Summary
This article presents an overview of Siegel+Gale's annual Global Brand Simplicity Index, an in-depth survey of more than 6,000 consumers across the world with a focus on the UK, US, China, India, Germany and UAE. The study investigates the link between simplicity and the ability of businesses to innovate. Keeping things simple can be achieved by developing a clear sense of brand purpose and creating conditions where employees can connect and share ideas. For global brands, simplicity involves adapting to suit cultural nuances.

Summary
This article offers a brief overview of trendwatching.com's "Currencies of Change" trend, which describes how brands are offering time-poor but well-intentioned consumers meaningful rewards for making positive changes to their lives in areas such as health and sustainability. It illustrates the trend with some examples, including H&M, the fashion retailer, which rewarded customers for bringing their old clothes to its stores for recycling.

Summary
The economic crisis, rise of new advertising technology and the need for enhanced creativity to reach consumers are three disruptive processes that have largely developed in tandem. This article discusses how leading agency- and client-side executives are tackling these trends. Coca-Cola is one primary example, with Jonathan Mildenhall, its vice president of global advertising strategy and content excellence, outlining the firm's mission to inspire "moments of optimism and happiness", and the changes being made to its agency relationships as a result.

Summary
Through an example in the beer category in China and India, this research paper shows how a people-centred approach, using precise drivers of brand growth, combined with predictive abilities to anticipate market share can deliver strong business outcomes from research. Brand growth is achieved through different options including optimisation of brand positioning, portfolio management, repositioning, brand stretching and innovation. This report criticises standard brand equity research, claiming that it is unable to effectively answer how a company can make brands meaningful to people and how meaningful brands can grow a business. The people-centric methodology proposed in this paper deconstructs human needs into four layers that on average explains 85-95% of brand choice, then supports this with a psychological model, which ensures that all decisions are made with consumer motivation at the centre. Then to determine the direction of a brand's growth, it identifies the brand's current Attitudinal Equity (a measure of the strength of consumers' psychological relationship with the brand) and focuses on growing it.

Summary
This paper argues for a careful consideration of how the notion of brand works in Asia and what is distinctive about these Asian contexts. It discusses what brands are and what their purpose is and questions several received wisdoms that have been inherited from a Western perspective, where even the word "brand" conveys a different meaning to those used in Asia. A brand's "personality" and abstract values are of less relevance and interest than its functional benefits and concrete impressions in Asia, while the context in which it is seen and experienced has greater importance than in the West. In China and Japan, TV advertising spots are much shorter than in the West, so reach and awareness is more highly valued and without the time to tell complex brand stories, innovation has come to be the focus of investment. Western marketers are warned that to focus on brand love in Asia is to risk being overtaken by organisations who concentrate on penetration. Also, energy put into fixing the personality and philosophy of the brand may be better spent elsewhere when Asian consumers are innately less susceptible to abstract values and Asian media vehicles are ill-equipped to develop them.

Summary
This paper argues for local distinctions to be recognised in brands' Asian strategies, with universal truths to be adapted and expressed in the right language to penetrate cultural beliefs and filters in each market. The authors point out that concepts like motherhood, beauty, achievement and power - which many brands are built on - can mean very different things across cultures. It maps out the significant historical and cultural differences that shape consumption and brand choices in these markets - which make them remarkably different not just from developed markets but also from each other. In particular, the paper contrasts China and India, with examples of how the same need can mean different things in each nation, and how the same global positioning strategy can translate to quite different executions.

Summary
This article describes a framework called ValueDrivers, which is intended to help businesses understand how to grow the value of their brands. It proposes that brands maximise their potential for growth by delivering a brand experience that is meaningfully different from others, by determining its purpose. Then brands must amplify that differentiation through findability, credibility, vitality, affordability and extendibility.

Summary
A new year and new methodologies. The latest research results are brought to life in an interactive presentation that contrasts the CEE and the rest of the world. This presentation includes a case study which illustrates how the strength of the Sazka brand (the market leader lottery games provider) and a high share of loyal customers helped the company survive a turbulent period and lot of negative PR. The presentation also demonstrates how, thanks to wise marketing support, Sazka regained the position of an Olympic brand as well as the unrivalled position of market leader.

Summary
This article argues that, while many brands get distracted by the latest digital and social fads and that marketers worry if they are not on the next bandwagon, they will miss out, if a trend is not relevant to your brand, investing in it is pointless and even counter-productive. That said, there are many examples of innovation being used successfully where there is a good brand fit, such as Tesco's virtual shopping walls in South Korean commuter stations, and fashion stores that recognise customers via their phones. Marketers must balance knowing what's happening in the outside world with ensuring the business stays true to its customer promise.

Summary
This article offers pointers for getting full value from B2B brands by stemming product and service substitution, copying and commoditisation. The article also highlights the common reasons for not investing in the brand. These include arguing that, rather than being merely a logo, the business brand sets the direction for the whole organisation; it represents a commitment to focus on the customer and helps identify customers with aligned ambitions. The paper goes on to argue that B2B can also benefit from the perspective of creative partners and agency fees are worth investing in because branding can build sales, advocacy and productivity. Appealing to strategy or vanity can also be the driver to reappraise the role and value of brand.