| The Masterbrand Mandate:
The Management Strategy That Unifies Companies and Multiplies Value
By Lynn B. Upshaw & Earl L. Taylor
John Wiley & Sons., 322 pp.
Reviewed by Anne McCuen Bouchenoire
Design and brand managers are most effective when they have a
direct link to the CEO that includes his or her understanding and
support for their work. Additionally, there is a definite advantage
for the design or brand manager whose entire organization understands
the importance of building and living their brand. The Masterbrand
Mandate, by Lynn Upshaw and Earl L. Taylor, is a book for those
interested in creating such advantages in their own organizations.
Subtitled, The Management Strategy That Unifies Companies and
Multiplies Value, this book makes clear that a brand is not
solely a marketing tool. Rather, in the right hands, a brand may
become "a model for organizing, a structure for selling and profit
generation, a focus for achieving, and a template for performance
metrics."
The book is neatly divided into three parts dealing with the mandate-building
the customer community; the task of "coaching" the company on what
the masterbrand stands for and how it must perform; and how to maneuver
the masterbrand in "the world outside" to obtain the most leverage
possible.
Brand building and business building should be synonymous. To make
this happen, the authors encourage companies to leverage the entire
organization when building a brand. The result of such an enterprise-wide
commitment is the creation of what the authors call the masterbrand.
To them, branding is about differentiation, but masterbrand building
is about value creation. The building of this masterbrand may extend-by
means of the different methods explained in the book-through both
companies with a single unified brand and multiple brand companies.
The book outlines this process of masterbrand building in terms
of brand communities ("brand.comms"). Brand communities
unite the group once referred to as "key stakeholders" and are comprised
of a combination of motivated employees, a loyal group of suppliers/resellers,
faithful investors, an evolving list of strategic partners/allies,
and a core base of current customers. These stakeholders become
a bonded group that, together, "own" the brand and contribute to
its value creation.
The authors show that, with the creation of a masterbrand, companies
become able to "out-brand" their competitors by better deploying
their brand among their brand communities, and within the global
marketplace.
There is an interesting chapter on building global brands through
what is known as "glocalizing" as well as a great deal of useful
information and examples about brand coaches, brand-centered infrastructure,
brand training, brand commitment, internal cultural evolution, integrated
global marketing and strategic positioning. The book is also particularly
useful in that it allows the reader to customize the information
to the needs of his or her own organization. The general text is
interrupted at regular intervals by a series of practical management
tips and check-off lists.
Cover to cover, the book is an extensive and well-indexed guidebook.
The authors draw from a wide array of companies including: Charles
Schwab & Co., Dell Computer, eBay, IKEA, IBM, iVillage.com, Lucent,
Levi, Johnson & Johnson, Lexus, Marriott, Nestle, Nike, Sun, Saturn,
Sara Lee, 3Com, 3M, Wal-Mart and Yahoo.
The authors make their point well: that whatever tangible assets
a company holds, whatever leverage it enjoys in the marketplace,
whatever value it has been accorded by its customers and investors,
they can all be multiplied by the unifying force behind a strategically
nurtured masterbrand.
Anne McCuen Bouchenoire is a consultant on
corporate/brand identity -- strategy, process and implementation
-- working on executive project teams for internal corporate groups
and design agencies. You may contact her by email at annebouche@aol.com.
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