Average customer rating:
|
Brand New : How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell
Nancy F. Koehn Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 1578512212 |
Amazon.com
In Brand New, Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn looks at six entrepreneurs and the extraordinary brands they built. The entrepreneurs include Josiah Wedgwood, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, Estee Lauder, and Michael Dell. What interests Koehn is not so much the success that these brands enjoyed as much as the trust these household names were able to inspire in consumers. Koehn makes her study especially relevant to today's marketers in that each of the entrepreneurs she looks at developed their brand during a period of tumultuous change. For example, Wedgewood's tableware became popular during the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the middle class; Schultz's coffee empire blossomed in the 1990s and the present-day information revolution. Part business history, part marketing manual, Brand New is a valuable study of brand development that belongs on every thoughtful marketer's bookshelf. --Harry C. EdwardsBook Description
Until Josiah Wedgwood, Britons ate from wood and pewter plates. Until Henry Heinz, women toiled over pickled foods. Until Michael Dell, few people owned a personal computer, let alone dreamed of buying one "built to order." According to business historian Nancy F. Koehn, these pathbreaking entrepreneurs shared a powerful gift: the ability to discern how economic and social change would affect consumer needs and wants.
In Brand New, Koehn introduces us to six extraordinary leaders of brand creation who lived and worked during periods of widespread change: Josiah Wedgwood in the Industrial Revolution; Henry Heinz and Marshall Field in the Transportation and Communication Revolution; and Estée Lauder, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and Michael Dell in the Information Revolution. Through compelling and engaging profiles of these entrepreneurial visionaries, she reveals a provocative relationship between economic turbulence, household priorities, and company strategy that holds important lessons for today's brand builders.
According to Koehn, these forward-thinking individuals understood the profound effects that socioeconomic change has on what customers want, have, and can afford as much as on what companies make-and were masters at exploiting the enormous business opportunities these demand-side shifts created. Indeed, the brands and companies created by these individuals have become such a part of everyday life that we've made them part of common speech: we pass the Heinz; eat off Wedgwood; order a Starbucks.
Koehn draws from their diaries, correspondence, and official business records to demonstrate that these entrepreneurs were more than savvy marketers; they were institution builders. She shows how each used brand not as a logo, but as a vital strategic tool for creating best-of-class companies-and for building powerful organizational capabilities that supported their connections with customers and helped make new markets for their offerings.
Distilling critical lessons for businesses operating in both the traditional and on-line worlds, Brand New will convince every entrepreneur of the remarkable power of brands to transform start-ups, gain competitive advantage, and change lives.
Customer Reviews:
Learning from Branding History.......2005-04-02
a very useful and interesting business history book.......2003-04-06
So much for the good stuff, I did find the tone of the descriptions of each entrepreneurs a bit fawning. Each had the feel of a business case, with the usual tone of awe and deference to the wit and wisdom of the main characters. With the exception of the Starbucks case - where Howard Shultz openly tells of his mistakes and wrong turnings - each case seems to highlight the wisdom of the main character, whereas it seems to me its their determination that marks them out, more than anything else. Henry Heinz went bankrupt three times in food products, before he became successful, Michael Dell was still seen as a cloner into the late 1980's.
Koehn makes no judgements about the more unpleasant side of this determination - Estee Lauder staged a meeting with the Duke of Windsor, which she had photographed and publicised, in order to make it appear she had high-society connections, Josiah Wedgwood supplied free gifts to royalty in the certain knowledge that the aspirations of the middle classes to emulate royalty would drive demand for this his products.
There are good insights into how these individuals drove modern marketing techniques - Wedgwood emphasized showrooms, Estee Lauder the free gift. And all had tremendous energy for customer service and production detail. However in each of the early cases we are told that 20th Century techniques were unknown to the industry " Brand marketing was virtually unheard of in the 18th Century" [ Wedgwood]; " Between 1869 and 1899, real per capita income increased at an annual compound rate of 2.1%. Henry Heinz had no access to these statistics. These numbers are based on economic concepts developed in the 20th Century". This kind of clumsiness crops up in each case, ok we get the point that these pioneers instinctively did something which is now solidified into great theory, but surely this point could be illustrated with more deftness.
This apart, a very useful and interesting book, a book for anyone interested in the general history of business. Some excellent details, too much fawning and praise too little criticism of the central characters who built the brands. A fascinating story.
