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Inspiring Books: The Business of Brands, Jon Miller & David Muir

October 10, 2009

This is one of the three books that I permanently have at grabbing distance on my desk (together with ‘How to Plan Advertising’ by Alan Cooper and  Buddy Rich’s ‘Modern Interpretation of Snare Drum Rudiments’).  Whilst I have to admit I am more often drawn to the latter, the Business of Brands has proven to [...]

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Inspiring Books: On Brand - Wally Olins (2003)

August 23, 2009

Chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants and co-founder of brand consultancy Wolff Olins, Wally Olins is widely regarded as one of the most experienced practitioners of branding.
In his 2003 book On Brand, Olins explores the role that branding plays in business and in popular culture. It’s less a textbook than a personal commentary on “the cultural [...]

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Inspiring Books: Building Strong Brands - Aaker (Simon & Schuster, 2002)

July 25, 2009

David Aaker is one of the most respected and widely cited authors in the field of marketing, so it’s with a small degree of trepidation that I’m writing this critique of his 1995 book ‘Building Strong Brands.’ I feel duty-bound to write one nonetheless, as my growing collection of reviews of books that inspire me wouldn’t [...]

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Inspiring Books: Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy

June 20, 2009

I first read Confessions when I was applying for Ogilvy’s grad scheme in 2004. I can remember at the time being struck by the volume of invaluable best practice principles it outlined, which seemed to be just as useful to a current wannabe ad man, as they would have been to someone first reading it in 1963.  Confessions is less a book about how to write a successful [...]

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Inspiring Books: Positioning, The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries & Jack Trout

June 4, 2009

As self-proclaimed on the cover of the 2001 edition, this one’s a classic – widely regarded as a must read for anybody in the field of marketing, or anyone wanting to “sell” anything, for that matter. Admittedly, Positioning has already been very well-reviewed since it was first published in 1981, but it’s a book that [...]

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Inspiring Books: Life’s a Pitch (paperback) - Stephen Bayley, Roger Mavity (Corgi, 2008)

April 14, 2009

This book caught my eye in the Design Museum shop in London a couple of months ago. I’ve seen loads of books of this type in the past, but its straight-talking conversational style held my attention whilst I was flicking through it, and I quickly found myself unable to put it down, which is usually [...]