Branding Principles: Is it Time for a Rethink?

This is an introduction to three articles under the title 'rethinking brand thinking'. It suggests that the original insight that 'manufacturers make products but consumers buy brands' is in danger disappearing as the search for new applications using brand marketing techniques continue.

Rethinking Brand Thinking

Branding Principles: Is it Time for a Rethink?

Thirty years ago, J Walter Thompson London published a booklet written by Stephen King entitled What is a Brand?. It succinctly described the difference between a product and a brand and codified for its clients the ideas that contribute to the successful building and managing of what were at the time mainly product brands. However, the insight that manufacturers make products but consumers buybrands is in danger of being lost sight of in the relentless search for other applications. As an idea, it has been...

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