If you liked this book, check out books by Arthur Chandler and John Drewer.
One final fact, Charles Darwin had the time and money to devote to his famous voyage on the Beagle - which laid the basis for the theory of Evolution - because his wife's grandfather was Joshua Wedgwood. Was this financial evolution at work?
Overview of successful entrepreneurial approaches to brands.......2003-02-13
To make her case, she chose three cases from the past (Wedgwood, Heinz, and Marshall Field) and three cases from the present (Estee Lauder, Starbucks, and Dell Computers). Finally, she concludes the book with a chapter which addresses the issue of historical forces and entrepreneurial agency.
I particularly found the cases from the past persuasive in their argumentation for a long-term differentiating factor in brand. The newer cases are obviously harder to make in that (particularly with Starbucks and Dell) how long-term the success will be remains to be seen. One of the best features of the book is the depth with which she treats each case-- she provides enough information to build her thesis (and often entertain with the anecdotes) but not so much that the book becomes bogged down. The excellent footnotes provide whatever's necessary to someone looking for further information.
One minor quarrel is that I would have liked to see the further reading pulled out into a better organized bibliography. There were obviously quite a few good sources scattered amongst the footnotes and if you were interested in a particular subject matter it required some patience to pull all of the citations out.
Brands Old: Inspiration for Brands Yet to Be.......2002-11-26
Before 1945, Koehn observes, "few American women wore premium lipstick or facial creams, and those who did [when they could] bought them in beauty shops along with elaborate treatments administered by trained cosmeticians. Then came Estee Lauder. Prior to the late 1970s, Americans bought ground coffee mostly in one-pound cans sold in supermarkets and supplied by large food processors. Then came [Howard Schultz and] Starbucks. Before 1980, most businesses used only typewriters and copy machines for paperwork. Large companies relied on mainframe and midsize computers to handle extensive calculations and data processing. Only a small number of households owned a personal computer or printer. Few if any of these users expected to be able to specify a particular computer's configuration. Then came Apple, IBM, Compaq, and Michael Dell." It is also important to stress that each of the six entrepreneurs whom Koehn discusses fully understood what rapid social and economic change in their respective era meant for consumers' needs and desires. Moreover, as she carefully explains, all six used their knowledge of both the supply and demand sides of the prevailing economy to create high-quality goods,, meaningful brands, and other connections with customers..." and they built elite organizations that worked to [in italics] satisfy and then [in italics] anticipate buyers' changing preferences."
In Chapter 1, Koehn provides a brilliant overview on "Entrepreneurs and Consumers," then devotes an entire chapter to each of the six entrepreneurs. In her final chapter, she shifts her attention to "Historical Forces and Entrepreneurial Agency," followed by 104 pages of notes. In that final chapter, Koehn points out that the six entrepreneurs "lived and worked in different contexts. Yet they all shared a powerful gift: the ability to discern how economic and social change affected consumer needs and wants. They also understood that these demand-side shifts presented critical business opportunities -- opportunities that each exploited by creating new, best-of-class goods and strong brands." She goes on to suggest that they were "institution builders who were not interested in riding the wave of a short-lived trend or forcing their young brands on buyers. They wanted to [in italics] earn consumers' trust and keep it."
It remains to seen which entrepreneurs emerge during the next few years but it seems certain that they will also encounter "economic and social change affected consumer needs and wants" and in a global marketplace yet to be developed. There is much that they -- and we -- can learn from Josiah Wedgwood, H.J. Heinz, Marshall Field, Estee Lauder, Howard Schultz, and Michael Dell. Thanks to Nancy Koehn, those "lessons" are provided in a single volume, one which will continue to be of interest and value for decades to come.
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to read Wolf's The Entertainment Economy, Schmitt's Experiential Marketing, Gobe's Emotional Branding, Gilmore and Pine's The Experience Economy, and Brands: The New Wealth Creators co-edited by Hart and Murphy.
everything you wanted to know about branding . . . and more.......2001-11-25
an excellent reference and clearly meticulously researched
Average customer rating:
|
The Marshall Field's Cookbook: Classic Recipes and Fresh Takes from the Field's Culinary Council
Stephen Siegelman Manufacturer: Book Kitchen ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0977989003 |
Customer Reviews:
A tribute to a Chicago institution.......2007-05-14
Marshall Field's Cookbook!!.......2007-03-09
Average customer rating: |
Birds of Arizona
Allan Phillips , Joe Marshall , and Gale Monson Manufacturer: Univ of Arizona Pr ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0816500126 |
Average customer rating:
|
Rommel and his Art of War (Greenhill Military Paperbacks.)
