Truth About Creating Brands People Love, The

Dr. Brian D. Till is the Steber Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Marketing Department at Saint Louis University. He holds a B.S. in Advertising and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. His Ph.D. is from the University of South Carolina. At Saint Louis University, he teaches primarily marketing strategy and advertising courses to M.B.A. students. His research is in the areas of celebrity endorsements, associative learning, and brand equity. He has published in Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Sport Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Product & Brand Management, and Psychology & Marketing. Dr. Till serves on the editorial review boards of Journal of Advertising and Psychology & Marketing.Prior to his university career, Dr. Till worked in brand management at Purina. He continues to serve as a marketing strategy and advertising consultant. Previous clients include Energizer, Monsanto, AT&T, Boa Construction, Charter Communication, Concordia Publishing House, Squeaky Clean Car Wash, and Medicine Shoppe International. He is active in the community, with recent nonprofit board appointments with the Stella Maris Child Center (where he recently completed four years as board president) and Forest ReLeaf of Missouri. Dr. Till is also a founding principal of the Brand Cartography Group, a market research firm that specializes in research designed to provide strategic insight into the structure of brands.Dr. Till is single, and in his free time enjoys travel, his historic home, and outdoor activities such as running, flying, and motorcycle riding.  Donna Heckler is the Brand Strategy Lead for Monsanto, where she leads the company in its brand building and brand portfolio management. Ms Heckler has a B.A. in Zoology from DePauw University and an M.B.A. in Marketing from Indiana University.Ms. Heckler has provided strategic brand guidance for a variety of firms. She has worked for Energizer Batteries to lead brand efforts both domestically and internationally. She led the brand marketing domestically and internationally for a division of Cardinal Health. She also led brand activities for Kimball Office.Ms. Heckler had a brand strategy consulting firm for a number of years, where she supported such clients as The Clorox Company, Emerson Electric, Maritz, Inc., The American Red Cross, and Ralston Purina.Ms. Heckler is actively involved in the community and supports a number of art institutions. She currently serves on the Alumni Board for the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She is a board member for the Center for Brand Leadership and The International Institute of Greater St. Louis. She also sits on the Alumni Board for Indiana University.Ms. Heckler loves traveling, experiencing new cultures, and art. An avid animal lover, she lives with two cats–Honey and Muffin.

• Preface ixTruth 1 Managing brands is not common sense 1Truth 2 No one loves your brand as much as you love it 5Truth 3 The brand is not owned by marketing; everyone owns it 9Truth 4 Making more by doing less 13Truth 5 Does your brand keep its promise? 17Truth 6 Price is the communication of the value of your brand 21Truth 7 Brand personality is the emotional connection with your brand 25Truth 8 Does your sales force know the difference between a product and a brand? 29Truth 9 Beware of the discounting minefield 33Truth 10 Packaging protects your product; great packaging protects your brand 37Truth 11 Brand management is association management 41Truth 12 The retail experience is the brand experience 45Truth 13 Corporate ego: Danger ahead 49Truth 14 Brand metrics: Best measure of success? 53Truth 15 Customer complaints are a treasure 57Truth 16 Brand stewardship begins at home 61Truth 17 Market share doesn’t matter 65Truth 18 Avoid the most common segmentation mistake 69Truth 19 Public relations and damage control: The defining moment 73Truth 20 Focus equals simplicity 77Truth 21 Marketing is courtship, not combat 81Truth 22 Don’t sacrifice brand focus for sales 85Truth 23 The medium is not the message; the message is the message 89Truth 24 Brand development and the small business 93Truth 25 Imitation is an ineffective form of flattery 97Truth 26 Positioning lives in the mind of your target customer 101Truth 27 The value of brand loyalty 105Truth 28 Quality is not an effective branding message 109Truth 29 Effective use of celebrity endorsers: The fit’s the thing 113Truth 30 Brand-building consumer promotion 117Truth 31 Advertising built for the long run 121Truth 32 A service brand is a personal brand 125Truth 33 Is your brand the best at something? If so, be satisfied 129Truth 34 Great positionings are enduring 133Truth 35 Effective branding begins with the name 137Truth 36 Your brand makes your company powerful, not the other way around 141Truth 37 Be consistent but not complacent 145Truth 38 Is your brand different? If not, why will someone buy it? 149Truth 39 The three M’s of taglines: Meaningful, motivating, and memorable Truth 40 Customer service is the touch point of your brand 157Truth 41 Smaller targets are easier to hit 161Truth 42 Beware of the allure of brand extensions 165Truth 43 Keep advertising simple, but not simplistic 169Truth 44 It’s a long walk from the focus group room to the cash register 173Truth 45 Repositioning can be a fool’s chase 177Truth 46 With advertising, don’t expect too much 181Truth 47 Don’t let testing override judgment 185Truth 48 Effective advertising is 90% what you say, 10% how you say it 189Truth 49 Compromise can destroy a brand 193Truth 50 Don’t let the pizazz outshine the brand 197Truth 51 There are no commodity products, only commodity thinking 201References 205Acknowledgments 209About the Authors 211