Rocket: Eight Lessons to Secure Infinite Growth

by Michael J. Silverstein, Dylan Bolden, Rune Jacobsen

Rocket tells the story of how sixteen remarkable business leaders created great brands. Leslie Wexner tells you how he turned a two-store chain into a $6.5 billion worldwide brand called Victoria Secret, and Howard Schultz shares how he took his passion for a little coffee shop in Seattle and grew it into a 22,000-store chain, just to name two. Every story is connected to a “how-to” lesson, and by the end, you’ll have what you need to turn your best customers into apostles, cravers, and brand ambassadors.
A must-have guide for everyone who wants to grow their business faster than a competitor, this authentic, vibrant, and engaging book brings you the latest practical techniques for knowing your customers’ desires and behaviors in order to deliver intimately rewarding experiences every time they shop―including knowing what they need before they do. Included is a “self critique” to identify where you are currently before you transform your career and company by mastering how
• Create a demand-space map and predict how big a share of a demand space you can win with the proper mix of emotional and functional benefits satisfying the attributes of that space
• Determine a strategic direction for where to place investment bets, identify which brands are best suited to win, and which are most responsive to investment
• Deliver all the core benefits of a particular demand space in your product―from packaging, shelving, pricing, and promotion to message development, store operations, delivery, and employee engagement
• Maintain a long-term vision to continuously quantify and modify for ongoing improvement, while using your successes to convert more champions along the way
With Rocket , you can rise into a cycle of renewal, energy, and power that can launch startups to phenomenal success and turn around the fate of multinational corporations.

Genres: Business

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2015

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Case Studies in Branding Showing Big Successful Companies

While this book presents standard business ideas about branding and is well written and interesting, it does little to help small business owners learn how to brand their product. The book opens with a standard section on the principles of branding: create a demand, determine a strategic direction, deliver the core benefits of the product, and maintain a long-term vision. This section is followed by sixteen case studies showing how the business leaders of successful companies used the principles.

The book is well written and entertaining if you're interested in how companies like Amazon, Victoria's Secret, and Starbucks succeeded, but like so many case study books, these stories are very individual and driven by the brilliance of the company founder.

Aside from the principles, which can be found in most marketing textbooks, I didn't find much to help the struggling small business. In fact, I think it would be rather daunting for a small business to compare itself to Frito Lay, for example.

I recommend this book if you're interested in reading about success stories, and you may glean some useful ideas for your business, but this isn't a manual for how to improve your brand. You have to take the ideas and work to create what's right for your business.

I reviewed this book for Net Galley.

[Gatot Widayanto · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is nothing new from this book, but it is still interesting to learn from the stories described.

1.) Don't ask the customer because they also don't know what they really want. This is absolutely true and the pioneer was of course Steve Jobs who created many new things beyond what the customer had previously imagined. Give them reasons why they buy our products and tell others. People will change how they feel by seeing, touching and exploring new things.

2.) Attract customers who like our products, even if they are only 1-2%, but their direct contact can generate 20-30% of revenue. We must be observant to be able to identify who are the fans of our products and what we need to do to attract them. An example is Jin from BTS who deliberately appeared at the ColdPlay concert in Argentina before his departure to fulfill military service. Of course this is not the right example because there are so many BTS fans. We can follow Jin's efforts to come to Argentina to appear for just a few minutes.

3.) Accept customer complaints well because in the end it will make us stronger. While the example provided by this book, Fritto Lay, is less relevant, it nevertheless emphasizes the need for serious effort in dealing with complaints. A coffee shop like Kopi Oey in Jakarta, handles complaints to the point of involving the CEO to resolve them while also treating them to a meal. Of course this applies to serious complaints. In general, complaints should not be underestimated.

4.) Appearance is very important because it will affect customer attractiveness like what Walt Disney did with his Magic Kingdom. With an appearance that is designed to be able to captivate the customer's view, tickets can be sold at very high prices. Disney is serious about this appearance so it needs careful preparation for a show. Let's compare it to a clown on the street wearing a shabby Mickey Mouse costume. Of course not interesting is not it?

5.) Create employee passion so that they work not limited to their responsibilities but voluntarily do other things for improvement. The Four Seasons in Maldives was hit by a huge tsunami but none of the hotel guests died. This is because every employee works hard to ensure every life, both fellow employees and guests are all safe. This does not mean the job desc is unnecessary, but employees act beyond what is written in the job description.

