In an age of hypercompetition, commoditization, globalization, and rapid technological obsolescence, marketers are struggling to find new conceptual bases on which to design and deliver their marketing programs.

—Philip Kotler, Professor Emeritus of Marketing, Northwestern|Kellogg

It has been 14 years since our previous edition of Kellogg’s tome on branding. The quote above is from Phil Kotler’s foreword to that edition. And it was written pre-iPhone, pre-Uber, pre-Twitter, pre-Alexa, pre-Instagram, and pre-Snapchat, as well as before the explosive strides in artificial intelligence and machine learning. To state the obvious: the world that Kotler described so presciently in 2005 has only become ever more challenging and bewildering for those responsible for building and managing brands.

That is why this book is essential. It is designed to help managers accelerate the growth of brands in this hyper-connected world. It is the best thinking from the most acclaimed marketing and branding school in the country; it is supplemented with wisdom from cutting-edge practitioners from companies such as Ulta, Google, John Deere, and McDonald’s.

You will become a better brand builder by reading this book and putting the perspectives and frameworks to work in your business, in your research, or in your classroom. Marketing leaders will find ideas that help them create new markets and differentiate their brands from their competitors. Academics will find sparks that inspire research and guide them as they prepare the next generation of CMOs in their classrooms.

This book arrives not a moment too soon. Branding and marketing has grown in influence and importance for companies since our last edition; a recent study by Deloitte and the CMO Council revealed that CMOs are increasingly responsible for enterprise-level growth and revenue management versus communications management. And the stakes keep getting higher: since 2005, global marketing spending has increased 45 percent to approximately $585.5 billion. Yet, still too many brands are struggling to grow. Witness the sluggish growth of mature brands in categories such as food, beverage, and beauty as small, founder-led brands capture the momentum.

A word of advice on how to leverage the knowledge in this book to full advantage: treat it like a sumptuous buffet. Our book has four parts and 24 chapters, and every chapter is loaded with calories. Consume a chapter or two at a time, and let it settle. Make notes on what struck you, and how you might apply it, share it, test it. And if you approach a buffet as I do (desserts first!), you can go directly to what interests you the most. You do not need to read these chapters in sequence.

Now, get to work. The world is better when we have curious, courageous brand builders who are ready and willing to take on this very important task.

Jim Stengel

The world of branding has changed dramatically in the past decade, and the pace of change only seems to be accelerating. A key force driving both change and complexity is the overwhelming access to people, products, and information. In today’s world, we are hyper-connected.

Consumers have an almost infinite range of products and services quite literally at their fingertips, and these options can be delivered, if not instantly, then close to it. Brand managers can connect directly with their customers, track their decision journey, and in many cases make the sale without the assistance of traditional intermediaries. The opportunities are endless for both consumers and managers, and the breadth of options has the potential to be overwhelming.

Although some argue that brands are becoming less important, we believe the opposite—that branding is becoming even more important. Brands provide differentiation, create loyalty, and even foster a sense of identity. Without a powerful, distinctive brand, firms have to rely purely on product-based differentiation, and this can be difficult to maintain.

Our goal in writing and editing this book is to help business leaders navigate this evolving landscape. We do so by drawing upon the perspectives of Kellogg’s world-renowned marketing faculty, as well as those of senior executives who put theory into practice as they build and manage brands on a day-to-day basis.

This book is the latest in a series of marketing books from Kellogg, stretching back to 2001 with the publication of Kellogg on Marketing. Four additional books followed: Kellogg on Integrated Marketing (2003), Kellogg on Branding (2005), Kellogg on Advertising and Media (2008), and the second edition of Kellogg on Marketing (2010). These books reflect the collective wisdom of the Kellogg marketing faculty. Thousands of executives have turned to them for perspectives, frameworks, and tools when creating marketing plans and building brands.

Overview of the Book

Our introduction highlights the power and challenge of branding. The four sections that follow it focus on themes of strategy, implementation, methods, and practical applications.

Section One, “Thinking Strategically about Your Brand,” covers big-picture issues. The six chapters in this section examine the intended meaning for the brand, how the brand will compete, and the vision and leadership required to create a strong brand.

