How do we explain the breakthrough market success of businesses like Nike, Starbucks, Ben & Jerry's, and Jack Daniel's? Conventional models of strategy and innovation simply don't work. The most influential ideas on innovation are shaped by the worldview of engineers and economists - build a better mousetrap and the world will take notice. Holt and Cameron challenge this conventional wisdom and take an entirely different approach: champion a better ideology and the world will take notice as well. Holt and Cameron build a powerful new theory of cultural innovation. Brands in mature categories get locked into a form of cultural mimicry, what the authors call a cultural orthodoxy. Historical changes in society create demand for new culture - ideological opportunities that upend this orthodoxy. Cultural innovations repurpose cultural content lurking in subcultures to respond to this emerging demand, leapfrogging entrenched incumbents.Cultural Strategy guides managers and entrepreneurs on how to leverage ideological opportunities:- How managers can use culture to out-innovate their competitors - How entrepreneurs can identify new market opportunities that big companies miss - How underfunded challengers can win against category Goliaths - How technology businesses can avoid commoditization - How social entrepreneurs can develop businesses that appeal to more than just fellow activists - How subcultural brands can break out of the 'cultural chasm' to mass market success - How global brands can pursue cross-cultural strategies to succeed in local markets - How organizations can maximize their innovation capabilities by avoiding the brand bureaucracy trapWritten by leading authorities on branding in the world today, along with one of the advertising industry's leading visionaries, Cultural Strategy transforms what has always been treated as the "intuitive" side of market innovation into a systematic strategic discipline.

Market innovation has long been dominated by the worldview of engineers and economists: build a better mousetrap and the world will take notice. But there''s another important way to build new businesses: with innovative ideologies rather than innovative mousetraps. Consider Coca-Cola, Nike, Jack Daniel''s, Marlboro, Starbucks, Corona, Oprah, The Body Shop: all built with innovative ideologies. Further many "better mousetraps" are much more compelling to consumerswhen bundled with innovative ideologies; consider BMW, Apple, and Whole Foods.Cultural Strategy provides a step-by-step guide for managers and entrepreneurs to build businesses in this simple but effective way. Holt and Cameron analyse a series of classic cases that relied on these bold, innovative strategies: Nike, Marlboro, Starbucks, Jack Daniels, vitaminwater, and Ben & Jerry''s. They then demonstrate how the theory works as an actionable strategy model, drawing upon their consulting work. They show how cultural strategy takes start-up brands into themass market (Fat Tire beer), overcomes "better mousetraps" wars in a technology driven category (ClearBlue pregnancy test), effectively challenges a seemingly insurmountable incumbent (FUSE music channel vs MTV), and develops a social innovation (The Freelancers Union).Holt and Cameron also describe the best organizational model for pursuing this approach, which they term "the cultural studio". The book demonstrates that the top consumer marketing companies are consistently poor at this type of innovation because they rely on an antithetic organization structure, what the authors term "the brand bureaucracy". To succeed at cultural innovation requires not only a very different approach to strategy, but a new way of organizing as well.

Market innovation has long been dominated by the worldview of engineers and economists: build a better mousetrap and the world will take notice. But there''s another important way to build new businesses: with innovative ideologies rather than innovative mousetraps. Consider Coca-Cola, Nike, Jack Daniel''s, Marlboro, Starbucks, Corona, Oprah, The Body Shop: all built with innovative ideologies. Further many "better mousetraps" are much more compelling to consumerswhen bundled with innovative ideologies; consider BMW, Apple, and Whole Foods.Cultural Strategy provides a step-by-step guide for managers and entrepreneurs to build businesses in this simple but effective way. Holt and Cameron analyse a series of classic cases that relied on these bold, innovative strategies: Nike, Marlboro, Starbucks, Jack Daniels, vitaminwater, and Ben & Jerry''s. They then demonstrate how the theory works as an actionable strategy model, drawing upon their consulting work. They show how cultural strategy takes start-up brands into themass market (Fat Tire beer), overcomes "better mousetraps" wars in a technology driven category (ClearBlue pregnancy test), effectively challenges a seemingly insurmountable incumbent (FUSE music channel vs MTV), and develops a social innovation (The Freelancers Union).Holt and Cameron also describe the best organizational model for pursuing this approach, which they term "the cultural studio". The book demonstrates that the top consumer marketing companies are consistently poor at this type of innovation because they rely on an antithetic organization structure, what the authors term "the brand bureaucracy". To succeed at cultural innovation requires not only a very different approach to strategy, but a new way of organizing as well.

