Branding Only Works On Cattle

Posted on January 12th, 2009 by Joel Kirstein

51yhem0jjl_ss500_ I had the chance last week to travel for business out west on a cross-country flight, so that demanded a good read to while away the long hours of in-flight monotony. I picked up a book that caught my eye because it had a cow on the cover and given my fondness for animals, the book already had something going for it…

Branding Only Works On Cattle is a book authored by Jonathan Salem Baskin, and its perfectly timed with the massive upheaval going on in the global economy today. I was so engrossed with the book and even more impressed, I read it a second time on my flight back home east. It was that clear and compelling.

The essence of the book is this: How Branding Can be Done Better. Jonathan Salem Baskin brilliantly states in his book that branding as image and awareness is nonsense. This is hardly news to anyone yet as Baskin states, “We tolerated it.” He points out how social norms changed advertising thanks to the counter-culture of the 1960s.

Baskin calls the continuing conventional “wisdom” of awareness and image in branding an “addiction” and he cites the fact that in a way, what exists works, therefore it continues. Example: How Hollywood makes movies. A studio spends a fortune on a 10-12 movies a year and they hope one of them makes money. This insane situation is the reality of that industry. Ad Agencies are the biggest proponents of dispensing as much Kool-Aid as possible to get buy-in on how things are done. And since things seem to happen, then agencies look at how they go about doing it and think there is nothing wrong with their approach.

The philosophy that Baskin espouses in his book is that successful branding is all about “BEHAVIORAL MOMENTS” that are a set of actions that happen in the real world that actually drive sales and repeat business. We all know this yet we still continue on this foolish messianic quest thinking that awareness and image building is where all the answers lie.

Local to licensing, Baskin laments that licensing is woefully underutilized and it needs to be much further up the totem pole of priorities when it comes to the brand and brand strategy. He sees licensing as one of the important ways to engage consumers and prompt behavior. He sees brand extension as “Re-purposing” and the overall theme of his book is how branding needs to be done better and not reinforcing the status quo, inefficient business model.

The best part excerpt from the book is as follows: “Once you decide, We Are Not In The Image Business, We Are In The Behavior Business, It Empowers A Different Conversation About Everything.” The book isn’t revelatory, just good, plain common sense at a time when there is a real lack of senses of any kind! Check out the website: www.baskinbrand.com

JOEL KIRSTEIN is a Creative Director who has been in the Ad Agency trenches for 25 years and I can sum up my feeling about this great book in one word: VINDICATED!!!

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