Chapter 1, “Brand Positioning: The Foundation for Building a Strong Brand,” provides a contemporary look at the core concept of brand positioning and describes ways to evolve a positioning strategy over time. Chapter 2, “Leveraging the Power of Brand Purpose,” explains why it is important for companies and brands to articulate their purpose; that is, why they exist. Clarity about company/brand purpose has helped many companies effectively engage multiple stakeholders and in some instances is integral to brand positioning. Chapter 3, “Creating a Powerful Brand Portfolio,” explores the opportunity and complexity that comes from creating a portfolio of brands.

The remaining chapters in Section One are devoted to competitive strategy, leadership, and globalization. Chapter 4, “Competitive Brand Strategies: Creating Pioneer, Fast-Follower, and Late-Mover Advantage,” considers issues related to the timing of a brand’s entry into a category, describing the advantages and challenges associated with being a pioneer, fast follower, or late entrant. Chapter 5, “Leading the Brand: Brand Strategy Orchestration and Implementation,” highlights the importance of involvement and walking the talk at the highest level of the organization. Last, Chapter 6, “The Three Keys to Building Global Brands with Soul,” details principles for managing global brands. It emphasizes the need to exert central control over a brand’s essence and connection to consumers’ goals, while delegating sufficient authority and responsibility to local managers to adapt the brand to cultural differences and habits.

Section Two, “Bringing Your Brand to Life,” focuses on strategy implementation. Chapters in this section address the challenge of translating the intended meaning for the brand into everything that customers experience. Here is where hyper-connectivity has its greatest impact for many brands. In the pre-digital world, once the strategy was set, the execution of it followed logically. The brand positioning and research into targeted consumers’ buying patterns provided clear guidance for setting the price, choosing retail outlets, developing a persuasive message, and choosing the media to deliver the message. The assumed buying process was systematic and was likened to a funnel where a consumer began by considering a set of familiar brands and narrowed the set until a “winner” emerged—the brand purchased because it best fit with the consumer’s goal. Today, brands enter and exit the consideration set throughout the decision process, and the options for pricing, delivering, and communicating about brands are constantly evolving.

Chapter 7, “Brand Design and Design Thinking,” begins the section by detailing how both verbal/auditory (i.e., name, sound) and visual/olfactory (i.e., shape, scent) elements significantly influence consumers’ perceptions of a brand outside of their conscious awareness. Chapter 8, “Leveraging Touchpoints in Today’s Brand Environment,” discusses how to create a consistent and coherent brand experience at touchpoints throughout the customer decision journey.

Ultimately, brands succeed when they connect with consumers’ fundamental motivations. Chapter 9, “Building Strong Connections between Brands and the Self,” draws upon a wealth of academic research to describe such motivations and offer advice about how to build strong connections between a brand and the self. The next three chapters provide guidance for effectively managing brand communications (Chapter 10, “Building Strong Brands through Advertising Strategy in an Online Age,” and Chapter 11, “Digital Brand Storytelling”) and the service experience (Chapter 12, “Branding Services in the Digital Era”).

Chapters in Section Three, “Gaining Insight about Your Brand and Quantifying Its Stature,” examine methodologies for understanding consumers and evaluating brands. Chapter 13, “Digital Transformation and the Evolution of Customer Insights in Brand Building,” and Chapter 14, “Using Neuroscience to Assess Brands,” describe new qualitative and quantitative methods that can provide deep insight into consumers’ needs and uncover perceptions of brand. Chapter 15, “Measuring Brand Relevance and Health,” presents a framework for diagnosing the stage in the customer decision journey where a brand may be failing, and Chapter 16, “Connecting Marketing and Finance via Brand Value,” explores how marketers and those in finance and accounting might arrive at a shared view of the monetary value of brands.

Section Four, “Lessons from Brand Leaders,” reinforces the practical relevance of the concepts outlined in the previous sections with case studies and advice from people managing brands on the front line. Chapter 17, “Has Purpose Lost Its Purpose? McDonald’s Defines Its Style of Marketing,” looks at the challenge of finding the right balance between positioning and purpose for McDonald’s. Chapter 18, “Ulta Beauty Gets a Branding Makeover,” details how marketers built the Ulta Beauty brand while also supporting the numerous, well-known brands carried in its stores.