An unconventional argument for how companies can grow or revitalize businesses through cultural innovationOutside of tech, companies rarely succeed at growing new businesses or revitalizing stagnant ones, even in the categories in which they are most successful. And the model of innovation that tech firms use is an expensive dead end for everyone else. So how can companies build breakthrough innovations without the advantage of breakthrough technology? In How Brands Innovate, Douglas Holt provides an entirely different way to understand how innovation works from the conventional ideas that dominate in business. He argues that market transformations are pushed forward by culture and society rather than new technology or new products. Holt-one of the world's leading thinkers and consultants on cultural approaches to branding, business strategy, and innovation-draws on his decades-long experience to show how companies can buildinnovative new businesses without the advantage of new technology or revitalize businesses that have lost their leading position. Rather than beat competitors within their category, companies like Nike and Starbucks reinvented their categories. Rather than deliver better value, these brands transformed value. And rather than develop a better product, they reimagined their products. For the first time, Holt provides a concise explanation of cultural innovation-the model that details how brands like Nike and Starbucks came to be-and shows exactly how to do cultural innovation, providing a step-by-step model for analysis andthen a framework for designing innovations. He draws on his own consulting work to walk readers through successful re-branding, innovations, and strategies with major global corporations like Patagonia, Huawei, and REI.

How do we explain the breakthrough market success of businesses like Nike, Starbucks, Ben & Jerry's, and Jack Daniel's? Conventional models of strategy and innovation simply don't work. The most influential ideas on innovation are shaped by the worldview of engineers and economists - build a better mousetrap and the world will take notice. Holt and Cameron challenge this conventional wisdom and take an entirely different approach: champion a better ideology and the world will take notice as well. Holt and Cameron build a powerful new theory of cultural innovation. Brands in mature categories get locked into a form of cultural mimicry, what the authors call a cultural orthodoxy. Historical changes in society create demand for new culture - ideological opportunities that upend this orthodoxy. Cultural innovations repurpose cultural content lurking in subcultures to respond to this emerging demand, leapfrogging entrenched incumbents.Cultural Strategy guides managers and entrepreneurs on how to leverage ideological opportunities:- How managers can use culture to out-innovate their competitors - How entrepreneurs can identify new market opportunities that big companies miss - How underfunded challengers can win against category Goliaths - How technology businesses can avoid commoditization - How social entrepreneurs can develop businesses that appeal to more than just fellow activists - How subcultural brands can break out of the 'cultural chasm' to mass market success - How global brands can pursue cross-cultural strategies to succeed in local markets - How organizations can maximize their innovation capabilities by avoiding the brand bureaucracy trapWritten by leading authorities on branding in the world today, along with one of the advertising industry's leading visionaries, Cultural Strategy transforms what has always been treated as the "intuitive" side of market innovation into a systematic strategic discipline.

