Influx

John Grant, the former head of planning and founder of St Luke’s has done it again, writing yet another interesting book on the business of brands. (After much begging, Influx was fortunate enough to receive a copy to review.)

While many authors and commentators whine on about the changing environment for brands, John keeps the whining to a minimum and concentrates of explaining to his readers how brands are coping with these complex challenges.

The Brand Innovation Manifesto is full of hundreds of interesting examples, but more importantly, John puts these examples into a mental framework.

Grant believes brands are constructed from clusters of cultural ideas, literally everything that goes into a brand; all its symbols, history, artifacts and codes. He goes on to identify 32 types of cultural ideas and creates a periodic table for brand ideas. They are organized according to the cultural space they inhabit; from the personal to the official.

Examples abound in this book, from the vision of Sephora defining its brand through spectacular experience, to Honda (UK) using its corporate philosophy as an organizing idea and even includes MINI’s use of playfulness.

This book is a perfect planner’s companion, its packed full of meaty content and enough ideas to get synapses firing in all directions. Our only criticism is that many of the examples are UK-based.

While Grant lays down a clear set of organizing principles in grids and boxes, he smartly acknowledges the limitations of this approach;

“If you analyse things into grids and neat boxes, then you are probably heading a deeply conventional and hence uncompetitive programme. You need to go with the flow.”

Influx recommends this book to anyone looking to think their way out of current market challenges and wants be inspired by the thinking of some of the world most innovative marketers.

You can check out John’s blog here