The Better Mousetrap: Brand Invention in a Media Democracy

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Advertising can be great. Great advertising, that is. Brands live or die on the power of their advertising and the advertiser's role is to build better mousetraps. But why do we love certain brands and passionately or indifferently reject the rest? What do our brands say about us? And why do we feel so compelled to use digital brands to say even more? Advertising has always been the hard sell and subtle hustle that piques our interest and gets us thinking I WANT that, but in a world that now moves with binary speed, the Brand Game is taking ever-new and remarkable turns in its pursuit of better and faster mice. A provocative and insightful look at the chase, The Better Mousetrap lifts the lid on the brand and advertising strategies of leading companies who, in a world redefined by digital media, are setting the best traps for these ever quicker mice.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Prologue (p. vii)
• Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same (p. ix)
• Part I In Search of Brand Charisma (p. 1)
• Introduction (p. 3)
• Brands: thorny, gnarly, ever-so-twisty (p. 7)
• The brand organic (p. 10)
• Brands must behave, must woo (p. 15)
• 'Same difference': the counterpoint brand (p. 19)
• Reframing: originality and busting it up (p. 23)
• Brand duality: consider your brand's Batman (p. 30)
• 'Lose the nipples': what's in a logo? (p. 33)
• 'Back in the day': nostalgia brands and the retro sell (p. 39)
• 'Yours digitally': brand charisma's second coming (p. 48)
• Sub-brand splendour (p. 53)
• Drop the 'The': what's in a name? (p. 60)
• Gross assumptions, crumby conventions and the Churchillian view (p. 67)
• You are your own mousetrap (p. 78)
• Part II In Pursuit of the Accelerated Consumer (p. 85)
• Introduction (p. 87)
• We are ALL consumers (p. 91)
• In strangers we trust (p. 94)
• The age of the accelerated consumer (p. 97)
• The brand communication model: a bit like a time-travelling DeLorean (p. 107)
• Allow me to proposition you (p. 115)
• Through a glass clearly (p. 122)
• Colour me happy! (p. 129)
• Curve, contour and come-on: how persuasive is sexual persuasion? (p. 134)
• Truth, lies and advertising (p. 147)
• Irrational reasoning, magpie desire and the watch from outer space (p. 156)
• 'With great power...': advertising to our inner superhero (p. 165)
• The big H (p. 174)
• Buying wine, getting her to drink it and other Adland misdemeanours (p. 178)
• Part III Dawn of a Media Democracy (p. 189)
• Introduction (p. 191)
• 'Digital': what it is, what it isn't (p. 196)
• Web 3.0: regime change (p. 199)
• Transmedia... in a Tube card (p. 203)
• Is social media just a bit antisocial? (p. 209)
• A pop culture where everyone's invited (p. 213)
• The second fundamental: avoid launching ghost ships (p. 218)
• Mobile: the new dependency (p. 221)
• Teen alienation is so analogue (p. 226)
• Efficiency and effectiveness: fish with feet sidestep moving trees (p. 236)
• Shifting icons (p. 242)
• Ed Burns, Tribeca and the film-making revolution (p. 253)
• The fabric of things (p. 261)
• Epilogue - Take Comfort, 'Nobody Knows Nothing' (p. 272)
• Acknowledgements (p. 275)
• The Lists (p. 276)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Pont, a notable brand-builder, begins this treatise on modern advertising strategy slowly, laying out those qualities that define a brand: "slippery, elusive, real. and unreal." While acknowledging that, "[w]hen CEOs try to think about brands, their brains hurt," he moves quickly into the challenge of brand marketing today, considering the accelerated pace of change and what he notes as a current problem: "time famine". This is important in brand development because brands can't simply "be"; existing on the pages of magazines or on tv screens like they did in the 1980s when everyone recognized Nike's slogan "Just Do It". Today, brands need to create conversations, and, according to film-maker, Ed Burns, "the old rules don't have to apply." While that's hardly big news, what Pont doesn't cover is what does apply. He refers to "buzzy ideas" and "transmedia", but even he admits transmedia-beyond promoting movies in a quasi-effective manner-hasn't proven to be an effective technique. Pont's British product references and language gap may leave a few readers mystified, but more importantly, many of his offerings are so dated that the newest generation of marketers may look at the examples from the 1970s or 1980s and be left cold. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.