The Revenge of Brand X: How to Build A Big Time Brand - on the Web or Anywhere Else

Author: Rob Frankel
List Price: $36.95
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ISBN: 0967991218
Publisher: Frankel & Anderson, Inc. (03 April, 2000)
Sales Rank: 67,543
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5
Fun but flawed book
Rob Frankel is an amusing writer with a tremendous enthusiasm for his subject. His book is full of pointed anecdotes and useful case studies that illustrate the principles he expounds. The book is also an excellent example in itself of a man branding himself -- the hierarchy of "Frankel's laws of branding" for instance. Frankel has a way of making a point from an unusual perspective that becomes obvious and clear after he explains it. However, the book is marred by several flaws. First, some of his examples of poorly branded companies simply don't hold up. He claims that Coca-cola is a weak brand because customers will accept a Pepsi in a restaurant rather than (I assume) leaving the restaurant to find one that serves Coke. No beverage company brand, of course, could ever inspire that kind of loyalty because soda just isn't important enough in anyone's life. Frankel's branding mantra is that it's all about your customers seeing you as the only solution to their problem. Is Coke supposed to be the only solution to my sweet carbonated syrup beverage problem? He's clearly missing an important part of the equation there. Another example is his discussion of Microsoft. After arguing that Microsoft has a terrible brand (which I won't necessarily dispute) he later says that if the branding is wrong, so is everything else. Because that branding problem has really hampered Microsoft from being a successful company. Apple, of course, is one of Frankel's favorite brands. This book would also have greatly benefitted from an editor (it was self-published) who could have tightened the organization, caught some of the inconsistencies, and fixed the embarassing number of hideous typos. For [what it's worth] Mr. Frankel's readers deserve a little more proofreading on his part.

Rating: 5 out of 5
If you are one of my competitors, please buy something else.
Monumental. Finally. This should be a textbook. The writing is quick, to the point, and devoid of all the fluff that is typically found in marketing books. The concepts and strategies are equally to the point. By the end of Chapter 5, I had 6 pages of notes regarding my company's brand development plans. Specific areas that were particularly helpful in my case were the discussions of brand differentiation and clear message delivery. Rob Frankel, "the branding king", discusses many other issues that are just as important. The book gave me a real feel for how to develop a brand and USE IT to market and sell my product. The extra attention paid to Internet applications, where "Brand is Everything", is priceless for any business that expects to have an Internet presence.

This book should be read by all, from the graphic arts gal to the CEO. It is clear that the development of a brand, beyond just a funny logo, requires that everyone understand the ideas that are laid before us in this text.

To quote from the book, "Branding is not about getting your prospects to choose you over your competition; it's about getting your prospects to see you as the only solution to their problem (SM)". One can see why Frankel & Anderson is becoming the dominant player in Internet brand development.

Rating: 4 out of 5
A practical, often humorous, look at branding.
Rob Frankel's "The Revenge of Brand X, How to Build a Big Time Brand on the Web or Anywhere Else" is a practical, often humorous, look at branding. Frankel, who spares no ink to promote his own brand ...lays out his approach to branding in a series of directives and laws.

For example, Frankel's Prime Directive says, "Branding is not about getting your targets to choose you over the competition. Branding is about getting your prospects to see you as the only solution to their problem."

Then there is Frankel's First Law of Big Time Branding: "Brands are not about you.Brands are about them."
Frankel goes on to enumerate a total of ten laws of "Big Time Branding," a law about media hype, two laws concerning web branding, an "Inverse Theory of Branding," a "Ubiquitous Brand Test" and a "DYI corollary" (Doing it yourself works...)

If you really get the meaning of Frankel's First Law of Big Time Branding (Brands are not about you. Brands are about them.) you may be able to forgo reading the rest of the book. However, if you do, you will miss out on some pretty funny and thought provoking material about how big brands have blown it and how some have actually gotten it right.

Besides using examples of well-known brands that have, according to Frankel, done it right or have blown it, Frankel shares some case studies of small to international-sized businesses that have used branding to help them achieve financial success. The book features lists of action items at the end of each chapter. These lists challenge the reader to apply the principles of "Big Time Branding" to their own business making it a book that you'll want to keep close at hand for quick reference as you make decisions that effect your brand.

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