Market innovation has long been dominated by the worldview of engineers and economists: build a better mousetrap and the world will take notice. But there''s another important way to build new businesses: with innovative ideologies rather than innovative mousetraps. Consider Coca-Cola, Nike, Jack Daniel''s, Marlboro, Starbucks, Corona, Oprah, The Body Shop: all built with innovative ideologies. Further many "better mousetraps" are much more compelling to consumerswhen bundled with innovative ideologies; consider BMW, Apple, and Whole Foods.Cultural Strategy provides a step-by-step guide for managers and entrepreneurs to build businesses in this simple but effective way. Holt and Cameron analyse a series of classic cases that relied on these bold, innovative strategies: Nike, Marlboro, Starbucks, Jack Daniels, vitaminwater, and Ben & Jerry''s. They then demonstrate how the theory works as an actionable strategy model, drawing upon their consulting work. They show how cultural strategy takes start-up brands into themass market (Fat Tire beer), overcomes "better mousetraps" wars in a technology driven category (ClearBlue pregnancy test), effectively challenges a seemingly insurmountable incumbent (FUSE music channel vs MTV), and develops a social innovation (The Freelancers Union).Holt and Cameron also describe the best organizational model for pursuing this approach, which they term "the cultural studio". The book demonstrates that the top consumer marketing companies are consistently poor at this type of innovation because they rely on an antithetic organization structure, what the authors term "the brand bureaucracy". To succeed at cultural innovation requires not only a very different approach to strategy, but a new way of organizing as well.

Market innovation has long been dominated by the worldview of engineers and economists: build a better mousetrap and the world will take notice. But there''s another important way to build new businesses: with innovative ideologies rather than innovative mousetraps. Consider Coca-Cola, Nike, Jack Daniel''s, Marlboro, Starbucks, Corona, Oprah, The Body Shop: all built with innovative ideologies. Further many "better mousetraps" are much more compelling to consumerswhen bundled with innovative ideologies; consider BMW, Apple, and Whole Foods.Cultural Strategy provides a step-by-step guide for managers and entrepreneurs to build businesses in this simple but effective way. Holt and Cameron analyse a series of classic cases that relied on these bold, innovative strategies: Nike, Marlboro, Starbucks, Jack Daniels, vitaminwater, and Ben & Jerry''s. They then demonstrate how the theory works as an actionable strategy model, drawing upon their consulting work. They show how cultural strategy takes start-up brands into themass market (Fat Tire beer), overcomes "better mousetraps" wars in a technology driven category (ClearBlue pregnancy test), effectively challenges a seemingly insurmountable incumbent (FUSE music channel vs MTV), and develops a social innovation (The Freelancers Union).Holt and Cameron also describe the best organizational model for pursuing this approach, which they term "the cultural studio". The book demonstrates that the top consumer marketing companies are consistently poor at this type of innovation because they rely on an antithetic organization structure, what the authors term "the brand bureaucracy". To succeed at cultural innovation requires not only a very different approach to strategy, but a new way of organizing as well.

An unconventional argument for how companies can grow or revitalize businesses through cultural innovationOutside of tech, companies rarely succeed at growing new businesses or revitalizing stagnant ones, even in the categories in which they are most successful. And the model of innovation that tech firms use is an expensive dead end for everyone else. So how can companies build breakthrough innovations without the advantage of breakthrough technology? In How Brands Innovate, Douglas Holt provides an entirely different way to understand how innovation works from the conventional ideas that dominate in business. He argues that market transformations are pushed forward by culture and society rather than new technology or new products. Holt-one of the world's leading thinkers and consultants on cultural approaches to branding, business strategy, and innovation-draws on his decades-long experience to show how companies can buildinnovative new businesses without the advantage of new technology or revitalize businesses that have lost their leading position. Rather than beat competitors within their category, companies like Nike and Starbucks reinvented their categories. Rather than deliver better value, these brands transformed value. And rather than develop a better product, they reimagined their products. For the first time, Holt provides a concise explanation of cultural innovation-the model that details how brands like Nike and Starbucks came to be-and shows exactly how to do cultural innovation, providing a step-by-step model for analysis andthen a framework for designing innovations. He draws on his own consulting work to walk readers through successful re-branding, innovations, and strategies with major global corporations like Patagonia, Huawei, and REI.