Brand Together by Nicholas Ind, Clare Fuller and Charles Trevail

There is a new word that has become part of the Brand Management vocabulary: engagement. Gone are the days of one-way communication, when the consumer was bombarded with advertising messages. Brands that are successful today make the consumer part of the conversation, rather than its intended target.

Companies are working to create a two-way connection with their customers, employees and shareholders.

“Brand Together”, published in 2012 by Kogan Page USA, is a step-by-step manual that shows marketers how to initiate and nurture this connection. The keyword used throughout its pages is “co-creation” between all the parties involved in the brand relationship with the noble purpose of generating inovation and growth.

The book is divided into two parts: “Thinking it” and “Doing it”.

“Thinking it” is about designing the perfect plan to identify and engage the future brand ambassadors.  The ingredients needed for true co-creation are participation, openness, empowering and organizational involvement.

According to the authors “co-creation suggests the interaction of individuals within a framework to evolve, re-define or invent something that is new“.

Once a plan has been crafted, the second part of the book, “Doing it”, illustrates the practical plan to implement a culture of collaboration with the purpose of energizing a brand. It all starts with establishing a connection with people, understand their profound feelings, principles and values and getting the most out of this relationship.

The book makes great use of practical example of brands that have used co-creation to become stronger and more relevant: Starbucks, [yellow tail], Mozilla, Kraft and Danone.

The “Brand together” book itself is a result of co-creation.

In writing the book the authors have gathered content from several sources: published material from a variety of fields such as branding, philosophy, psychology, art and literature, and the input of 20 managers from all over the world. The process was concluded with establishing a co-creation group consisting of 236 individuals who have provided content, ideas and suggestions.

The co-creation strategy is still a new and debatable topic. If you plan to use the input from your customers, employees and shareholders in your brand building process, this book makes for a very good read.

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