Legendary Brands: Unleashing the Power of Storytelling to Create a Winning Market Strategy - Hardcover

Vincent, Laurence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0793155606 ISBN 13: 9780793155606

Publisher: Kaplan Publishing, 2002

Synopsis

Vincent, a chief strategic officer in a marketing agency, describes legendary brands as brands whose popularity is rooted in emotion, identity, and personal philosophy. He asserts that legendary brands such as American Express, Apple, and Harley-Davidson forge bonds with consumers through narratives and myths, and shows how marketers and brand managers can learn to think like storytellers by understanding the narrative cycle that binds consumers to the brand. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About this title

About the Author

Laurence Vincent is a founder and senior principal of Cabana Group, a Los Angeles-based marketing and strategic alliance consulting firm for entertainment and media properties. He leads the firm’s Strategic Planning practice, which assists clients in developing long-range, consumer-focused strategic alliances. He also heads Cabana Group’s research initiatives, which explore consumer attachments to brand experiences. Vincent’s prior work experience includes five years in the Corporate Alliances division at The Walt Disney Company, where he managed global, consumer-focused marketing alliances between Disney and such Fortune 500 companies as American Express, AT&T, Coca-Cola, FedEx, Kodak, and Mattel, among others. He is a frequent speaker on the topics of branding and corporate alliances.

Reviews

How does a swoosh come to stand for a heroic victory, or a common fruit come to represent individuality and innovation? Vincent asserts that the secret to the phenomenal success of companies like Nike and Apple is the narrative that communicates the underlying brand philosophy, one which engages and inspires consumers to use and stay loyal to "legendary brands." For instance, the story of grit and defiance underlying Harley Davidson attracts those who want to be a part of the open road myth, just as the clean-cut optimism of the Ralph Lauren story appeals to those who aspire to financial success. Among the many brands Vincent touches upon are Kodak, Ben & Jerry's and even Linux. How to create such compelling brand narratives remains elusive, though, since Vincent devotes many pages to theorizing about narrative structure, but doesn't actually break down the elements of success stories. His scientific tone and wordy descriptions of basic concepts are distracting (e.g., "Brand mythology acts upon the cognitive orientation centers of the brain in much the same way that religion and other deeply held philosophical beliefs do"). Although Vincent fills the book with myriad examples of legendary brands, he doesn't offer enough analysis regarding how the companies built persuasive brand narratives, not to mention maintained and expanded their success. Despite his good ideas, Vincent misses the most basic tenet of storytelling: show, don't tell.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0793155606
• ISBN 13: 9780793155606
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336