Brand Desire

by Nicholas Ind, Oriol Iglesias

Desire is big business. If companies can create true desirability for their brands, customers will not only express preference and loyalty, they also show a willingness to act as brand champions, participate in online communities, co-create innovative ideas, and show the sort of commitment that is normally associated with fervent employees.

However, desire doesn't just happen. Brands need to nurture it by offering both security and surprise. This isn't just about marketing, but rather a reflection of an organization-wide culture and perspective.

Using international case studies, Brand Desire explains how companies can engage customers emotionally and create value for them. Managers can successfully build and maintain brand desire through specific strategies and tools, such as:

. promoting a principles-driven organization that is grounded in its heritage and distinctive competences;
. creating a supportive culture that encourages the active participation of people in brand development;
. providing an opportunity for people to communicate more with each other and to encourage socialization through communities and events; and
. offering outstanding experiences: being consistent in delivery, from first communications through to after-sales service and support.

In a crowded sales environment, brand desire can elevate any product or service so that it stands out from the crowd and stays there. Brand Desire demonstrates how desirable brands are about desirable experiences, and shows what companies can do to maximize those experiences for their customers.

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Genres: Business

183 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2016

Reviews

[Daniel Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

With only 162 pages of text, I expected 'Brand Desire' to be light and mostly useless. Instead, Ind has written a detailed book that gives a thorough treatment of how to raise desire for brands. Ind's definition of brands includes both business names, and specific products. If it has a separate identity in the mind of the consumer, then Ind counts it as a brand. 'Brand Desire' explains why brand desire matters and shows how to increase that desire.

[Mike Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for everyone in business!

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6 points that make up brand desire:

Principles: what are the principles guiding every decision and the business in general? Do brands stay true to those principles?

Participation: are customers participating? Or are they passive? Are they allowed to offer suggestions/ideas/anything to the company? How often do employees and customers interact? Key point: the more customer participation the better for the brand.

Leadership/culture: leadership needs to be empathetic

Storytelling: the brand needs to tell a story. Videos are great ways to do so.

Experience: what kind of experience do customers have when interacting with the brand? They argue experience mostly comes from employees interacting with customers.

Innovation: balancing constant innovation with staying true to a brand's roots. Being consistent, but not predictable. Shake things up now and then, but not all the time. Find the perfect middle ground.

[Bruno Rio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to have some classes with professsor Oriol Iglesias in an ESADE short term course on Advanced Marketing. He talked about the book he was writing so I had high expectations on this one.

Despite being a quite short book (´160 pages) it is stacked with some useful examples in relevant branding stratgy.

The authors end up creating a simple but very straight to the point framework in which we can assess and direct the "brand desire".

The latter chapter in how to manage conflits in brand management is of uttermost importance but also so tough to achieve in such a competitive, volatile and unpredictable world.