential guide to understanding and thriving on this new branding dynamic.

Jonathan Salem Baskin runs a global branding consultancy and has worked for many of the world's top brands over his twenty-six-year career. Jonathan speaks extensively on delivering branding with more than images and words, and writes the slightly contentious brand marketing blog, Dim Bulb (dimbulb.typepad.com).

Introduction: Challenging Ptolemy's Imagination 1

1. Your Branding Is Useless 10

2. Traces in a Cloud Chamber 33

3. The New Nike 56

4. The Rise of the Anti-Brand 79

5. The Myth of the Consumer/Producer 104

6. The Outsourcing of Consent 127

7. Games as Purpose, Not Distraction 151

8. It Takes a Company 172

9. The Buzz in Buzz Marketing 195

10. The Emperor's New Clothes 219

Notes 243

Bibliography 249

Index 253