Public-finance

The book is overly filled with newly-invented jargons such as Brand Differentiator, Brand Relevance, Range Brand, Sub-brand with Brand Differentiator, which can make readers overwhelmed with decoding the content.

A responsible writer on Branding should help readers simplify the complex and make it easy for them to know the true picture of branding.

This book is not entirely new. About 20% of the content(I would say more than the author admitted in the Preface) is based on Aaker's old books like Brand Equity, Building Brand Identity, and Brand Leadership. Examples are predictable and have been used before in his old books, mostly including Intel, Marriott, and the like. The cases drawn for this book can be very biased since Intel, Sony, Microsoft, Dove and so forth are world-class,big budget brands. Of course they have the know-how and abundant resources to build successful brands. Aaker should quote some medium or low budget brand cases that turn themselves into successful brands.

As a Vice-Chairman of Prophet, a brand consultancy, readers may worry about Aaker's (not just a Brand/Marketing Professor from Berkeley now!) objectivity in examples selections as well.

Besides, the Clients that Prophet serve are mostly not the world-class brands(except just one or two, like Adidas). This may reduce the credibility of Aaker as a branding expert in the first place since he wrote about the world-class brands, not really building the world-class brands himself or with his colleagues.

There is a tendency for authors to rush out new books these days. In fact, quality does count. For authors who have been preaching the importance of good quality in the branding process, they should walk the talk themselves!

David A. Aaker's new book is another great piece on branding from the distinguished author of several classics within brand strategy. The book provides in-depth knowledge about portfolio management and inspires readers to reach further in their own corporations. Guidelines and best practices in one single place. Aaker's book is a must for all brand marketeers.

After reading about this book in Investor's Business Daily, The New York Times, and the Financial Times, I just had to see what everybody was raving about. I've concluded that David Aaker is a genuis.

The majority of this book reads more like speculation by the author rather than solid fact. The impression this gives the reader is the the author has not dealt with many big brand names on a publicity level. The problem with this is that dealing with smaller entities is quite a far cry from dealing with a major brand such as Nike or Toyota.

I kept reading hoping for some interesting inside scoops into the world of big name brands, but was let down. If you are new to the world of branding you might gain a few nuggets of information from this, but I found it all to be common sense.

Interested in how you sell products to the public, I stumbled across this book online. It was truly educational, making me aware of the complexity of branding. I learned that it's not just about about finding a product that fills a hole in the market. It is also about how you sell that product by establishing a brand, an image that not only helps to fill a whole in the market but attracts attention from the media and public with an edge. Michael Levine is quite knowledgeable of the subject and it shows in his examples throughout the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to get a better understanding of PR.

Probably one of the most balanced and well thought out approaches to the subject I've read in many years. Instead of folllowing other PR book trends of cramming too much information where it doesn't belong ( namely in dense, bland, lengthy passages), the author's use of subtle literary device manages to illustrate the big picture of this branded world one step at a time. You'll never see the world of advertising the same again.