OBSESSIVE BRANDING DISORDER: THE BUSINESS OF ILLUSION AND THE ILLUSION OF BUSINESS

Author : Lucas Conley

Published by : Public Affairs, New York, USA

ISBN : 978-1-58648-468-2

Reviewed by :

Reema Negi, HRD – Head, Reliable Diesel Engineers (P) Ltd, Haryana

About the Author

Lucas Conley started his career by working in magazines for the Atlantic Monthly. He is a contributing writer for Fast Company and has written for The Boston Globe and ESPN magazine.

About the Book          

A successful brand creates a positive association in a customer’s mind, sells a promise, and tells a story about who we are. The virtues of creating brand identity to attract product sales have been acknowledged for decades. But branding – once considered a helpful, rather than necessary, flourish – has assumed status in today’s world as a key ingredient to winning business. This book, Obsessive Branding Disorder skillfully reexamines our buying habits to illustrate the chilling impact of the industry masterminds responsible for capturing our attention and seducing us to buy – at any cost.

The book comprises of Introduction and nine chapters, providing in-depth insight on the US advertising and branding industry and its impact on general people. In Introduction author is focusing on Loyalty beyond Reason. Loyalty beyond Reason is the phenomenon whereby customers are so enamored with a brand that they ignore price, convenience and competitor parity. They are courted in such a way that they abandon their critical thinking skills.

Chapter One: A Branding Company Town, In this chapter author talks about branding of US cities, where city’s image has been negatively struck by tragedy. In particular rebranding of New Orleans where the city’s murder rate on track has topped in 2006. Later it was launched as “Forever New Orleans” an aggressive international branding campaign that revived the city. Another American city struck by tragedy was Cincinnati, hub for many A-list branding companies going through civil unrest, it was rebranded as “Cincinnati USA” with tagline “All together surprising” to tap American pride & its in separation from the nation. Like a state bird or flower every state requires a brand in USA. When it comes to manipulating image in the name of place brands, the United States is in a league of its own.

Chapter Two: Feeding the Monster, It is about giving consumers what they want at a moment’s notice, its like feeding the monster. So rather than investigating a better formula for motor oil its like simply changing the shape of the bottle. And instead of actually improving the anti-wrinkle cream, giving it a new name. This is exactly what most branding firms are prepared to do, its either that or turn away your business and go broke for them. US businesses are focusing on branding over innovation. Companies are devoting significant resources in implementing branding focused plans in time to meet rapid product cycle, so there is just no time or money for ambitions innovation. Successful, enduring brands are either truly innovative and outstanding or a great value. They have never needed much of advertising. In many cases, companies are so desperate to launch a new product that entire brands are imagined and designed in just days.

Chapter Three: Buying Our Way into Being, It deals with consumers who are inundated with opportunities to personalize every facet of their lives, from Tivo to customized sneakers to M&Ms printed with personalized messages to cellular ring tones to suit every musical taste. There are now literally hundreds of options to choose from. But these many options do not reinforce the modern customer’s sense of identity, while brands have been consciously and cleverly helping us shape our sense of self for years, the psychology, tools, and tactics are improving faster then ever. The advances afford us more enriching brand experience, but can our minds stay one-step ahead of the marketing? Are brands failing to keep their end of the bargain, over promising and under delivering, or are our expectations rapidly outpacing their ability to keep up. While the former is more likely, what’s important to notice is the discrepancy. While experiential marketing may be a form of psychological warfare intended to win our hearts and minds, the invasion of branding into every corner of our environment and media is a full-on assault.

Chapter Four: Ad Creep, it discusses a cooperative partnership between a brand and a film, book, or television show and how it has undeniable advantages. With the arrival of blogs, social networking sites, globally interactive video games, and ever-expanding technology, brands are being forced to think beyond the standard thirty-second TV ad to reach their customer. As cheap mass-media advertising, democratized by the Internet and cable TV, makes it possible for even the smallest companies to reach large audience, more and more ad clutter is generated. Each new attempt to “break through the clutter” only adds more. Extending their reach into the entertainment industry, brands are creating their own shows and video games and opening their own Hollywood studios.

Chapter Five: Poisoning the Grapevine, it talks about Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing and how it is rapidly becoming big business in the United States and around the world, despite its sometimes questionable ethics. The Word-of-mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) estimates that two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States is influenced by its industry.

Chapter Six: Invisible Branding, science and technology have inspired exploration into the yet more intimate field of Sensory Branding. Like it or not, today’s consumer are already the guinea pigs of a corporate sensory branding renaissance. Food is a long-standing example of sensory branding where brands define themselves through taste. Establishing aural association with product through often woefully unforgettable jingles is perhaps the oldest form of sensory branding. If companies brands with smells and sounds the same way they do with billboards and spam, issues like sensory pollution and sensory manipulation are a foregone conclusion.

Chapter Seven: Getting Inside Our Heads, it discusses, how our brains response to information isn’t the only thing that interests marketers: some are now hiring experts in facial responses and expressions. Most of us can find ways to rationalize purchase; we often ignore our better sense when we shell out extra cash for brand-name items for which there are less expensive alternatives of equal quality. That’s a feeling about a brand can eclipse an honest, taste-driven response. Years of ads can corrupt the intelligence of the senses.

Chapter Eight: Getting Personal, as personal branding phenomenon works itself deeper into fabric of modern life, it’s warping how we see each other, and how we see ourselves. The rise of personal branding has especially affected professionals who must now compete for clients, like business coaches and career counselors. The personal branding movement is supporting and developing an atmosphere of formulaic, disposable identity, imposing a limiting vision on the most precious element of the human condition, the soul. There’s simply no room for soul in an industry built on images and ego.

Chapter Nine: The Future of an Illusion, Branding is corrupting our culture by heralding emotion over reason, surface over core substance, and packaging over experience. In the grip of obsessive branding disorder, companies speak of their brands as if they are real things rather than wishes. The brand is the ghost in the machine – a result of all the ingredients, not an ingredient itself. In reversing the natural order, we lionize an illusion.

Branding is encroaching on areas of our lives we never before imagined – from hospitals and education institutions, psychiatry, and cemeteries; we’re branded, quite literally, from the cradle to the grave. As the author puts it “Water, soil, and concrete now come branded. Need a moment to catch your breath? Branded oxygen is easy to find”. This book is of great interest to all the Brand Managers, Advertisers, Marketers and all those engaged in the study of brand management and advertising. Though the book is not touching on basic branding concepts and various issues related with brand management, it is an excellent book providing in-depth insight on the US advertising and branding industry. It also helps the readers to gain valuable insight into the implication of obsessive branding disorders.