Building better brand experiences

Alumnus Darren Coleman (MA Marketing, 2006) has published a new book on brand marketing.  Entitled ‘Building Brand Experiences: A Practical Guide to Retaining Brand Relevance’, Darren uses his considerable career and academic knowledge of the subject to provide a very practical guide to how brands can retain relevance through the experiences they build.

Darren commented: “A large number of senior executives wrestle with the challenge of keeping their brands relevant. The usual response is to compete through functional product features in the hope this will drive relevance and ultimately revenues. Doing this tends to commoditise their offer as meaningful point of difference dissolve. Price-based competition frequently follows and nobody wins.

"In contrast, competing through brand experiences provides almost infinite opportunities for keeping brands relevant. The world’s smartest executives already appreciate this but knowing how to start, structure then lead brand experience-building initiatives is something many find very hard to do. Helping senior executives address this challenge provided the inspiration for my book."

The book is neatly divided into four main sections comprising a comprehensive analysis of the brand experience environment; essentials; enablers; and how to measure brand experiences effectively. It provides a step-by-step guide to the process of building effective brand experiences based on tried-and-tested tools, templates and informed research, combining expert insight and real-world examples in an anecdotal, insightful yet digestible way.

With over twenty years global brand strategy experience, Darren's career spans telecoms, technology, financial services, education, and pharmaceuticals. He has successfully built his own brand marketing agency - Wavelength Marketing - which specialises in helping services brands retain relevance through the experiences they build.

Remarking on the importance of building better brand experiences, Darren observed: "The book is structured around the ‘Brand Experience Blueprint’. This is a practical management tool based on twenty plus years of global brand strategy experience and extensive research spanning commercial and academic fields. The goal of the Blueprint is to guide the reader through the process of building brand experiences. ‘A Brand Experience Toolkit’ accompanies the Blueprint. This comprises a suite of practical tools and templates that help readers turn the ideas being introduced into action. This goal is to give the book a very hands-on and applied feel."

Buy the book from Kogan Page (use the discount code 'BRANDEXPERIENCE20' to receive an exclusive 20% discount)