Sounds like branding

So, it's vacation time here in Sweden, and that for me means a lot of reading.

I've just finished reading Sounds like branding, by Jakob Lusensky.

It's a book, that talks about how your brand "sounds" and how that affects your customers and can make them interact more with your brand. Very interesting, and I really like that he talks about lovemarks. Lovemarks is one of the reasons I actually decided to start blogging, because when I read about the concept, on a trip to New York some time ago, I got amazed and wanted to explore the marketing/branding world more. The word in itself is also what inspired me to name this blog (and my company) to LoveEvent.

Picture from Bokus.com.

Now this blog has come to be about a lot more than lovemarks, but nevertheless, the word means a lot to me. :)

Check out the Sounds like branding blog.

American phone number

I saw that the Swedish Price Waterhouse Coopers offices have got a cool phone number: 0771-PWC PWC (0771-792 792). The number is of course a good way to strengthen the PWC brand. For those of you that are Americans out there, this might not be so newsworthy, but in Sweden it is quite unusual to have phone numbers formed from words.
Upcoming trend maybe?! Mine would of course be 056-8338368 :)

Branding by Tony Apéria

Last week at the airport I picked up a copy of the airport magazine "Inrikes". It featured an interesting, but too short, article about Tony Apéria, and his Nordic Brand Academy. Each year they publish a list of the most successful Swedish brands. This year IKEA was number one.

Apéria states two important perspectives when building brand strategies: first, the managment needs to have a clear vision and get the employees to feel as a part of the corporate culture, and secondly, the employees need to engage the clients as part of the vision.
Apéria also speaks of building emotional connections and trying to get the brand's personality to shine through.

Interesting, but, too short. I will have to check out some of Apéria's books... Pick up the magazine at the airport if you are flying within Sweden the next few weeks!

Habit Fashion Summit 2009

Tomoorow is Habit Fashion Summit.09, a day for the fashion business, packed with internationally renowned names within brand development. I really wish I had something to do with the fashion business, so I could attend the day for a "real" reason ;) Summary of the Fashion Summit in English can be found here.

And by the way, I did my training (within the event management program that I'm attending) at the company behind the magazine Habit and the Fashion Summit event; Mentor Communications/Mentor Online for 11 weeks this spring. It was so much fun, I learned a lot of new things, and I really miss my colleagues there!

How to build your pesonal brand (Swedish)

An article from IDG, describing in detail how to build your personal brand with small means, such as presence in social media. Unfortunately the article is only in Swedish, but if you are Swedish: read it!

Branding agency Brandflight

Check out Brandflight, and their 4D brand model. Quite interesting, and "hands-on". They sort of take Lovemarks ideas a few steps further...

McDonald's brand

I saw this strip (originally here) and, wether you want it or not, McDonald's is the 8th most powerful brand in the world, according to this report.

And even though McDonald's must be pouring tons of money into advertising and PR, they also seem to spend money on their employees.

I heard that a manager, starting up a fast food pizza chain in Stockholm, wanted to get experienced fast food employees, and thus tried to recruit personell from the three big hamburger chains in Sweden: McDonald's, Burger King and Max. He offered them a better salary, hoping to attract competent people. The employees at Burger King and Max didn't have any problem at all switching work places, but the manager could not get a single employee to leave McDonald's. The McDonald's emloyees all stated that the personal and work related development opportunities at McDonald's were so good, that they didn't want to leave the company. So maybe we should learn from McDonald's: money isn't all that counts...

Different

A brand has to be different to attract customers, according to this blog post, and I am inclined to agree. I stumbled over the blog Brandsinger, a blog about brands, branding and building brands, and I will sure follow it.

And I have joined BridalTweet, a new wedding community. Check out my page there!