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The Brand Gap
How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design
By LaSalle and Terry A. Britton
Harvard Business School Press, 2002 224 pages.
Reviewed by Michael Eckersley
Like many other groundbreaking books on branding, including The
22 Immutable Rules of Branding by Al and Laura Ries, and Brand Warfare
by David F. D’Alessandro, Marty Neumeier’s The Brand
Gap—How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and
Distance Between Business Strategy and Design is based in large
part on the author’s own professional experience— concepts
with a progressive, modern logic and magic”; “it takes
a village to in this case, as a graphic designer, copywriter, and
marketing consultant. But what really gives this and those other
works relevance is that what they teach is rooted in good old common
sense. Moreover, Neumeier’s unique approach—in which
he uses what he calls “the shorthand of the conference room:
illustrations, diagrams, and summaries” —at once makes
this both a quick and a visually compelling read. The experience
suggests that clients and prospects find Neumeier to be a shrewd
observer of the inextricable links among design, branding, and business—as
well as a convincing presenter.
For experienced practitioners, there is not a lot that is new in
this book. Yet Neumeier manages to present foundation concepts with
a progressive, modern voice that enables you to think of branding,
marketing, design, and communications differently than before. You
know immediately that you’re not reading a Dr. David Aaker
treatise, and in this respect the book also works exceedingly example,
instead of defining what constitutes a “strong” or “power”
brand, Neumeier focuses on what makes “charismatic”
brands. He positions the five disciplines of branding —differentiate,
collaborate, innovate, validate, and cultivate—and supports
them with provocative ideas: design as “a powerful combination
of logic and magic”; “it takes a village to build a
brand”; “icons and avatars—not logos”; “getting
the right idea versus getting the idea right”; and “the
living brand” as the process of business. The Brand Gap closes
with “Take Home Lessons,” a helpful summary of all that
precedes it, and a comprehensive list of recommended reading, which
every serious marketing executive should regard as required.
The Brand Gap is one of those books that people will describe as
“a great read.” It is a work that can inspire, even
if just one key idea or “nugget” manifests itself. For
me, it was Neumeier’s characterization of the Web, “Does
Our Website Look Fat in This Dress?” In describing how Web
sites have become user unfriendly, the author relates a piece of
telling human nature. “The tendency to add features,”
writes Neumeier, “comes naturally to most people. The ability
to subtract features is the rare gift of the true communicator.”
For anyone in an organization whose Web presence is owned by IT
engineers and who has asked them why they keep building asked them
why they keep building instead of assessing and eliminating, Neumeier
has provided a clue to how we might rephrase our inquiry.
This review originally appeared in the Fall
2003 News & Views
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