6.) Improve customer relationships virtually. Before Covid 19, of course, it was rare to have virtual relationships with customers because they weren't used to it. Thanks to the pandemic, many people are finally getting used to going virtual. This also includes fostering and improving good relations with customers through social media or other platforms. After the pandemic, actually it was easier to do this because you are used to it.

7.) Take big leaps because we will not get significant benefits if only small changes are made. This is easy to say and every company definitely wants big changes, but in reality they are nervous, aka just doing what seems small which then leads to big changes. This is a paradox because it is often found that small things can actually trigger much bigger things. Remember, Post-It was invented from failure for other purposes.

8.) Meet schismogenesis, which is the process by which two groups or individuals become increasingly different in their beliefs, behaviors or cultural practices. Brands are fragile. To prevent negative things from happening to the brand, serious efforts are needed to understand the trivial things that can make our brand image go down. For example, if we are in the Health business, then in the clinic there should not be any tissue scattered on the floor. Continuous nurturing must be done to maintain and improve our brand.

That's all and I can not describe something really great from the book. I guess this book is all about the BCG assignments through the years. We have been hearing a lot about Starbucks, Apple, Fritto Lay etc. It's all motherhood stuff.

Thanks

Gatot - BREED

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who doesn’t want massive growth at their business, except of course your competitors! This is an interesting, actionable and charming book that tells how many businesses developed and grew into great monster companies. The takeaway for the reader is hopefully some advice and guidance to help transform their own companies, as well as a great general read.

This is more than just yet another corporate history/look at this success-type of book. You get that, of course, too but it is topped and tailed by an authoritative yet concise series of “how-to” lessons. Even if you don’t think that your business has the potential to be the next Amazon or Victoria’s Secrets, maybe it would benefit from a bit of an under-the-hood service in any case? You can contrast your own ways of working to that of proven successful enterprises. Even a modest change could be worthwhile. You are getting a fair bit of advice from the principal author, who works as senior partner and managing director of Boston Consulting Group’s consumer practice – so even an hour of his time would cost a lot, lot more than this book. Seize the opportunity with both hands!

Central to the author’s message is the value of your customer; with a loyal customer on your side you can seek to turn them into your apostles so they will hopefully spread the word about you, and this can propel you to growth. You know the story about how one unhappy customer will tell a lot more people than a happy customer about their experience, so you need to really maximise and focus on the goodwill a really happy, active, customer can generate and positively encourage them to share the good word.

The author has cut to the core with eight branding rules to help: don’t ask your customers what they want, woo your biggest fans, welcome your customer’s scorn, looks do count, transform your employees into passionate disciplines, ramp up your virtual relationships, take giant leaps and find out what schismogenesis means (because It will save your relationships). These rules are more than just tired clichés. As you read through this very engaging book, you may begin to notice that the pieces begin to fall into place. Whether you choose to implement them, however…

This was an enjoyable book that manages to prise open a little niche in a very crowded sector. Even though the companies mentioned are hardly shy, retiring names that no one has heard of, the author has done a good job in extracting “additional value” from them and shares this to a wider audience.

Rocket, written by Michael Silverstein and published by McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 9781259585425. YYYYY

Autamme.com

[Dio Handoyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in a simple, refreshing tone, this book about consumer understanding and brand-building doesn't feel like a heavy business book but a nice page-turner. The companies and stories featured present great and fascinating lessons, though the grouping of the 8 rules and the rules' connection with said companies can be difficult to follow sometimes. The interesting deliveries of what it means to fully understand consumers as well as the crisp closing rounds the book as a very entertaining way of gaining knowledge.

[Prasanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rocket: Eight Lessons to Secure Infinite Growth is good balance of prescriptive action points and the philosophy and theory behind how these principles have worked for some of the biggest brands. It covers everything from how to manage your employees and building a brand that customers love, to being open to criticism and expand rapidly.
~ http://bookreviews.infoversant.com/ro...

[Alex Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every successful brand on earth has followed common strategies to get to where they are – and so can you. By identifying and maintaining your core customers, and by putting the finishing touches on your brand’s killer aesthetic, you’ll have all the tools in place to craft a stellar brand.

[Kathy Cowie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reviewing this book for Global Business and Organizational Excellence, in the January-February issue.