There’s no shortage of books on branding or sustainability, but this is the first I’ve come across that demonstrates how branding fits into the sustainability debate, and indeed hypothesises that brands have a key role in sustainability.
In Brand Valued, the authors open the debate about how brands can survive and thrive in today’s complex and increasingly inter-connected world. They offer a new way of thinking about brand strategy based on building social capital.
Social capital is defined as dialogue, shared thinking and trust. They suggest the decline in social capital is at the root of the problems faced by society. As we now enter an Era of Social Capital Rising, the key is to build a brand that is valued.
From this historical perspective, the book then charts a new approach to brand strategy. Drawing on research from the Sustainable Futures initiative, which seeks the opinions of 25,000 consumers around the world, the authors present a Social Capital Strategy. Based on the 5Is – Interconnectedness, Inclusiveness, Ignition, Interest and Imagination – this maps out what is needed to build a Social Equity Brand. The 5Is model is, they claim, an attempt to upgrade and broaden the 4Ps marketing mix and make it relevant in this new era.
Before summarizing their arguments, the authors suggest ways in which social capital can be measured. It is here that they pose the pivotal question “Is it the sale you’re after, or the value that sale creates?”
Far from being an easy read, Brand Equity demands that you put your brain in gear and start thinking about the role brands have in helping to solve the world’s problems. It will be interesting to see the extent to which readers take up the authors’ invitation to engage in an ongoing debate.
Claire Friend, managing director at Brand New View Ltd, reads Brand Valued by Guy Champniss and Fernando Rodés Vilà.
Instead of jumping on the Sustainability bandwagon, better to take the argument to a much higher order. This book is a neat side step to propose Social Capital as a more fundamental and enduring way forward to achieving true Sustainability. Over wordy and with too much made up jargon, the authors do however make a very good case for their Social Capital mantra.
The basic proposal is that companies need not just to think about Sustainability issues that largely seek to reduce negative impacts but, to see the brand and business in a much broader context in terms of its overall impact and connectivity with the broader society. In doing so, businesses and their brands can become a power for good that will be recognised and valued by their consumers.
The authors define Social Capital in the context of brands as follows:
‘The quality, depth, breadth and frequency of brand-inspired dialogue, exchange and interaction that occurs within a community. It is the benefits – both private (to the brand) and public (to the community) – that are generated as a result. And it is the resultant collective ability to maintain and enhance these processes and benefits.’
Possibly due to trying, laudably, to provide the complete guide to Social Capital, the authors have included references, extracts and examples throughout but this takes the reader down lots of side lanes on the way. The great case studies of brands using Social Capital in practice get lost in a chapter at the end. For me, the book would have been much better without all the clutter and with some of the evidence being put in Appendices. The core message gets confused.
One thing that Marketing teams know – if you’re proposing a new and different way of thinking, make the proposal absolutely clear and simple and show the logic in the clearest way possible. This book doesn’t do that.
If you can fight your way through it, this book is a valuable read.
Brand Valued by Guy Champniss & Fernando Rodés Vilà, £16.99.
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