The next three chapters present case studies demonstrating that the value of strong brands and challenges associated with building them extend beyond the familiar consumer-targeted brands. Chapter 19, “Transforming a Historic Brand for a Hyper-Connected World: The John Deere Story,” charts John Deere’s journey from a product-focused manufacturer to a company and brand dedicated to using emerging technologies to help its core customers—farmers—optimize their yields. Chapter 20, “Rebranding an Organization: The Novant Health Story,” illustrates the bold rebranding of the healthcare organization Novant Health. Chapter 21, “Repositioning a Country Brand: Changing the Conversation about Mexico,” shows the power of extending the brand mindset beyond products and services, and details how public and private stakeholders came together to reposition the country of Mexico as an appealing destination for tourists from around the world.

The section concludes with guidance on creating and managing brands. Chapter 22, “Managing Brand Communications in a Digital World,” presents advice on how to build brands in a hyper-connected world, with a focus on digital communications. Chapter 23, “Customer Experience: The New Frontier of Branding,” outlines guidelines for managing the customer experience. And finally, Chapter 24, “Brand New: Creating a Brand from Scratch,” offers some sage advice for entrepreneurs and companies seeking to create a differentiated new brand in a cluttered market.

How to use the Book

This book is a collection of chapters, and each one explores a different aspect of building strong brands. The chapters are self-contained but complementary, allowing readers to use the book in a variety of ways.

The book’s distinctive combination of academic frameworks and practical lessons make it appropriate for both university courses and executive reading.

An academic might assign the book for a branding course at either the MBA or executive level. For example, we use the book in our Kellogg on Branding executive education program. Chapters in the first two sections provide the basic structure for the program, and chapters from Sections Three and Four serve as additional readings that illustrate and deepen understanding of specific topics.

Students of branding not enrolled in a formal course but who seek a broad understanding of branding in today’s world may wish to read the book from cover to cover. Experienced brand managers may focus their attention on contemporary concepts such as brand purpose (Chapter 2), new research methods and diagnostic tools (Section Three), and insights from their peers (Section Four). Executives and entrepreneurs confronted with a specific challenge, such as launching a new brand, may concentrate on a subset of chapters that address decisions made during the launch period. For example, those preparing to launch a new brand might find the chapters related to brand positioning (Chapter 1), the competitive environment (Chapter 4), brand design and touchpoints (Chapters 7 and 8), and advice for creating a brand from scratch (Chapter 24) particularly relevant.

However you use this book, we hope you will find that it enhances your appreciation for brands and their continued and growing significance in our hyper-connected world.

Alice M. Tybout

Tim Calkins

We are deeply grateful to all who helped us with this book in ways big and small. It is impossible to mention everyone who helped, but a few people stand out.

We thank our colleagues in the Kellogg Marketing Department who have shared their wisdom with us throughout the years, and we are particularly grateful to those who contributed chapters to this volume. We are also indebted to the outstanding group of senior executives who support Kellogg and who made time in their busy schedules to share their wisdom. A special thanks to Eric Leininger for helping identify and recruit a number of the executive authors to the project.

Several others have been invaluable in bringing the book to completion. It was our great pleasure to work with Patty Dowd Schmitz as our copyeditor. This is the third book in the Kellogg on series that Patty has edited. She provided insightful feedback in a timely and diplomatic manner and the book is much stronger for her input. The book was also significantly improved by Sachin Waikar’s ability to capture a powerful brand story succinctly and clearly, and by Lisa Stein’s polishing of the final prose under a tight deadline. David Cohen also contributed to the editing process, and Bridgette Braig and Liz Kohler assisted in developing several of the examples included. And, a special thanks to Yvonne Kumon for figuring out how to turn exhibits into TIF files—we literally couldn’t have done that without you!

Finally, we thank our editor at John Wiley & Sons, Richard Narramore, for believing in the Kellogg on series and trusting us to bring this book to completion. We also benefited greatly from the guidance of Vicki Adang, our Wiley project manager, throughout the project. Above all, we thank our families for their patience, support and encouragement.

Alice M. Tybout

Tim Calkins