Field Marshall Erwin Rommel Manufacturer: Greenhill Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1853675431 |
Book Description
Customer Reviews:
ROMMEL and his Art of War.......2006-11-29
Average customer rating:
|
Miss Nelson Has a Field Day
Harry G. Allard Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0395486548 |
Product Description
Brand: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN Item # HO-395486548Customer Reviews:
Miss Nelson Has a Field Day.......2005-09-10
I loved Miss Nelson Has a Field Day!!.......2002-05-08
Your kids will love the Miss Nelson series!!!!!.......2002-03-04
The Horace B. Smedley School's football team is awful-and their big game with their major rival is on tap. Can anything be done to get the guys into shape in time for the game? Miss Nelson has a plan and, out of the blue, Miss Swamp is on the scene. But where is Miss Nelson??????
This is a truly delightful series that the whole family can enjoy. Good stories, great characters and the indomitable Miss Nelson all add up to great fun and great reading for kids.
Miss Nelson rides again.......2001-05-24
Average customer rating: |
New Perspectives in Service-Learning: Research to Advnace the Field (PB) (Advances in Service-Learning Research)
Manufacturer: Information Age Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1593111576 |
Book Description
A Volume in Advances in Service-Learning ResearchSeries Editor: Shelley H. Billig, RMC Research Corporation, Denver
Average customer rating: |
Fate and Management of Turfgrass Chemicals (Acs Symposium Series)
Manufacturer: An American Chemical Society Publication ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0841236240 |
Book Description
This book is devoted to the study of turfgrass chemicals and pesticides, their effectiveness, and environmental impact. It looks at related health and occupational hazards and suggests ways to minimize the use of chemicals.Customer Reviews:
Excellent guide for the area.......2007-04-13
carry it around.......2007-02-01
Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country.......2004-04-03
ADVICE FROM THE HILL COUNTRY.......2003-12-18
EXCELLENT reference!.......2002-04-10
Average customer rating: |
Real Life Financial Planning for the New Physician: A Resident, Fellow, and Young Physician's Guide to Financial Security
Marshall W. Giford , and Todd D. Bramson Manufacturer: Aspatore Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items: ASIN: 1596222921 |
Product Description
Real Life Financial Planning for the New Physician should be required reading for every medical student, resident, fellow, and young physician. All of the unique financial needs of a physician have been merged into a very manageable and easy-to-implement strategy. You will learn how to prioritize multiple decisions and manage your complex financial life. The result is a financial plan that decreases worry and stress, knowing that you are in control and are systematically building and protecting your wealth. There is an amazing amount of practical advice packed into this book based on the wisdom gained from more than 15,000 individual meetings that the authors have had with their clients....people just like you. You will learn how to: 1. Organize your financial affairs to meet your needs; 2. Prioritize decisions so that you know what to do when; 3. Maximize financial security with correct insurance and asset protection strategies; 4. Get control of your financial! life; 5. Begin a path toward financial independence.
Average customer rating:
|
A Chicago Tradition: Marshall Field's Food And Fashion (Chicago Cultural Center Foundation)
Joan Greene Manufacturer: Pomegranate Communications ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0764933205 |
Book Description
A Chicago Tradition: Marshall Field's Food and Fashion explores a retail icon's gustatory and fashion sense. How the original tearoom came about; how and why Mrs. Hering, a millinery salesclerk, got a menu item named after her; and just what makes Frango Mints so special are explained. Five of Field's all-time favorite recipes are shared with the reader; gorgeous photographs give us a glimpse of dining in days gone by. Also discussed and illustrated are some unique fashion firsts from Field's: first bridal registry, first men's store, first boutique. Take an intimate tour of one of the few remaining department stores totally devoted to quality and the customer, and sample a bit of Chicago history along the way.Customer Reviews:
Nice book but it left me wanting more, too skimpy........2007-09-24
A Chicago Treasure.......2006-03-08
ENCHANTING !! WORTH MANY MORE READS! .......2005-12-01
Books:
Recommended Books