The Brand Bubble.
Former Fallon colleague, current bigwig at Y&R and all around good guy – John Gerzema – has co-written a fascinating new book called The Brand Bubble. In 2004, they started seeing evidence of a worrying trend in their Brand Asset Valuator research (BAV) that while brand $ value continued to rise on Wall Street, brand loyalty and respect were actually in decline across the board. This finding led them to embark upon a journey to figure out why.
I think this book is interesting for a number of reasons:
- It’s a brilliant demonstration of why the BAV can be a very powerful tool. I can’t tell you the number of times clients of mine quoted it and made my teeth gnash when I was at a competing agency
- It’s a brave move by Y&R because it’s a condemnation (in my mind) of traditional communications-based marketing.
- John and Ed and Y&R have given readers the chance to look at and use BAV for their own brands.
For these reasons and more, it’s definitely worth checking out. Also take a look at John’s blog where you can see him looking friendly yet serious and discover that he bears a striking (and perhaps unfortunate) resemblance to Joe the Plumber who is one of many topics John’s recently written about.
Well done John!