Jamie+Wise

What Makes A Great Brand?


 * Sources:**


 * " A New Brand World: 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century" ** Scott Bedbury

About Scott Bedbury:

Scott Bedbury is originally from Oregon. He graduated from the University of Oregon after studying Journalism. He was inducted into the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Achievement in 1996. Bedbury is most famous for his long stints at both Nike and Starbucks, and managing their brands in to multi billion dollar enterprises. For Nike he is remembered for the "Just Do It" campaigns and he is remembered at Starbucks for creating a brand that reinvented a basic commodity (the coffee bean). At this time Bedbury works as a freelance, traveling around the world giving presentations to companies seeking to improve their brand image.

Credibility of the Source:

The source "A New Brand World: 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century" is definitely a credible and valid source. The source is a book written by in the words of Tom Peters "possibly the greatest brand maven of our time." Scott Bedbury has worked in the industry of branding for a considerable chunk of his career and we can see from his resume at Nike and Starbucks he is extremely talented at what he does and knows more about brands than most.

About the Source:

Bedbury's book focuses on 8 key principles he feels are required in order to achieve brand greatness. He addresses key points that every brand must face and offers his valuable insight as to what the best path is to pursue. He includes chapters on points such as "brandwidth" and "brand environment" amongst others, which are all key aspects to building your brand. What I like about his book is that at no point during the book does he state that his way is the best way. His book offers an incredible insight in to the world of business and their brands and he is constantly drawing on his real life experiences to demonstrate key points, which to me is invaluable. Many books on branding offer a very theoretical approach to branding, whilst Bedury offers a real world explanation to branding, which to me is fundamental in understanding what makes a great brand.


 * "AdLand" ﻿ ** Mark Tungate

About Mark Tungate:

Mark Tungate is a British Journalist based in Paris, specializing in media, marketing and communication. He writes regularly for Campaign Magazine a British advertising industry journal, highly regarded in the advertising world. He also writes for 'Strategies' a French marketing magazine and his work has also appeared in 'The Times' and 'The Daily Telegraph' newspapers, respectable newspapers in the U.K. Overall Tungate is a very credible author with many works and articles about the topic I am looking to research.

Credibility of the Source:

The source 'AdLand' is a credible source. The source as seen earlier is written by a more than credible author and the book itself features many opinions and segments from some of the industries most influential characters such as Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP and Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi to name but a few.

About the Source:

'AdLand' is primarily a book about advertising and the advertising industry itself. The book has a strong focus on the history of advertising and the major players and factors involved in the advance of the advertising industry. Despite its primary focus being advertising the book also has some very important segments about branding, after all branding and advertising are very, very closely intertwined. The book offers some very useful insights about what makes great branding from some of the most influential and greatest branders to date. To me the most important factor of this source is the insider insight it offers into the industry. The source does not offer much as to the theory of great branding, however the interviews with some of the leading members of the advertising world is simply too insightful to dismiss.

**"Lovemarks"** ﻿ Kevin Roberts

About Kevin Roberts:

Kevin Roberts began his career as assistant brand manager for Mary Quant Cosmetics in 1969. In 1987 he became CEO of Pepsi Canada. However Kevin Roberts is most famous for his current role, as CEO worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the worlds biggest advertising firms. He is renowned for being the instigator in getting the company back to its full potential. He has written 5 books about branding and advertising

Credibility of the Source:

Kevin Roberts is one of the most influential characters in the advertising and marketing industry. His book 'Lovemarks' is regarded almost at biblical stature for its insight into branding. It is used by many Journalism schools throughout the world and is one of the best selling books about branding in history.

About the Source:

The book 'Lovemarks' is actually a book focusing on the idea of replacing branding with a different concept (lovemarks). Although the book actually tries to suggest an alternative to branding, in order to do this it must address branding in depth and offers a unique insight into Kevin Roberts' view on branding. With the two contrasting ideals in the book it offers a good place to start in to finding what features are key to making a great branding. I think this is an ideal book for my research because like 'AdLand' it offers an ideal insight in the marketing industries take on branding, which seems to be a good one judging by some of the brands in the world today.

**"Adage.com"**

Adage.com is an online journal for the advertising and marketing industry. The journal offers all the latest news and insight to the advertising and marketing world as well as daily columns discussing various aspects of the advertising and marketing world. This is a useful source because the website features articles about key brands and their success' and failures as a brand and some of their columns offer valuable opinions on what makes a brand great and what makes a brand fail.

**"Campaign.co.uk"**

Campaign.co.uk is very similar to the above source adage.com, the difference being that Campaign.co.uk represents the British instead of American advertising and marketing industry. The site features the same kind of articles and also features its own columns, offering the same kind of information as adage.com. This source is useful because although it offers the same kind of information as adage.com, combine the two sources together and you have twice the amount of information available to you, which to me seems like a plus.  ﻿  